Rapping Up the Competition

Rapping Up the Competition

Jack Berens, Co-editor

Many people believe rap music to be vulgar, uninspiring, and generic.  They find rappers to be pitiful role models with off-putting messages.  This assessment couldn’t be further from the truth.  In general, rap music and rappers provide a complete, thoughtful narrative.  Rap music is bound to musical experimentation, lyrical honesty, and personal authenticity.

Some people assert that rappers’ lyrics are unnecessarily tasteless while others hold that the lyrics are infused with the truth.  Profanities are laced into many popular rappers’ lyrics, but they illustrate the often significant, torturous, and emotional times in rappers’ lives. Instead of employing profanities to appear rebellious, rappers often use such a technique to establish themselves as genuine because their audience believes such language to be powerful. As such, rappers construct an honest and authentic reputation with listeners. Unlike classical music or even heavy metal, rap is a genre where there is no set sound.  Classical music is overwhelmingly soothing and instrument based, and heavy metal typically leans on piercingly loud guitar play. However, rap music may feature incredibly quick flows (deliveries of lyrics) or there may be long gaps of silence between verses. Also, rap music can feature different instruments and beats, or a song may have few to no accompaniments for the rapper. One song by a rapper may involve different beats and instruments with polished lyrics while his or her next song may sound like he/she is freestyling alone in an empty room.

Rap is versatile, and this versatility is beloved by rap music fans. Freedom to use whatever language and techniques in music, along with the freedom to express whatever pent-up emotions they have without hesitation, makes rap music a treasured music genre across the world.