Rap music in one form or another has been with us for a long time now, but for the most part I still cannot understand why it's so popular with many people.

Unless it's built into a song with a distinctive melody of its own, e.g. Blondie's Rapture or Linkin Park's rap metal tracks from Hybrid Theory or Meteora, or even Eminem's Stan, I just don't enjoy hearing a rap.

It tends (in my mind at least) to be identified with black street music and often comes across as quite aggressive, with frequently unintelligible lyrics but - and I cannot stress this enough - no discernible tune or hook that would make it stick in the mind, in the way that music heard on the TV or radio so often does, sometimes even if you didn't want it to!

Some people like different music to you, that's about the sum of it all. I love rap and to say rap songs lack tunes is a bit strange.

Those pieces work for you but the rap is mediated through more familiar popular forms.


Maybe Rap and Hip Hop have more meaning to some listeners than others, particularly if you are Black and from an inner city area of the US? It is social commentary music to a great degree and rapping as a style has its origins in West African culture.

It took me a while to get into Hip Hop but its subversion and humour work well at times.

So what you are saying is there is a genre you don't like. How unusual.

i have some sympathy with the op's pov...... i find it hard to understand its appeal if youre not from some inner city in america. as an ordinary white brit it has absolutely no appeal to me at all and i struggle to understand why it should appeal to others like me.

I think the OP is saying a bit more than that. Although I don't like country music I can imagine why some people do, but I find it hard to understand the appeal of rap.

But then other people find the appeal of other genres hard to understand. I would never try to persuade someone to like jazz because it would be like trying to persuade someone who didn't like spicy food to eat curry. Rap is like one kind of spicy food, jazz is another, soul/r'n'b is another and they all have different flavours but if you like one you might like another.

On which principle, saying that hip-hop only appeals to people from inner-city USA is like saying curry only appeals to people from Bangladesh.

Thank goodness for the above two posters .. I was beginning to think I was a lone anti-rap voice in the wilderness!


I wouldn't either .. I was merely curious to establish what the appeal of rap is all about. As others have said, I can quite understand the appeal for virtually all other genres of music, but rap just seems so far outside any of that, it will continue to mystify and repel me in equal amounts.

I sort of see what you mean, while I can appreciate 'good' rap music and artists like Nas, Jay-Z, Eminem, 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G for example; all could stimulate you with intellingent lyrics coincide with the catchy beats and rhymes. The world play used by Eminem for example can resonate with me because it can be a form of storytelling/rhyming on a beat likened to poetry on social issues. However, what rap music is mostly aired commercially these days leaves nothing much to the imagination, from what I gather from the community is there is less distinction between UK and US rap and it all sounds the same. UK Rap/Grime on a mainstream level doesn't appeal to me because on the whole it is unintelligent 'gimmicky' and trashy with very little musical appeal. Just rhyming about crap pretty much, with no real sign of musical talent IMO. So I can appreciate good rap, but when you compare it to other forms I cannot take as seriously as say Rock, Folk, Jazz, Classical etc because within these genres we not only have songwriters and musicians more qualified that can actually play instruments and sing. IMO are far more talented on a musical level, than any other rapper out there.

So white people shouldn't/cannot identify with rap music because its black street music? Also things like metal, Linkin Park (as you mentioned) can be seen as quite agressive. Rap more than any other genre focuses alot on social commentry at the moment and has more to say for itself than other genres.

Rap opened up the music industry to people who had something to say but didn't necessarily have to have a good singing voice.
Even though I'm not a fan of the genre, I'm all for giving people a platform to express themselves in the often manufactured pop culture of today.

As do I.

I don't hate rap by default but I do struggle to understand why seemingly every other pop song HAS to have a rap featured in it and why rap and r 'n' b are pretty much inescapable when it comes to radio and the mainstream media. It used to be that rap was its own thing and that worked for me. The merge of rap and pop is something I detest though and do not understand.

The OP said nothing even close to this and you well know it.

