Comments on: Rap as News or Art?

By: Andrzej

Andrzej — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:15:00 +0000

Great comment!

By: Azmentl

Azmentl — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 02:57:00 +0000

I thought that rap had kind of Balkanized into mainstream pieces that Transcend, to some extent, the genesis of rap culture, and pieces that remain as paens to the ghetto’s trials. In that way, the works that shed the unpalatable rawness have almost become a voyeuristic vein of rap whereby privileged or unschooled listeners indulge their repressed rage by listening to the revolutionary and counter-autharitarian spirit, often a pulse they are otherwise afraid to express. In this view, from the reception not the expression, the music is as subversive in piercing the boundaries that restrain political attempts to reach beyond the typical (and often patronizing) class of Democratic allies into the realm of the normally politically inattentive social strata through youth.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:30:00 +0000

thanks for this information—- it will help going forward

By: Michael Corey

Michael Corey — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:36:00 +0000

KEXP in Seattle maintains a terrific music archive which is a useful resource. In it, there are about 1340 entires which relate to Rap. It includes both commentaries and free access to music. http://kexp.org/search/search.aspx?cx=005196529597108582349%3Afuytrvag5y8&client=google-csbe&output=xml_no_dtd&gl=us&num=20&q=rap&start=0. This link works or just go to http://www.kexp.org, enter the website and type “rap” into their search box.

By: Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Jeffrey C. Goldfarb — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:04:00 +0000

We’ll post the next post by Aslanian, at the beginning of next week.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:58:00 +0000

Insightful and provocative article. I am still chewing on it, and will need to chew some more before I comment further. I’m looking forward to the author’s post on the maturity of rap – as Jay-Z has said “we have to stop viewing it as a young man’s sport and view it as music, as a serious art form. In order to do that we have to grow it, we have to tackle mature subjects. You can’t talk about the same things you talked about when you were 20, 30-years-old.”

By: Raford

Raford — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:06:00 +0000

Excellent analysis of the evolution of rap. I especially appreciated the reminder that rock-n-roll has misogynist roots so, it’s nothing new in rap.

“we don’t know how to square the anger with the maturity.” Outstanding!

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Great points, very informative – it will be interesting to see the new chapter of Rap or will it be called ‘Rap’? And who will the ‘legends’?

By: Victor

Victor — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:49:00 +0000

” [I]ts critical reception is still racist.” Outstanding point. Would love you to dissect that more.

By: Lisa Aslanian

Lisa Aslanian — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:38:00 +0000

I think if lyrics and music connect to a larger truth (and there are a lot of larger societal truths in slaughter houses) it does its’ job as art— or at least one of its’ jobs by making a usually unseen reality seen.