I absolutely love rap. I love the music, the artists, the sound and the culture behind it all. Here is a compilation of 10 reasons why.
1) Rap doesn’t care if you like it or not. If you love it, great. If you hate it, that’s fine, too.
Lyric: “If you don’t like me, f*ck it. I’ll be by myself.
Spend all this time for you to say I’m fine.
I really should have spent it trying to find myself.”
Big Sean (feature with Chance the Rapper)
2) Rap is raw, honest and relative. Rap may dip into the shallow end of the music pool every now and then, as all genres can, but music is a gift an artist decides to share with the world. Rappers are no different. They are telling us their story.
Lyric: “Your cup filled up,
your heart empty,
everything’s not enough.”
Towkio
3) Say what you want, but it is poetry. Hardships, love, life all depicted through words. The imagery is incredible.
Lyric: “This slang that I speak don’t change that I’m deep.”
J.Cole
4) It’s all about the lyrics! Words. Rap emphasizes that melody never hurt, but it isn’t the main focus. Often enough rappers use the lyrics in a song to praise family, friends and supporters who have helped them along the way. Rap has a strong tendency to promote loyalty.
Lyric: “I’m still at my old church,
Only ever sold merch.
Grandma say I’m Kosher,
Momma say I’m culture.”
Chance the Rapper
5) You don’t always have to identify with the content of the songs. That isn’t the point. Not everyone walks the same path, but being able to experience another person’s life through music is powerful to say the least. Plenty of people strive to support diversity and want to have an open-mind, well rap can help you get there. Just listen.
Lyric: “Considered a fool cause I dropped out of high school,
Stereotypes of a black male, misunderstood.
And it’s still all good.”
The Notorious B.I.G.
6) ALL THE FEATURES. You never know which one of your favorite music artists are going to collab with your favorite rapper. Rap can flow with almost any voice or sound, which is a huge reason collaborations in the genre are incredible and can help rap transcend the limitations put on music genres.
Lyric: “In my dark times, I’ll be going back to these streets.
Promising everything I do not mean.”
The Weeknd (featuring Ed Sheeran)
7) The beats are indescribable and can match any mood or emotion. If I want to get my homework done, there’s a playlist for that. If I’m reading and it’s a quiet night, I definitely have a chill vibes playlist. Car jams are a must, and rap fits into that, too.
Lyric: “If time is money, I need a loan.
But regardless I always keep keepin’ on.”
G-Eazy
8) I really respect that the majority of rap songs embody a sense of working hard to reach a goal. They depict overcoming a form of adversity or other obstacles in order to be successful.
Lyric: “Now the teamwork make the dream work…
How you ‘finna’ see the clouds,
If you never seen dirt.”
Sulaiman (feature with Chance the Rapper)
9) Rap appeals to my taste in music. I don’t like it because I think it makes me seem cool or because everyone else does. Most of my friends don’t enjoy it like I do, anyway. Everybody is different and our ears like different things.
Lyric: “Look at where we come from.
We are what we run from.
We are why we smoke some.
So numb, so numb.”
Macklemore
10) Refer back to reason number 1.
Lyric: “They told me I was awful.
That sh*t did not phase me.”
Childish Gambino
That’s all. I hope you’ve enjoyed my list and taken adavantage of the links above! Thanks for reading!
*Disclaimer: Of course, there are far more songs and artists in the genre than the ones I listed here. I just didn’t have the time to list out all of the greats, at least not in this blog post.*