This post was first seen elsewhere and thanks to the generosity of the author, it has made its way onto Second Magazine.

Rap has gotten a raw deal since it has caught on as a mainstream style, and has lyrics that are sometimes alienating as they deal with subject matter that is less than identifiable with the vast majority of people. It comes largely from the same place as punk, from an ideological standpoint: anger, and the need to express one’s self with a big FUCK YOU to mainstream society, though the ends tend to be different. The vast majority of mainstream rap focuses on material wealth, sex, and violence in urban areas, whereas punk largely focuses on political change, and staying true to one’s self, not to mention that the vast majority of musicians are white. Thematically, you might see why rock has caught on more with the sickening “majority” as a musical style.

Rap takes a LOT of creativity. As anyone who has written poetry will tell you, rhyming and rhythm are easy; making sense and making something meaningful is not. Yeah, I could slap something together about bitches and hos in about half an hour, but how long do you think Coolio took to pen “Gangster’s Paradise” or for Tupac to write “Changes”? How about “Point of No Return” by Immortal Technique? “Battlecry” by Nujabes?

Do you know how hard it is to put together a rhythm that you can dance to, that you can express your poetry to? The sense of rhythm needed is INSANE. They are rhythms stacked on top of rhythms stacked on top of rhythms. You need to bust your ass on those in order to make it something truly unique and engaging. Rappers practice for hours and hours and hours, trying to smooth things out, get the right flow, and I’m not talking this fake-ass Autotuned stuff, I’m talking about real hard work. The vocal conditioning for the delivery is totally different than other singing styles, and it’s roots can be traced back to Beat-style poetry slamming, and even modern poetry slamming is influenced by rap delivery. Rap stands for Rhythm And Poetry. Did you know that? Did you ever even bother to find out?

And musical looping? The dubbing, the beats, the hooks, the sampling? They don’t just throw things together, it is as much an art form as anything else. People who gather samples listen to their environments, different types of music, things people say, all the time. They do not ever shut their ears off, they look for things they can use to create a unique feel and sound. Does it need to be in 13/8 time to be art? NO! Most rock music playing in standard 4/4 time like most rap music, not to mention that the two styles (depending on the style of flow that a person wants) sometimes don’t even feature chord progressions. Three chords and the truth can only take you so far. Sometimes you need to throw it out the window in favor of some beats, and don’t get all of that fancy melody getting in the way of what you’re trying to say. Sometimes you don’t WANT to have growling vocals with super technical poly-rhythms and overdubbed three-part harmonies. Shit, sometimes you want, a hard, tight, barren soundscape that has your vocals, a beat, fat bass, and a melody with some hooks that lure you in and make you want to hear the message.

As for rap being “ONE PERSON DOING SOME WORK”, as I heard recently on a message board, to anyone who says this, I doubt you’ve ever been on stage or have actually ever been in a band. Rap takes a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of collaboration to make it work: the writer who may or may not be the singer, the producer, the person at the mixing board gathering samples, proofreaders, the family of the rapper and his friends and his whole life from which he draws inspiration for his lyrics…of course, this may not be true in all cases (I’m looking at you, Fiddy) but people are people, and rely on one another to create something. No man, no matter how singular and isolated a project is from outside influences, is totally an island, and this translates into the studio just as much as it does the stage, where audience participation is a HUGE part of rap music.

You people who say that rap takes no talent? I’ll bet that you couldn’t hold your own in a freestyling competition, nor do I think that you could create a compelling story and deliver it a way that makes people want to listen with just some beats behind you and 200 eyes staring at you, just you. I’ve seen it happen when it’s good, and it is incredible.

By the way, I am into punk rock, Oi!, rockabilly, psychobilly, jazz, metal, ska, reggae, and all sorts of things that fall all over the board musically. I grew up listening to 50’s ballads and standards. My mother was a blues singer, and now she plays bluegrass mandolin with her husband, my stepfather, who rocked it all psychedelic back in the day. My dad (R.I.P.) was a bebop musician who played rhythm guitar in several bands. My sister is an avant-garde indie musician who is playing music like nobody has ever heard. And honestly, I don’t much care for rap. But I will defend it to the day that I die, because I know that anything that can make me feel, that can make me think, that can make me want to defend it is something that requires talent and dedication.

I have never heard such wide intolerance and ignorance about rap music since I was in high school being part of the “I listen to pretty much everything except rap and country” crowd, which changed when I discovered Immortal Technique, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams, and I since never looked back.

So, walk away from this thinking whatever you will about whatever music you like, just know that you are TOTALLY wrong about rap music if you think it’s just about bitches, bling, beats, hooks, and inflated egos.

P.S. you don’t even need to be a rapper to rap. Here’s a straight up vegan gangsta rap song by world famous punk band MDC:

this post was originally written by UFOROMANTIC at A Future in Noise