Rap music on high-end speakers

Can anyone answer this question: Why I was the only one who brought a 'mundane' recording to the Frank Van Alstine Show at the Chicago Audio Society meeting? Everybody else played 'audiophile grade' recordings...

The music was from "Lo mato si no compra este disco." (I kill him if you don't buy this record.) Album by Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe--Caribbean gangsta music from the 70's. I happened to play an instrumental fusion piece that Van Alstine stopped after about two minutes! This recording, nonetheless, is my reference recording to test system performance. Lots of trombones, fast percussion, bass and a world class singer. I used it recently to test and set up some Bob Regal feet Deano sent me to try on my 'new' Melos SHA-3 preamp. I described the improvements to him and emailed me that I was hearing right. That I had entered 'Audio Nirvana'. So much for a non audiophile recording of gangsta music.

Aguirre, you're right on the money. I've always said that most music in all genres is crap. That one needs to weed out this crap to get to the real good stuff; preferably to find a guide to point out what to buy.

In conclusion, I think being an audiophile gets a bad rap because it is associated with certain attitudes, behaviors and types of people. Just recently I went to an 'upscale' high end store in downtown Chicago to buy a piece. What a bunch of snobs! Did they think they were impressing me? I just wanted to get out of there fast! I heard comments like: "To get a good preamp you have to spend at least five thousand dollars." Is this going to attract people to audio? Hey, they want you to quit before you even start...or at least humilliate you before you move on. Like forcing me to demo the piece I wanted with some Tchaikovsky. Hey, I've sold audio at two stores: you ALWAYS ask the customer what he/she wants to hear. What was the point of this geek trying to force me to hear Tchaikovsky? Educate me, perhaps? What a shame...

Kevziek, my little sister calls people like you "Scared White People".

You call yourself a professional musician but don't seem to know much about music.

I see rap as a least common denominator of the product of generations upon generations of slavery (even after the civil rights movement). You need to remember that slaves were brought from different regions of Africa and thus removed from their native types of music (which are very different one from another--take it from someone originally from the Caribbean). What was common to all of them was the storytelling in a call and response pattern with heavy primal rythms.

And that's what we have. Unfortunately, we are having kids not learning music and thinking it all ends there--I'll give you credit for that. From what I understand the average Spanish rap recording has a shelf life of only TWO months! That's it. Nobody will remember them two years from now. So there is something very wrong here. It's just that you present it along with your prejudices and fears...and others are unable to sift and sort your message. They need a better jitter filter.

Peace.

You know, I was talking to my former college advisor a few months ago about noticing how scared the majority of white people live...

I say hello to my building manager from my balcony and she jumps! Neighbors have called the police because my sister forgot to bring back in the house the empty trash cans...when I was in senior in college I was living in 'the flats' and some white married couple moved below us. They immediately freaked and became the organizers of "Neighborhood Watch". The neighborhood was fine (blue collar), just that a lot of the residents were black. What the f***?

I was in the U.S. military, too. But that's another story...

BTW, I am white--and my Spanish grandfather was very fond of Franco and the Germans, if you know what I'm talking about.

Nahhh, I'm from a barrio, unsophisticated...only sing in the shower and inside my car...but got a scholarship to an Ivy League university and took a class in musicology (Sound, sense and idea). I was taught in that class what you cannot comprehend with all that classical Western upbringing: WHAT IS MUSIC EXACTLY?

As for my musical talents, I'm no professional. Took a year and a half of piano and three of accordion. Before leaving the Caribbean I was undergoing an apprenticeship in steel drum building, tuning and playing with master Jack Warren of Antigua. Bet you probably think that's not a musical instrument either...it's made from scrap--right?

About music and fear: it's related, not 'babbling'. If you'd been at the Vicente Fernández concert in Allstate arena you would have seen DOZENS of scared Rosemont police officers. Just because the Mexicans were having a good time. The cops would encircle themselves like cows in a corner...outside some six or seven jumped on a kid because he was smoking pot. I couldn't stand it anymore and I yelled at them if that's how many of them it took to arrest a kid. My Mexican friend panicked, but having been a former Federal law enforcement officer I just didn't give a s***.

Sadly, this is what's going on...

BTW, after you guys finish attacking rap, please move on to Mexican "Corridos" and then on to Dominican "Bachata", Lesser Antilles' "Soca", Colombian "Cumbias" and anything else is not in your taste.

Kevziek, I've got the medicine for you: Wednesdays 6:30 PM @ the Buzz (308 W. Erie St.)

Go with an open heart and have fun. Only $5.00 cover.

To each his own...if TRU likes to listen to Rap, fine. I have some rap albums, too. This is not a thread about tastes, it's about suggesting gear. Although, a black audiophile friend of mine viewed this thread and his comment to me was that someone who matched a system like TRU's with such synergy DOES know how to pick up his own sub. That therefore TRU knew what was going to happen...and that it was intentional.

I understand the point these people who don't consider RAP as music bring up. They just unfortunately bring their prejudices in the postings. The proper way to deal with this is the way Tito Puente did at a concert in my university many years ago. It was two groups: De La Soul and Tito Puente's Orchestra. I didn't know who De La Soul was at the time. They went in first and attempted to be BAD. It was such a mismatch--who in their right mind have these two groups in the same concert? It was almost a riot!!! During the intermission, a voice spoke over the PA system: "No se preocupen, amigos. Los vamos a poner a pedir misericordia." Translation: "Friends, don't worry. We will make them ask for mercy." And so they did. Tito Puente put up such a class act, it made everybody sit down, shut up, and lean forward in their seats...even the university policemen sat down and did the same. The undisputed King of Afro Caribbean percussion was teaching the rappers who was truly THE bad boy of the hood. And with class...Jazz, African rythms, Spanish/Arab music-all masterfully blended and orchestrated by professional musicians.

The street has its place in the music world, but there's much more to it. I don't think De La Soul learned their lesson, though...