I'm not sure I understand the "while I'm trying to sleep" part of that metaphor. Do you only listen to music when you're drifting off? Are there not times when you're in the mood for something energetic as opposed to sleep-inducing?

This is so going to my signature.

What is the difference between rap and hip hop anyways?

I'm all ears, but typically it just hasn't been a genre that appeals to me, even in cases where I can tell there's a good deal of art to it.

That's just poetry spoken in a cadence. Not my definition of "music."

The background arrangement and refrain of that were actually pretty good. But the "singing" in the verses is just more typical rap stuff IMO.

I think one reason why it doesn't appeal to me is, lyrics have always been very unimportant to me. Rap seems to be a genre where the lyrics are the foremost point of interest in the song. I just can't get myself to care about, or pay attention to, all those words. For example, in the song above, in the verses, I found myself completely tuning out the "singing" once it became apparent to me there was going to be no melody, and I completely focused on the background arrangement. Then once the refrain/chorus kicked in, I suddenly paid attention to the singing because, suddenly, an actual melody emerged.

I can see the art to this, but once again, you just can't get me to pay attention to this guy talking to me without a melody. I find it annoying. I'm wanting to hear some notes, and while there's some semi-interesting stuff in the background, the guy lecturing at me is just a turn-off.

Well, if that's how you feel I don't think you'll ever like the genre. You might be better off just looking into some of the instrumentals from the big name producers. I just posted that acapella as a way to demonstrate there is more to it than talking.

Edit: Or maybe listen to some foreign rap where you can't understand wtf they are saying. When I do this the words act as an extra instrument and part of the beat. I'm sure other members can give you better suggestions than me in this area but I suppose it's worth a shot. Check this:


Idk, what else I could suggest to get you to enjoy it.

HipHop is a culture that includes rap. That's why you hear terms like Hip Hop Head or Hip Hop Music, aka someone who is all about the culture or the type of music that the culture listens to, respectively.

The culture consists mainly of the 4 elements: Breakdancing, MCing, Graf Writing, and DJing.

Here: Hip hop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Music, to me, is something I want to take me to another place. A guy lecturing me/yelling at me does not take me to another place, it sounds like my mother lecturing me for doing poorly on my report card, or something.

Makes no difference. In the other videos, I'm immediately tuning out the guys talking to me in English, so I'm not paying attention to what they're saying anyway. If it's in a language I don't understand, I'll just do the exact same thing.

BTW, since you mentioned music in other languages, here's an example of sort-of the reverse in action. About a dozen years ago a guy from Brazil on another of my internet hangout got me into some Brazilian music, particularly this band (actually a one-off project) called the Tribalistas. I really got into it, in particular the song below. Believe it or not, but I have actually memorized the words to this song (as best as I can make them out) even though I don't understand a word of it. This is what I mean when I say that lyrics aren't important to me - I don't even need to understand them, they could be gibberish for all I know but I don't care because I like the actual music part of it.

Ice Cube was definitely confrontational before Hollywood made him cuddly - West Coast rap in general was pretty in-your-face. As much as I love NWA, I can see where it would turn some people off. The intensity of it is part of it's charm. It's kind of the hard bop of rap. Not for turistas...

Your mother sounds like Ice Cube? Damn. :laughing:

For me, he's a pretty fantastic rapper, or at least he was in his heyday, and he definitely takes me to another place when I listen to him.

Y'know, now that you mention it, stuff like that Ice Cube tune does take me to another place - out of the room, as quickly as I can! :laughing: