Ben Shapiro follows Eric Holder’s advice, and talks bravely about race:
rap isn’t music; rap culture is disgusting and degrading; rap creates racial stereotypes and revels in them.
First, rap isn’t music. Music has three elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Rap is all rhythm, very little melody, and virtually no harmony. Cultural relativists who say that Eminem is like Mozart make Barbara Boxer look like Einstein.
Second, rap culture is disgusting and degrading. Not every song, of course – the culture as a whole. It values the basest elements of human nature, from promiscuous sex to maltreatment of women to sickening violence. It’s no wonder that rappers have the life expectancies of fruit flies: by the time they’re 40 – if they hit 40 – there’s a good shot they’ll have shot somebody, been shot, been busted for hard core drugs, or acquired an STD (see this short list). The millions they earn from gullible white kids in the suburbs who just want to seem cool end up flushed down the drug/sex/fancy car toilet.
Third, rap culture creates racial stereotypes and revels in them. Many rappers (including Ice T, who now plays a cop on television) target the police for special hatred based on their alleged discriminatory tendencies. Meanwhile, rappers kill each other in gang rivalries … and then have movies made about them (see Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. – and T.I., who was involved in violent altercation with rapper Lil’ Flip and Ludacris’ manager Chaka Zulu). It provides ammunition to racists who wish to slander all black men as rap-loving violent misogynists, and it encourages ignorant and disadvantaged young black men to become rap-loving violent misogynists. Lovelle Mixon may have listened to late Beethoven string quartets when he wasn’t busy committing felonies, but somehow I doubt it.
Somebody had to say it. Of course, I thought the same about much of disco, at least to the degree to which it was music. I have no interest in “music” in which the percussion carries the melody.
I agree completely on the negative impact of rap “music”, but percussions can actually carry a tune, see
–http://www.brentlewis.com/enter.htm
–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD1ddDtb5b4&e
For an existence proof.
Arrg, percussion, not percussions. Ah hates it when ah talks ignorunt, ah really does.
While I agree that rap cannot be considered music, I’m willing to let it be. However Will Smith started as the Fresh Prince and I never found anything as outlandish in his lyrics as you’d find with Ice-T.
Rap IS crap. It relies on foul language, bad stereotypes and worse rhyming cadence.
There used to be a routine Flip Wilson did, in rhyme. He said he threw in the rhymes for the drop outs in his audience, “…because those dumb ass drop outs like those rhymes.”
It never occurred to me, that he might have been talking about the future of the entertainment industry.
(wrong button alert)
Mac,
I’d be willing to let rap be too, if it wasn’t in 50% of the TV shows, 25% of the TV commercials, and 60% of the stoplights. I get sick of hearing bump, bump. bump when I’m stopped in traffic.
I’ve toyed with equipping my van with huge speakers and amps, playing at full treble, either banjos or bag pipes to offset the bump, bump. bump of rap “music” bass guitars.
The problem is that bass carries much farther, and transmits through the ground much better, than treble. It wouldn’t do you any good unless you mounted the speakers on the exterior, in which case you’d get ticketed for being a public nuisance.
What you really want is an EMP weapon that can blow out bass speakers.
Hmmm, how many amps would it take to generate a strong magnetic field at a low frequency, say 20 Hz with a range of perhaps 30 feet? The goal is to aim that at the offending car and induce a loud, obnoxious buzz in their speakers.
Being a curmudgeon is just as much fun as I thought it would be when I was a kid.
Being a curmudgeon is just as much fun as I thought it would be when I was a kid.
Except I would have hated rap just as much when I was a kid (e.g., I thought disco sucked in the seventies).
Steve says: I’d be willing to let rap be too, if it wasn’t in 50% of the TV shows, 25% of the TV commercials, and 60% of the stoplights. I get sick of hearing bump, bump. bump when I’m stopped in traffic.
Heh, my father always hated Rock, even more he despises Heavy Metal and don’t evenget him started on rap. Its a lot like disco in my mind, eventually it will go away. I love eighties rock, but now I’m starting to listen more to nineties and modern…we all change. I do like the idea of an EMP though…
“…and 60% of the stoplights. I get sick of hearing bump, bump. bump when I’m stopped in traffic.”
And usually from cars with fully closed windows. I pucker in various places, thinking about what it’s like inside.
But, I therefore predict an uptick in the demand for Audiologists in the next decade or so. Justice may be late, but sometimes it really does get done…
Having played drums the last 40 years (I’m a drummer,NOT a percussionist) I find rap to be simplistic in the extreme as far as the “drumming”.The same charge has been leveled at rock,C&W,blues & others,but generally any of those has far more musical (drummingwise) nuances than (c)rap,which is mostly programmed drums.
Check out Evelyn Glennie for some incredible musical percussion.
I roll down my windows and share Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, The Clash, AC/DC and other cuturally worthy music with my Rap challeged countrymen.
Songs by Iron Maiden like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” about the poem of the same name:
“Hear the rime of the Ancient Mariner
See his eyes as he stops one of three
Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
Stay here and listen to the nightmares
of the sea.
And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
Caught by his spell and
the Mariner tells his tale.
Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
To a place where nobody’s been
Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
Hailed in God’s name,
hoping good luck it brings.
And the ship sails on, back to the north
Through the fog and ice and
the albatross follows on
The mariner kills the bird of good omen
His shipmates cry against what he’s done
But when the fog clears, they justify him
And make themselves part of the crime.
Sailing on and on and North across the sea
Sailing on and on and North ’til all is calm.
The albatross begins with its vengeance
A terrible curse a thirst has begun
His shipmates blame the bad luck on the Mariner
About his neck, the dead bird is hung.
And the curse goes on and on and on at sea,
And the thirst goes on and on for them and me.
“Day after day, day after day,
we stuck nor breath nor motion
As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
Water, water everywhere and
all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink.”
There, calls the Mariner,
there comes a ship over the line
But how can she sail with no wind
in her sails and no tide.
See…onward she comes
Onward she nears, out of the sun
See…she has no crew
She has no life, wait but there’s two
Death and she life in Death,
they throw their dice for the crew
She wins the Mariner and he belongs to her now.
Then…crew one by one
They drop down dead, two hundred men
She…She, Life in Death,
She lets him live, her chosen one.
“One after one by the star dogged moon,
too quick for groan or sigh
each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
and cursed me with his eye
four times fifty living men
(and I heard nor sigh nor groan),
with heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
they dropped down one by one.”
The curse it lives on in their eyes
The Mariner he wished he’d die
Along with the sea creatres
But they lived on, so did he.
And by the light of the moon
He prays for their beauty not doom
With heart he blesses them
God’s creatures all of them too
Then the spell starts to break
The albatross falls from his neck
Sinks down like lead into the sea
Then down in falls comes the rain.
Hear the groans of the long dead seamen
See them stir and they start to rise
Bodies lifted by good spirits
None of them speak
and they’re lifeless in their eyes.
And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.
Now the curse is finally lifted
And the Mariner sights his home
Spirits go from the long dead bodies
Form their own light and
the Mariner’s left alone.
And then a boat came sailing towards him
It was a joy he could not believe
The pilots boat, his son and the hermit.
Penance of life will fall onto Him.
And the ship sinks like lead into the sea
And the hermit shrieves the Mariner of his sins.
The Mariner’s bound to tell of his story
To tell his tale wherever he goes
To teach God’s word by his own example
That we must love all things that God made.
And the wedding guest’s a sad and wiser man
And the tale goes on and on and on”
Who knew Heavy Metal music could be so cultural?
The question is, what will the next big thing be, after rap?
I personally dislike a huge portion of electronic dance music too, as it’s mind numbingly simple and repetitive (even if the technology would make it possible to create something extraordinary, it is used to make something stupid). You probably are very lucky to have very little of that in the USA.
I inflict bluegrass or Celtic music.
I personally dislike a huge portion of electronic dance music too, as it’s mind numbingly simple and repetitive…
It’s “music” for people who don’t like (or are indifferent to) music. They just want a rhythmic noise that they can dance to. When it comes to actual music, they don’t have minds to numb.
I disagree with many of Shapiro’s assertions. The assertion that you need all three, melody, harmony, and rhythm is wrong. Frankly, one out of three works. For example, I think most people would agree that a drum solo or tribal chants would be music. That’s even though they predominately are rhythm. Similar, wind chimes are predominately harmony-based music. And if you’re singing in the shower, we’d probably call that music even though it’s at best melody with some rhythm.
My take is that rap has potential. Even if it’s just poetry to a sound track. Would we be complaining about rap if it were about the Large Hadron Collider rather than bragging, shooting cops. doing drugs, bling, and the delicate art of ho management?
Would we be complaining about rap if it were about the Large Hadron Collider rather than bragging, shooting cops. doing drugs, bling, and the delicate art of ho management?
We (or at least I) wouldn’t be complaining about the verbal content, but my complaints about it as music would be unchanged. I find it hideous to listen to, even if I can’t understand the words (and often, I can’t, not that I work hard to make the attempt, because I generally just want the noise to stop as soon as possible, which often entails leaving my present location if I can).
…and no, wind chimes are not music, if no one plays them except the wind. It may be a pleasant sound, but it is not music. Your definition of music seems so expansive as to encompass almost any acoustic event.
Rand, I hope (when you have time) you click on Karl’s link – the musical content isn’t completely clear for the first 30 seconds to the first minute, but I think it is quite catchy and fun.
Karl, I obviously really enjoyed Apinekat’s Large Hadron Rap, and it inspired me to read more about the LHCb.
Maybe if/when I get my sound card working.
But probably not. Life is too short, and there’s too much good music out there, to listen to rap, even about hadron colliders.
…and no, wind chimes are not music, if no one plays them except the wind. It may be a pleasant sound, but it is not music. Your definition of music seems so expansive as to encompass almost any acoustic event.
No one plays wind chimes except the person who put the chimes out and occasionally when someone rattles them. And I think an expansive definition of music is more appropriate.
Here’s a more extreme example, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (a youtube version). A lot of its strength is in its abuse of the above three concepts.
No one plays wind chimes except the person who put the chimes out and occasionally when someone rattles them.