I think the difference is, though within a genre like Metal the aggression is very much self-contained within the music, whereas Rap, Hip Hip, etc, the aggression at times seems to go well beyond that.

they didnt but i did! as did another poster.

as i see it, various styles of music arise out of differing social environments and rap arouse out of inner city american black street music. i do not understand myself how music from that environment has much if any resonance with middle class white british kids. imho theres nothing worse, more patronising or borderline racist as said middle class white kids trying to talk street.

unlike rock, which (lets face it is blues based black music) has a broader appeal, rap to me is far more specific to a target audience, and thats great, i just dont get the appeal beyond its natural fanbase.

fortunately, hideous acts like honey g are making such a mockery of rap that itll lose its appeal.

Music is not that different in its appeal to other art forms or other lifestyle products. Like I said, curry appeals to white British people, it's not usually "authentic" Indian curry but a version that takes the authentic flavours and adapts them to white British tastes.

The same is true of rap, which is why British audiences like pop songs that have carefully crafted raps that exactly fit the right number of bars rather than freeform jams that go on for hours. It's how genres cross over.

As to hip-hop's cultural relevance (used correctly for once I think) what's the problem? White British people read books by African American authors and understand the cultural setting and literally where they're coming from. Surely the same is true of rap - we don't want to live in Compton but it helps us to understand what it's like to live there.

yeah, i understand that, but i still dont see the relevance, maybe im biased because i really dont like rap but give me a song without a rap in it anyday over one that has.


erm, why should i want nor care to know what its like living in compton? i dont give a damn about their life anymore then they give a damn about mine. im happy for those people that they chose and relate to their kind of music and that it reflects their lives....its almost like modern folk music.. but i dont see it being of any relevance to white british kids. or is that how they rebel nowdays? looking upto an alien culture ? i dont get it, i dont get the worship of that culture but then again my dislike for it could well be tainting my opinion of it.

I don't like rap, never have done, but I think it's even worse when performed by a white artist. Rap just doesn't come naturally to someone who isn't born with that natural 'rhythm and rhyme'. I think they just look and sound silly.

Indeed. Trying to "figure out" something that is entirely subjective is a complete waste of time.

I don't like Justin Bieber but i'm not going to start trying to work out why ..

not been following this conversation have you...

Fair enough, but a lot of British people do take an interest in the lives of people outside their immediate experience. American culture in particular has a strong influence on ours, as you said yourself when you referenced the blues being an influence on rock. Someone growing up in Britain today would surely be more likely to listen to contemporary American music (e.g. rap) than American music from over 60 years ago (e.g. the blues).

By the way, for anyone who doesn't think rap has anything relevant to say about Britain: https://youtu.be/Xqd86is7y54

id have thought though the blues was more readily transferable to a uk fan base. we have taken many american sounds and anglicised them, rhythm and blues, punk, being prime examples. so im still unable to understand why rap would appeal to white british kids over rock/blues.

probably just my anti rap bias though, as like it or not, rap clearly does appear to have some resonance with white british kids, i just dont understand why.... hey ho!

very eloquent, but imho would be better produced as a rock track...

If you are thinking of earlier British adoptions of Black music, what about Ska music which had its origins in Jamaica the late 1950/early 1960s? It was originally popular with the Mods and then the Skinheads, both predominantly White cultures. Later with the 2-Tone revival there was a wonderful multi-racial movement and some great British music emerged. It might be that the 2-Tone Ska music was great dance music and Rap isn't generally means Rap isn't as popular, I don't know.

The main appeal for me is it is the most lyrical genre, some of the best writers in music history. contrary to popular belief rapping is not an easy thing to do well. people like Nas are so gifted they make it seem effortless. why would all these pop artists feature rappers on there songs instead of doing it themselves if its so easy.

its mainly based around the beat and rhythm but to say that it contains no melodies is rubbish. and you cant tell me that people like pharrell, rick rubin, dr dre, timbaland, q-tip, premier are not musically talented.

the main instrument of rock is a guitar and for Hip Hop it is a turntable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK_ELV96lEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSGWLrn6B0
(why is this white girl and asian guy doing this? how could it possibly appeal to them..they are not from compton, why are they looking up to this 'alien culture')

i guess everyone can do this as well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmiym3lFogE

Hip Hop is also great dance music it has invented countless new dance crazes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTpn30Pms8I