Article: The Music In Me: Rap of History Backwards The

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Most of today's rap has absolutely nothing to say.  You ask any of the God-Fathers of Hip-hop and most of them will say that these artist today are just part of the production puppy mill.  Many believe that the only ones saying anything happens to be the current crop of gospel rappers (think Lecrae, old school Cross Movement, ect). 

 

I actually believe rap has been around for a long time. Just listen to early George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic (and you can't say those guys weren't musical at all). 

 

Here's what the music industry boils down to now... its in a hook, and yes it's a rap song

 

"Just because the whips done stopped  - don't mean that you're free boy - pick them crops

I mean hip that hop, make them tracks - say something that's gon' make that cash. 

Take that advance - but pay that back, you're under contract - you gotta come back 

Don't you know you're culture's for sale....ain't your culture for sale?"  

 

There's a lot of creativity out there, but the industry only want what will make a dollar. I love all genre's of music to include rap ( depending on what you're saying). I will say this about rap that says something, its causes you to think....isn't that where the word music comes from...muse...to think about?  Most music today is a form of amusement or to get you to stop thinking. I like any music that makes me think whether if it's something you did during the performance, or if its something you said. 

 

P.S. i have experience with many forms of music, to include classical, choral, jazz, inspirational/gospel, as well as rap.   As an aside - I part of making of a Boy Band (new competitive series) and they wondered a young man that was a church worship leader, if he could make the transition to pop/r&b......funny - that teacher needs to go back into history - because the R&B sound and a lot of Pop today came from ....gospel and blues. 

 

 

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On 6/30/2017 at 8:48 AM, DRB100 said:

Actually, Gospel didn't have any blues influences originally as it was choir with an organ and a Tamborine, then Blues came along and it started other forms of music.  it created Jazz, it influenced country, R&B (rhythm and Blues), rock, Gospel (as they started to use rhythm sections).  Pop was originally jazz.  The big pop names back in the early days of recordings was some blues, but a lot of jazz singers were the pop artists. Now they just get kids that stylize themselves after their favorite singers and these kids growing up today couldn't sing a blues standard to save their life.  I saw the BBKing memorial and they had guys like Pharrell and he couldn't sing a BB King classic.  It's a shame that the current generation of kids have no clue as to the roots of "pop" music as it goes back to Blues.

 

All of the best guitarists know blues and have mastered it.   Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, etc. all have mastered the blues and really understand it.  The latest gen guitar players barely know how to play Blues.  That's why a lot of metal has no "swing" to the rhythm and the guitar players are more technical and just abuse the whammy bar and they overuse distortion to the point where one can't tell what notes or chords they are playing.   Drummers tend to be more technical, mechanical and less musical than the drummers that were big in the 60's and 70's.  It's a shame how much the current generation simply lacks.

Songwriting these days has taken a downturn.  No one seems to write great melodies anymore. Everything now is so generic, computerized, overly produced, loops oriented. 

 

I almost fell off my chair when I ran into some kid that was way into RAP, and I started a discussion and I asked him what R&B stood for.  He said it stands for RAP AND BEATS.   At that point, I gave up all hope for this person.  Every time I run into someone that listens to Rap, I ask them to sing or hum the melody line.  At that point, their eyes glaze over and they are dumbfounded.  They don't know what the term "melody" even means.

It's been a while but I just saw this...you're backwards on your origin of Gospel....The father of Gospel music Thomas Dorsey was a blues and honkey-tonk musician -Precious Lord was originally rejected by the church for sounding "worldly". Now what some consider Gospel music is not gospel at all...it's a different classification called spirituals, freedom songs, and old Working songs (from slavery days).