Is Rap a valid musical form?

@denverfred - heya! just wondering what does being able to read music, a vocalist's ability to play an instrument, etc have to do with anything? Plenty of great 'musicians' just bore the crap out of me because they're more concerned with showing off their skills than songwriting. 

But hey, I too am happy that this thread has not devolved into some quasi political diatribe. This is what happened to my several past attempts to start a thread about my desire to understand and enjoy Rap.

Just read that Kendrick Lamar is going into film production with the South Park guys. And I discovered that one of his albums set a record for remaining on the Billboard charts for 400 weeks! That and several Grammys, etc, etc.

And his acting was only criticized for being too “real”.

Clearly, it’s not just me who is a fan.

Just a semantic difference. It's all Performance Art. Theatre departments are beginning to move from classes in "Oral Interpretation of Literature" to classes in "Spoken Word." Adding rhythm and sound effects to poetry is not new.
There is convincing evidence that this combination plus dance was the essence of performance values in ancient Greek theatre (c.500 BC) and continues to feature in popular performance arts of all types.

It's a positive, not a negative, to add music to another art form. Whether or not it confers the title "musician" on the person reciting the poetry is in the eye/ear of the beholder.

@jonwatches1

Thanks for the response. Maybe you didn’t see a subsequent post. I dug a little further and I actually like a few songs I sampled from Flo Rida. They were musical, had instruments and some singing. Even one song from Nicki Minaj was musical, but just one.

Southern rock huh? I listened to Skynyrd, 38 Special and early ZZ Top growing up, but I couldn’t tell you what’s going on in that genre since the 80’s. I’m principally a metal-head at heart with some tentacles into classic rock, classical Spanish guitar, modern blues, shred, atmospheric rock, a little acapella, and even doo-wop.

Off the beaten path, huh? Metal is definitely off the beaten path in this forum. It’s a genre that you’re either geared to gravitate to, or not. In that regard, it’s probably a little similar to rap. And it’s definitely not audiophile-friendly. I don’t know if you have any experience with it. You’re possibly familiar with Anthrax teaming up with Public Enemy about 30 years ago on a metal-rap song. But I won’t subject you to the more extreme versions of the genre that I prefer, however I will recommend one song that even if you don’t like it you’ll be surprised and entertained by it.

Five songs ... hmmm. It’s important that you follow these specific YouTube links for full effect of what you’re about to see with some of these artists.

Jinjer - Pisces: Progressive metal. Like it or not, you will be "entertained."

"sheer technical mastery and technique are so elemental to its form"

Dream Theater - The Dance of Eternity: The band that immediately comes to mind when terms like that are used. Every member of this band is a master of their instrument, except the singer, but this song is an instrumental. DT’s time signature changes can be a little disconcerting for people who aren’t into progressive- rock, metal or jazz. Their songs can be very complex.

OK, back to "off the beaten path."

My favorite guitarist (I play guitar).

Buckethead.- Jordan (live): Buckethead is likely an autistic savant. His skill level is ungodly. And he has over 300 albums of various styles and genres. Yes, 300. It’s so hard to pick one song because one only gives you a sliver of a glimpse into Buckethead’s repertoire, he’s so diverse, but this is a good start. And you have to see a live version to understand not only the skill, but the mind of Buckethead.

Lacuna Coil - Trip the Darkness: A gothic/alternative rock/metal band. Their album Comalies is actually audiophile-friendly. One of the few well-recorded rock/metal albums. Like your list, this is a band I would list as "accessible" to beginning metal-heads looking into "modern" metal.

When it comes to technical mastery I could list a slew of shredders that have ungodly guitar and compositional skills. Or I could list my second favorite guitar player, SRV, but I’m assuming, even though SRV is blues, if you know southern rock you probably know who he is. And I don’t want to freak you out with metal since it’s likely it won’t be accessible. What to do, what to do? OK, let me give you the guy who, IMO, created shred guitar.

Yngwie Malmsteen with the Japanese Philharmonic: Malmsteen created neo-classical shred guitar (I don’t want to hear from you Blackmore fans). Van Halen was THE guitar god at the time ... until Malmsteen released his first album in 1984 and changed the course of electric guitar. That album is what made me take up guitar. I can’t come anywhere near playing with his speed or accuracy. But neither can all but a handful of professionals. He was heavily influenced by Paganini and incorporated it with rock on guitar. Unfortunately, after his first album he proved not to be nearly as accomplished a composer as a guitar player. But that first album - Rising Force - is great. He spawned a slew of shredders on the Shrapnel label who themselves spawned another slew of shredders. He is the father of shred.

Look at M&M he was Huge and helped change gangster rap which is degrading and vulgar , M&M had his own flair and toned it down and white which was a Shocker I am not much into rap  but a couple CDs were pretty catchy

Jump up And get down.