Ray Charles - "Rap is not music"

I respect Ray Charles. But besides what he said about rap, he said some other things. Here are a few others:

"Racism and poverty. Two scourges that I have known since early in my life. Sadly, while things are better for many, there are those who still suffer the indignities of both.

Until we find a way to fix these problems, there will always be unrest in our society and world.”

Because I'm a black man, whatever affects my people affects me. This means that the greatest handicap I've had - and still have - is my color. 

If the blues ever gets sung by a White person, it'll be a Jew who does it. They've known what it is to be somebody else's footstool.

What I never understood to this day, to this very day, was how white people could have black people cook for them, make their meals, but wouldn't let them sit at the table with them. How can you dislike someone so much and have them cook for you? Shoot, if I don't like someone you ain't cooking nothing for me, ever.

Until every man in America can get any job he's qualified for or any house he's got the money to buy, regardless of his color, I'll always be handicapped. 

People want more and more and more, and some seem to have a need to look down on others, and they're bothered when no one's around to look down upon."
 

@tylermunns Ok, so I guess you found the road from rap to music that Jerry couldn't. Fair enough...

Rap is considered music not because of its merit, but because there is no other place to put it.  In my opinion, and based on its impact among a certain segment of society, rap is a particularly focused medium for social degeneracy.  This is by design.  Ask the real pioneers of Rap and Hip Hop and they'll tell you how their message was usurped and changed by the monied interest.   

@ab2ab What is this “impact on society” you speak of? How can some music “impact society,” and what does such “impact” entail?

“…rap is a particularly focused medium for social degeneracy…by design.”

Honestly, where does one come up with this stuff? “By design?” What??

”…medium for social degeneracy.” So much vagueness and empty rhetoric.

I honestly don’t know what you’re trying to say, but I do know what it sounds very similar to: the laughably narrow minded comments on rock and roll made by people  in the 1950s.  
You know, those comically reactionary, silly comments we saw people making about rock n roll in the 1950s  
You know, those things we laugh at.

Most rap is heard out of vehicle speakers over-amped to severe distortion, bass-heavy to the point of pneumatic force on the stomachs of the involuntary listeners.