50 years of Hip Hop- How Come?

This is an entertaining thread. It begs the question, “why are so many fearful of change and lacking an open mind?”. Most opining couldn’t tell us the differences, or lack thereof, between rap and hip-hop, if any.

You want to hear an almost perfect belnding of all of these genres (soul, r&b, jazz, blues, funk, rap, hip-hop) then listen to Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio” albums. His latest “Black Radio III” is brilliant. The musicianship is exceptional. To those who haven’t ever heard someone rap melodically, it exists on this album. To those who swear those creating hip-hop or rap aren’t musicians, this album dispels the stupidity of that myth.

Old, bitter, close-minded critics hate Queen Latifah but love Dana Owens. Strange.

@ghasley I don’t believe fear of change or lack of an open mind is the reason why some don’t like Hip-Hop. By the age of 40(maybe 50?) we know what music genres we like. Assuming most here on Agon have been exposed to a decent amount of Hip-Hop a personal decision has already been made. In a collection of about 3000 recordings(1800 vinyl 1200 cd) about 75 could be considered Hip/Hop. Does having only 2.5% Hip-Hop recordings make me closed minded? I have less Punk/Techno and Current Pop Country in my collection because these genres have very little interest to me. FWIW Lauryn Hill-Miseducation and Alicia Keys-Songs in A Minor are in my top 50 of recordings made in the last 25 years.

I used to consider myself a purist.  Full Album copies, then albums excluding unwanted tracks.  Nowadays individual track playlists are my goto.  Plenty of Tv commercial music is a snippet of some of the best moments of songs.  The sample generation is an extreme of this progression with improv lyrics most fresh.
These movies allowed me to appreciate:
The Get Down series
A Tribe Called Quest documentary
8 Mile

Blondie (Debbie Harry) was one of the first rappers.

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.