Hip-Hop: A love hate relationship

I have always felt that in terms of my musical taste I listened to a variety of genres.  At any given moment I could be listening to pop music, classical, heavy rock or electronica.  While my tastes may be eclectic, I usually will go a month or two listening to one type of music until I get ‘tired’ of it and move on to something else.  Noticeably absent from my rotation was Hip Hop or rap music.  When I began listening to music rap was the only genre I listened to.  As I got older, my interests in other styles increased (How could anyone avoid Nirvana during the 90s!) but rap was always my safety net.  Then something changed..I began to listen to the lyrics and felt a disconnect between the words being spoken and my experience.  I did not grow up in the ‘hood’, I did not smoke ‘weed’ on the corner and I didn’t have sex with ‘ho’s’.  I still liked the beats but the images and lyrics were not relevant to me and so rap was no longer relevant to me.

At the same time I always thought the ability of an MC to paint an image, at the same time being able manipulate and play with words in a creative manner requires tremendous skill.  I know that there are many artists that do use rap and hip hop (I’ve never been able to distinguish between the two) in a positive manner and do not resort to simply glorifying an undesirable lifestyle. I have been listening to a lot of hip hop recently, probably more than I have in the past several years.  I still cringe at the sexist and violent nature of the lyrics and I am not sure of how long it will be before hip hop is once again off my play-list. Often these artists argue that their words are not an attempt to glorify their lifestyle, but rather paint a picture of the life they have lived. I just wish that there was some way for these artists to use their creative talents to describe more than this one experience and become true storytellers.   I hope that someday I will able to say that I listen to rap music without feeling that I am doing something that I feel guilty about.

~ by oreogeek on May 17, 2009.