You’ll notice that I say respect rather than like. Although I certainly love rap, I am not so delusional that I think that this is possible for everyone, but at the same time I plead with you to abandon some of your prejudices so that you may at least appreciate some of the intricate skills, creativity and genius involved in a great deal of rap.

It seems like any time I ask a fellow college student out here in the Midwest what music they listen to, the answer I get is invariably something like “I like everything except country and rap.”

I feel like the reasons for this have little to do with rap’s actual merits and are mostly just a result of experiences with abysmally bad mainstream rap.  Rap is like any other genre in that there is good rap and bad rap; unfortunately, unlike most other genres much of the good stuff is all underground. Saying that may sound pretentious, but with the exception of a few artists like Aesop Rock, Atmosphere and Wu-Tang it is shockingly true. To really find most of the good stuff you have to plug yourself into the community or at least do high amounts of internet research which is something very few people consider doing. Given the level of artistry in mainstream rap, does not seem unreasonable.

There are two features of rap that I consider to be unique among musical genres. One is the high amount of sampling that is in rap.  Although other genres like rock have certainly begun to blend lines between their music and others, in rap this is done almost exclusively. Rather than having a band, hip-hop tends to have what are called producers. These are people who create and blend the music and vocals that will be used to complement the artist rapping. What is interesting about this is the sheer diversity that has developed. I have heard hip-hop that incorporates sophisticated and broad global music. I have heard songs incorporating classical guitar from Andres Segovia or dukduk flute music by the Azerbaijani flautist Djivan Gasparyan. This diversity has led to huge levels of diversity in the styles and vocals of artists, allowing them essentially to create whatever sub-genre in hip-hop they feel like pioneering.

The second, and probably more important, feature is the prominence of the lyrics themselves.  At its heart I truly believe that rap can and should be poetry set to a beat. In other genres the vocals exist either to collaborate with or complement the music itself, whereas in rap the point of the background music is to highlight the lyrics. Unfortunately many untalented artists seem to use the prominence of these vocals purely to shock the audience. Why? Because sex, drugs and violence sell.

This is exactly why most mainstream rap is so terrible right now, because the people who are mainstream tend to be the people willing to compromise the integrity of their craft to sell music.

I will acknowledge that many people avoid listening to rap because they feel like there is a dimension of race to it. To some it seems like another case of white appropriation of African-American culture, much like what was done to rock. To me the simple answer is that rap is an art. It was inevitable that it would find a larger audience. Trying to stop it achieving wider popularity would have been like trying to hide DaVinci or Mozart. The popularity of rap was simply going to happen.  Although in some cases we do see white kids trying selfishly to create a new identity for themselves. I can assure you that not all of us are like that. We simply see something beautiful and enjoy it.

Why good rap has for the most part remained underground only available to people who actively seek it is still rather a mystery to me. I can’t tell you how many times I have listened to an artist and just about shouted into the air at the ridiculousness that his or her craft has not been more widely appreciated. My guess is that in the future we will see this subculture rise into more prominence and acceptance just the way indie music has.

There are those of us who love either indie or underground hip-hop who would protest against this music becoming more accepted, but frankly I find their pleas to be a vanity.

Music is not intended to be hoarded in a dark room just so someone can feel self-satisfied and unique. If anything it is far more admirable to attempt to draw more people to our musical cultures to gain more talent pools and constructive critics.  So in that vein I will conclude by saying that if any of you six people reading this decide you would like to hear about some quality groups, feel free to ask me.