Wow, I just read through all these messages and I am appalled at the amount of racism and hate within these messages alone. Yes, there is some hate and "bad stuff" in rap music...but honestly I listen to rap all the time and I don't hear it. I'm always hearing very positive uplifting messages that seem to transcend race, colour, sex...etc... One good comment on here was "why are we comparing rap to blues?" There are hate messages in all types of music. I grew up in an Irish household listening to recordings and singing IRA rebel tunes....you don't see me bombing anything. Of course, there is a vital difference if there are children idolizing young rap musicians who are perpetuating hate messages..whether they be in rap, folk music, rock...or any genre. We should make it more of an issue to educate "our children"(in the universal sense) about vilonce, drugs, etc.... AND THEN GETTING TO MY POINT....this is no reason to dismiss a whole genre of music. I'm a feminist musicologist who has specialized in 19th century symphonic music but I have done some anaylsis of rap. I find rap to be very complex....has anyone tried to rap??? It is not an easy thing to do....and many of these artists do it extemperaneously!! Without pontificating....I find that rap allows the listener to take in a valid message that is often quite complexly rhymed and then there is usually some sort of one line melody or chorus which re-empasizes their point. It gives a voice to many communities who wouldn't normally get to express their opinions. Perhaps, not everyone can appreciate rap however it is no reason to dismiss a genre...AND YES...there is a very obvious correlation between blues and rap....and it continues on....anyone here like Acid Jazz?? It is a wonderful mix of hip hop, jazz, rap...etc... Anyone who finds that what I have to say is even remotely interesting should check out works by the scholar bell hooks. She has some wonderful things to say about black culture and aesthetics. Thanks for reading this. Matthew Adams