Ray Charles - "Rap is not music"

Socrates would say that whether "rap" is music is a question of definition, not of taste. For example, I hate James Taylor, but would never deny that what he does is music. And yet, in American usage, even before Webster's Third New International (1961), the third of seven definitions of music has been "any rhythmic sequence of pleasing sounds." By that standard, whether rap is music DOES depend on whether we happen to find it pleasing, which makes the question subjective after all! Likely this means "intended to be pleasing," not necessarily "found to be pleasing." And yet!  Not a question to be trifled with, at least if you are a philosopher or lexicographer or both.

Was Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean the first rap song?

(asking for a friend)

The easiest thing to have online is an opinion.

So here‘s mine: To me whatever Sting did in the last 40 years barely qualifies as music. It doesn’t do anything for me; I can’t learn anything from it. His post-Police stuff is either boring or masturbatory noodling--I could do that when I was 7. All you have to do is learn your instrument well and forget all about putting your heart in it. That’s nothing. That’s [expletive].

But that‘s just me.

Please discuss.

You can't spell crap without rap.