Wait Jag. That's just stupid. "I've never listened to something in my life and I've formed an opinion of it." Don't form an uneducated opinion and stand by it. You are likely to look stupid throughout your life if you do that. Experience something and learn about it then form an opinion. If you can't be stuffed it's much better to say, "I don't know enough about it so can't really say if it's good or not." Kind of like the people who say Islam is evil without knowing anything about it.
Ok. People who hate rap hate it for a reason. The radio. The radio is full of absolute filth that people dare to call rap and hip hop. Rap and hip hop is the stuff that never makes the radio. Things that have real meaning for the artist and isn't created to be sold.
I'll go over a few examples. If you are in anyway willing to learn you'll listen to this.
2pac - Dear Mama (A song thanking his mum for raising him even though he was a dick head. This is one of my mums favourite songs.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcloTmvTeA
Eminem - When I'm Gone
Eminem - Mockingbird
Eminem - Hailie's Song
Three songs written for his daughter(s) which are just beautiful. When I'm gone is extremely good at showing his realisation at how important his daughters are.
Hilltop Hoods - Stopping All Stations (Hiphop about a murder on a train from 3 different perspectives, criminal, bystand, and victim, and how pointless crime is... from ex-crims)
Hilltop Hoods - Audience with the Devil
Scribe - Remember (About friends and not abandoning them and domestic violence in the Maori New Zealand)
Scribe has become crap now that he's writing music for the record labels instead of himself.
Phrase - Hold On (About all the suffering in young people and how no-one is helping them. Stopping youth suicide. Annoying whingey voice but good song/lyrics)
and the one that you are most likely to like
Coolio - Gangsters Paradise (About being stuck in the loop of crime and trying to get out and warning others away from it... written for the movie "Dangerous Minds")
Also, what's hard about spitting rhymes extremely fast? Umm... writing them. And it's very hard to talk that fast clearly. There are lots of great musicians out there who can play their instruments, such as Santana, and have become famous for their ability to play. It takes a real genius to create a song that stands out from the millions of crap songs out there.
Being good at using an instrument/tool is not what makes something good.Who do you think will be remembered more? John Butler, who is the worlds best 12 string guitarist and who most of you have never heard of (one of my personal heroes) or John Lennon, who played simple music that had deep meaning?
This all applies to rap as well. Rap comes and goes but the great artists will live on past all the crap that's ever on the radio. A real artist doesn't need to be on the radio to have a sell out crowd. Tool, a band that has never been played on Australian radio, held the record for the fastest sellout in Australia (until Iron Maiden claimed it) because they are great artists. Not players. ARTISTS!
Before you go and say rap is crap. Look at the meaning behind it. What rap is truly about. Not the music, the lyrics.
Note, my favourite artists in music go
Tool
Cat Stevens
Eminem
Elton John
John Butler
but my favourite rappers go
Eminem
Tupac
Hilltop Hoods
Scribe
Phrase
(I don't really listen to US hip hop or rap so I don't know many of your artists)
I also find it funny that NATORIUS hasn't been mentioned even though he got voted, by other rappers, as the most influential rapper of the generation. I personally don't like his music.