I’m quite confident that there are people who have made deliberate music on wind chimes, and not just “rattled” them, or let the wind make random noises.
And I think an expansive definition of music is more appropriate.
And obviously, I disagree. It may be interesting, it may even be pleasant to listen to (I love the sound of the wind soughing through pines) but it is not music. Music is a human creation.
Ok Rand, what makes wind chimes and the sounds they make not a human creation?
The wind chimes are a human creation. The sound they make is music only if consciously controlled by a human to make an intended sound. Letting nature take over does not make it music in the sense under discussion.
Hmm. I used to think disco was the lamest, most pathetic “music” genre out there. Then along came rap.
Seriously, rap may have had potential back in the Grandmaster Flash days but it long since slid down into the gutter, where its fans seem content for it to stay. The other day I started listening to one of the dance channels on my cable, which was playing disco — something or other by Gloria Gaynor — and I thought to myself “you know, this stuff could be catchy.” Anyway, I think black people lost their style back in the 80s, around the time Michael Jackson started wearing that one glove, and they’ve never gotten it back. I think I’ll go rent out the original Shaft (not the lousy remake) and look for some Barry White songs on Rhapsody.
The last rap artist I actually listened to was probably MC Hammer. That LHC rap reminds me of MC Hawking.
I listen to eurodance (e.g. Lasgo). So sue me.
Most “rap” is purchased by white teens.
Please stop it. There are hundreds of years of very advanced western classical music to enjoy. It’s all so accessible on YouTube. Start with this guy’s channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/0OoFACUoO0
Yeah Andy that’s true, but yo, yo, yo, they walk, talk, dress and “hear” like black kids.
One thing remarkable about Western classical music is the absence of percussion. Does a string quartet have a trap set? I think not.
OK, the Western symphony orchestra has a percussion section, but it does not dominate the music, and the symphony orchestra probably marks the “beginning of the end” of classical music anyway.
The other thing I find remarkable is that there is one grocery store (Metcalf’s Sentry Hilldale, Madison, Wisconsin), that plays classical “Muzak” on its speakers. And I don’t mean “Top 40” classical by the usual suspect of performers. I mean sensitive performances, flute sonatas played on the 1-key (Baroque) flute by the “Belgian Baroque Mafia” and the like.
Perhaps less remarkable is that I once commented favorably to a checkout clerk about the music and I was told the staff hated it. Currently, the music is only heard at reduced volume in the new expansion part of the store where the checkout clerks cannot hear it.
I mentioned this to my music teacher (Baroque flute, of course, the ultimate “geek” instrument apart from the double reeds of the Renaissance period) who chuckled that someone nowadays would use chamber music for its intended function as background music.
The height of classical music was represented by people like Frederick the Great, who had everyone from C P E Bach to Joachim Quantz on retainer, and took lessons on (what else, the Baroque flute, the ultimate geek instrument) when not off fighting one or another war. So classical music was the result of the rich and powerful paying musicians to provide background to whatever the rich and powerful spent their day on. The less rich and powerful settled for whatever the folk music was of the day.
This business of sitting down in a mass audience for a concert and keeping silent and clapping at the right times is a middle class “ariviste” affectation, attempting to cultivate a taste and respect for something the rich and powerful in a way took for granted. Kind of like the background music at shopping malls.
The most interesting thing I ever read about “the drug problem” was in this book on the subject, and I read it at “the standing library” and don’t even remember author and title, which offered perhaps the most insightful explanation why the people who “do drugs” indeed “do drugs.”
The speculation was that recreational drugs are like classical music: an acquired taste.
I think most of us have to admit that unless someone has listened to a lot of classical music and perhaps taken music lessons or attended “master classes” where you watch university students take music lessons for musicians of repute, a person has no idea what classical music is communicating and find it as boring as listening to Qadaffi’s UN speech. With some exposure and music education, one gets to learn the idioms and “riffs” of classical music and get to enjoy it.
The suggestion is that recreational drugs are by necessity part of a “drug culture” in that the average person taking the average recreational drug would find themselves “buzzed” or their state of awareness altered in some way, but they would be nonplussed as to what is supposed to be so “fun” about that drug. To enjoy recreational drugs, one needs to be among experienced people who aculturate you about what you are supposed to experience with such drugs. This is supposed to have policy implications, if we knew what they were. They have parental upbringing implications — know who your kids are hanging out with.
I tend to agree with this view. I was given Codeine for post operative recovery from wisdom teeth extraction, and my med student pal came over to keep me company and explain to me what it was that I was supposed to be experiencing. Once he explained it too me, I though, hey this stuff is indeed pretty mellow, and I can see how a person could get addicted, and I flushed my prescription down the toilet as soon as I was feeling a little better so as to “not get hooked.” If he hadn’t stopped over, I wouldn’t have known what the fuss was about with “pills.”
So maybe we can yet “turn on” people to the right music.
You people are so ridiculous. Do you realize that there are POSITIVE rap scenes out there, such as the one set up in Minneapolis (Rhymesayers)? You’re all stupid and ignorant. Quit making remarks about “rap” when there’s a hell of a lot more rap than the Lil Wayne shit you hear on the radio.