Rap Music?

I don't like rap. Yes, rap, not rap music, because rap has very little musical content or musicality, in my opinion. But my real issue with rap is not whether or not it is music, but the message and content of its lyrics. Let's get the music part out of the way. It all sounds about the same to me. I know that's what my parents said about The Beatles, but they were wrong. All Beatles songs do not sound alike; in fact, The Beatles' music evolved and changed a lot over a mere six years, in very creative ways, in my opinion.

Now for the "lyrics" of rap, the words and the messages. The rap that I have listened to (I have daughters 22, 20, and 17...need I say more?) seems to have four main, interrelated themes; sex, money, drugs, and violence. References to women are generally degrading; women (shorties) are sex objects or toys. I'll spare you some of the words used to get this message across. Money and what it can buy ("bling") seems always to be referred to as a good thing, the more the better, to buy more "bling," more sex from shorties, and more drugs. Sex, money and drugs often lead to the final theme, violence. Rap lyrics often involve guns, killing and drugs. How many rappers have been killed violently with guns?

You might be thinking I'm just a racist or a prude, and I don't like rappers because they are generally African Americans. Not so fast. I'm a big fan of the Blues, which had its beginnings about a hundred years ago in the South with African American Blues men like Robert Johnson, Son House, and Blind Melon Jefferson. Their guitar playing techniques were unique and skilled, and the lyrics were sometimes "salty" and playful, with metaphors about "squeezing lemons" and "jelly rolls." Nothing so explicit and raw as rap lyrics. The message of the Blues was mostly about overcoming hard times and the living conditions imposed by White Southerners. The Blues later migrated to Memphis and Chicago with Blues players like Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Then came Rock and Roll beginning in the 50s, which basically grew out of the Blues. White guys like Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin. Many of the great Rock songs are just remakes of the origninal Blues songs. As Muddy Waters said, "Blues had a baby and they named it Rock and Roll."

I like the Blues. I like Rock and Roll. I even like Rock and Roll that incorporates a kind of rap, like the music of Linkin Park. I like just about every kind of music I've ever listened to, except "mush" like the music of Lawrence Welk (sorry Mom) and, well, rap. That is, if you call rap music.