Top Ten Reasons Why Rap is better than Your Favorite Genre of Music



1) Sampling There is no other genre that samples other music as much as rap music does. Not only does rap sample itself in numerous cases, it finds ways to sample seemingly every single other genre. There have been classical, jazz, country, folk, rock samples and more in the past decade. What other genre do you know that can give you a taste of another genre and still get the point across?



2) Poetic Devices/Lyricism One of the main things that separates rap from other genres is the lyrics. There arent many, if any, genres where evaluators use the term lyricism to describe what is being said. Most of the times people just judge the lyrics, and there isnt much depth to it. Rappers on the other hands use metaphors, similes, alliterations, end rhymes and so many more poetic devices that make the music fun and exciting for the listener. Theres very few songs outside of rap that really make me actively think about a line like a great rap metaphor will do.



3) Production The complexity of producing is also an element that makes rap stand out above the crowd. Most genres consist of bands, with more than one person using their skills on an instrument to come together and make a sound. Producing on the only hand oftentimes just involves one or two individuals sitting down and creating all the music for a song themselves. A producer can spend days on getting just the snare to sound right. Its a skill that is truly unique to the art that is rap.



4) Collaborations It seems almost every day a new rap song comes out with a feature on it. Rappers embrace working with other artists, and use it to their advantage. There are few rock and country bands that use more than one singer in their music. You dont get near as many featured artists on genres other than rap. This gives the listener a fresh voice to hear and a new take on the beat that wouldnt have been possible otherwise.



5) Remixes Rap has invented and reinvented the remix on many occasions. What started out as adding a verse from a new artist onto your song has now turned into the ever-popular freestyle over another artists beat. Rappers have found a way to take a song with the same beat (sometimes a different one) and extend their musical thoughts to give the song a new meaning. Very seldom do we ever see this happening in other genres, except for covers of songs that just recreate something exactly the same.



6) Beef/Diss Tracks Rap has found a sort of way of creating rivals between similar artists. This could be credited to the street mentality many rappers have from their young lives, but either way it has become an exciting part of the current music. Rappers dissing each other on tracks provides not only entertainment for listeners, but a buzz that can help attempt to raise their album sales (see one Rick Ross).



7) Freestyling Going along with the competitive nature of the diss track is the competition found in freestyle battles. Sure other genres participate in spur of the moment musical composition, just look at soloing in rock. Seldom; however, does this turn itself into a fierce competition and a sport. Freestyle battling has always been a huge part of rap, and provides a fun way of judging artists directly against each other to crown a winner.



8 ) Genre Switching Feel free to hate on Lil Wayne in response to this bullet, because I will join you. Whether you agree with Wayne and Kanyes ideas to try and switch genres (I do not), you have to respect their musical abilities. There arent a lot of artists in any genre that find the ability to do this, but lately in rap its been exploding.



9) Mixtapes What other genre provides you will free CDs? Ive been hard pressed to find any, not counting Radioheads new free CD. Every day the hip hop community is given a multitude of mixtapes to listen to and take in, without paying a cent. Take one look at DatPiff and you will see hundreds of free musical contributions to you every single day. You wont hear a rock fan saying Man that new Metallica mixtape is sick! Its as good as a CD!



10) Culture Finally, rap has become a culture. Everyone reading this has been immersed into the culture that is hip hop. No other genre has effectively created a community, a sort of family, of listeners and artists that rap has. I am proud to have the culture of rap be a huge part of my life, and I dont see other genres creating that same feeling.


+REP?