Rap music on high-end speakers

Sean, you have posted several times at length on this topic. While I am in total agreement with your observations about the generational aspects of what is music, I disagree with your characterization of the people who produce and listen to rap music. You call them "ghetto gangsters". It is well known that the majority of buyers for rap are white, non-urban teenagers. Wal-Mart is the biggest seller of rap. The thug-life image of rappers is in some cases absolutely correct, but for the majority, or the average rapper, are we so unsophisticated as not be able to distinguish between the marketing image and the real person? For instance, do you really think Sly Stallone is "Rambo"? The buying public demands that their recording artist "keep it real" and ambitious, smart young black males are only too willing to oblige. Is this a modern form of the black-faced minstrel? Maybe, but a more interesting question is why does American society want to see young black men as thugs? Sean, you claim to see urban reality as you drive through low income areas on your way to work. What you see is real, but it's only a limited view of a very complex picture. You see the boyz on the corner, but do you also see the men taking public transportation to their factory jobs?

I was living in NYC when rap music first started to gain national exposure. At the time, it was a joyous music filled with the positive vitality of the city. It was young people (primarily men) talking loud and being bold as only young men can. The Sugar Hill Gang would go up against the Furious Five to see who had the best rhymes. There was a simplicity and earnestness about the music that reminded me off Chuck Berry/Buddy Holly and other early rockers. But around '81/'82 along came crack cocaine and everything changed.

Rap music is the dominate music genre of the past 20 years. It's rhythms and rhymes have diffused throughout American culture. As with any trend, it has positive and negative aspects. If you're seriously interested in reading a comprehensive overview of rap/hip-hop, I would suggest Nelson George's "HipHop America" (Penguin Books).

BTW, rap has an intimate connection for vinyl audiophiles. During the darkest days of analog (late 80s, early 90s) when it appeared that the whole world was going CD, it was 12" rap/hip-hop/dance music that was the major force in keeping vinyl alive in America.

Regardless of the type of music you listen to your equipment should have as a minimum low distortion, wide bandwith and flat frequency response. Obviously, hip/hop/rap requires strong bass capabilities which you seem to have covered with the subwoofer. The Wilsons would nicely compliment your system, but rather than the Cubs, you might want to find a pair of WITTs.

Better music reproduction systems should be able to handle everything from Mozart to Ella to Pink Floyd to Wu-Tang.

Natalie, I'm truly surprised by your elitist response.

Based upon some of the above posts, it seems that many audiogoners believe a certain type of "music" is not worthy of hi-rez playback. Do I detect a certain stench? Is it possible that those protesting most loudly have systems that can't handle the bass dynamics and rhythmic agility required for hip/hop. Maybe those with their glass driven planars or stand mounted mini monitors should stick to music by DWM or maybe that TAS disc with the dulcimer.

Whether or not someone likes or dislikes hip/hop really isn't the point. It has always been my opinion that audiogon was a discussion forum dedicated to helping people maximize their enjoyment of music and their systems. What upsets me about some of the responses is their incredibly dismissive tone. How many of the replies were actually intended to be helpful? Just because you don't like something doesn't give you the right to publicly crap on someone else's choices. If you think this message is addressed at you, then it probably is.

Obviously some people have a serious problem with rap/hip-hop. More than just not liking the music, they seem to dislike what rap represents. I suspect that rap artists wouldn't have it any other way. As a form of expression rap music is created by a cultural underclass. They are a group of people who have little or no place in the dominant society. Is it surprising that this underclass strives to offend all the values of the larger society? It makes some people uncomfortable that young black men have figured out a way to make large sums of money telling America, in effect, to go fuck itself.