50 years of Hip Hop- How Come?

@unreceivedogma Nice list. The most recent died in 1996, so you're missing out on the last 30 years or so of the genre. 

And while a lot of hip hop indeed promotes and glorifies violence and misogyny, much of it does not. Furthermore, a lot of rock also does so across the spectrum. This isn't a case of "whataboutism"; iI'm simply pointing out that using such a general and vague criterion for disliking something is incredibly myopic.

I mean, many rock artists seem to love singing about under-18 girls in their lyrics. But am I going to write off the entire genre? 

Look, hip-hop has been a cultural mouthpiece for decades. It's still the most widespread music genre in the world, along with jazz. Cultural gatekeepers and bigots will deny its value by pointing out the superficial and the extremes while resisting seeing through to the deeper artists. 

The genre has its weaknesses, like all genres. But to deny its musicality and deride it like you're echoing faux news talking points? I mean, to me free form jazz is mindless, atonal wanking. But I'm not going to deny its musical artistry and relevance to many. 

@dayglow i doubt many here have been exposed to a decent hiphop immersion. 

DJ Kool Herc - house parties in the early 70s

@mp5viking A brilliant description of rock. Well done. 

@ghasley nice. I was think the same thing  

@jasonbourne52 cool. Please post a vid of you mc'ing with a boombox and a mic. I mean, if it's that easy, any idiot can do it, right?

@garebear No, you’re wrong and both exaggerating and over-simplifying. I don’t know what "Hip Hop Rappers" are, but many artists (Nas, Alfa Mist, Mac Miller, Fetty Wap, Nicki Minaj, and others) are musically, if not classically trained. And yes, any creative mind with a digital audio workstation can create the genre.

But any creative mind with a guitar can do the same thing. I imagine classical musicians were clutching their pearls in the 60’s.

@1happyman New Edition and Bobby Brown’s artistic iterations were more accurately seen as R&B, whilst BBD is more of a hip hop act. But in the early 80’s, you had Newcleus, Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, UTFO, Kool Moe Dee, and others.

And agin, can we leave behind the battered and inaccurate chestnut of Blondie and Dylan being primogenitures of rap? It screams out-of-touch Boomer. I mean, Dylan was emulating West African griots, if anything.

@1happyman Yes, I know. 

Signed,

Snarky Gen-Xer 

@dabel Good call on CH. One of the few mainstream Latino-rap acts there. 

@garebear sorry, i failed to mention any of those artists you pointed out. because they're not. Please read more carefully. Also, your label of "typical lyrics and thumping noises" sounds like what Boomers' parents labeled rock. I guess getting old has the same cultural myopia no matter what generation you belong to. 

And to @curtdr 's point about hiphop and rap being race related; well, it is to a large extent. Rap morphed into a language of social protest when PE came on the scene in 84 and really accelerated with NWA's social commentary starting in 1988. The art form is inextricably linked with social and political commentary across the globe; Balen in Nepal, Sendata in the Phillipines, or Ukraine's Shevchenko.

Just as rock was the art of protest 60 years ago, so has hiphop and rap become the same. It's just, as @perkri wrote, Black Americans have been subject to marginalization far more than other populations. Including, I assume, most Audiogoners.  

Ready for some blasphemy? I prefer "Mercy Me" over "What's Going On" -- and Robert Palmer's cover of it over the original.