Since "rap" only describes the vocal style it's pretty hard to make blanket statements about the music. There are groups like the Roots who are straight up bands that play regular instruments. There are people like Dizzee Rascal (yeah, yeah, I know he's grime, he raps damnit) who compose original music electronically. There are people like Outkast who are multi-instumentalists who play live instruments, compose electronically and sample depending on what they're doing. There are groups like Dalek who sample almost exclusively but do it in such an interesting way that they make the music completely their own.
All of it requires musical ability. Let me put it this way: I'm a musician who makes music that is both done on a laptop and performed on regular instruments and I almost never try to build songs out of long samples like some rap groups do. Why? Because it's an unbelievable pain in the ass to try to make it work well. It's far easier to play something on a regular instrument.
So in answer to your question: yes, they are musicians.
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