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For my Advanced Composition class, we have to write a paper about a genre of music, an artist within that genre, and then a song by that artist. I chose "How Much a Dollar Cost" by Kendrick Lamar, which is rap obviously, although I almost chose "Sing About Me" by Kendrick. I felt like the message behind "How Much a Dollar Cost" would be more understandable and more appreciated by the teacher and other kids in the class who don't listen to rap.

Anyway, for part of the paper we have to describe the genre of music that we picked, the artist, and the song. I picked this song because I thought it'd be easy to describe the message behind it, but I think I'd have a little bit tougher of a time describing Kendrick. And I really struggled trying to describe the genre of rap as a whole. This is why I'm coming to you guys, because I know there are some good writers here. Anyone have some suggestions as to how to describe rap music and/or Kendrick Lamar's music?

thanks

As probably the only person here who lived in the 80s--and doesn't despise rap--I'm going to give what's probably an older persons description of the genre.

(Note: I am completely unfamiliar with Kendrick's music.)

Rap emerged in the late 1970s as one of the three pillars of the hip-hop cultural movement.
Break dancing, graffiti art, and rapping were major forms of expression at the time, perhaps most famously in New York City.
There is a fictional movie called "Beat Street" that was filmed in that very time period which is pretty good. There's another movie called "Crush Groove" that's ok. In the blacksploitation film "Dolemite", the protagonist performs one or two raps, although today we wouldn't likely be bumping those performances in our trunks.
Rapping was often performed as a verbal sparring match between two opposing emcees.
These rappers would be accompanied by music provided by a DJ, who would typically be sampling pre existent music found on vinyl records from many different genres.
Spoken word poetry by poets such as Iceberg Slim played a huge part in influencing many early rappers.

In this track by Kool Keith I think he's trying to capture that era, and names many of the heavyweights from that time. https://open.spotify.com/track/3mmMAyuUnsn1JqFIKUE31n

I'll help, and partially cover for AOW:

Horns, that rapid drum tapping thing, my n-word, n-word, drugs, weed, guns, money, bitches, pussy, pussy ass bitches, bitch ass n-word, shawty, saying the same thing over and over to fill up space, simple sentences that have no context, saying the same thing over and over to fill up space, blat blat, pussy shit, porsche

Rap (or hip-hop) is a very complex genre with dozens of sub-genres. These include Southern hip hop/trap, West Coast hip hop, East Coast hip hop, conscious rap, jazz rap, and so on. Kendrick Lamar would be a good example of an artist trying to bring a jazz influence into his music especially with his latest projects To Pimp a Butterfly and untitled unmastered. which both feature heavy jazz/funk influences (including a collab with funk legend George Clinton) but he does feature a wide range of influences including West Coast hip hop (which makes sense since he's from California).

It's also important to know that the hip-hop culture is not just about the music but is actually made up of four distinct parts: MCs/rapping, DJs/producing, breakdancing, and graffiti artists.

I could write more but I gotta go, let me know if you have any specific questions!

The first rap ever written was Adolf Hitler's will, which he wrote before committing suicide in his bunker in 1945. The Soviets later discovered it and used it as a threat to the United States until the 90's, when it was then confiscated by the Americans, who divided the paper between the East Coast and the West Coast. Some popular African-American rappers were then shot as part of an ongoing conflict between the two Coasts. Because their killers were never caught, it is believed that the government set up their deaths in order to resolve the conflict. The conflict was eventually settled and rap is still popular today, although the quality of both the lyrics and beefs have gone down noticeably.

Trolls gonna troll.

Mickey Mantle drank grain alcohol so much it literally killed him.
To overcome his self imposed stupors, he used amphetamines.
Mickey was a womanizer, and brought both his mistress and his wife to his HOF induction.
What a great guy. A hero, really.
He also kept his hair cut short and shaved every day.

^lolfake

You could also make the claim that Osama Bin Laden and John Wayne Gacy were American Rap Heroes too. Timothy McVeigh is my favorite rapper from the 90's.

Awesome point by dusty.

also thanks to dusty and agentp for providing legitimate answers

Kendrick Lamar is more than your average rapper. Kendrick Lamar puts meaning into every single one of his songs. For example, the song "u" is based off of Kendrick's experiences with a friend who didn't stay faithful to him. Kendrick also uses his songs as a form of social criticism. "The Blacker the Berry" is about the hypocrisy of the gang community when they cry about an innocent black teen getting gunned down, but are doing the same thing on a daily basis. For example, the line "So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street, when gang banging made me kill a n***** blacker than me, hypocrite!" Another example is arguably his most well known song, "Swimming Pools (Drank)" where Kendrick points out that we live in a society that loves to indulge itself in alcohol. Lamar says that too many are heavy drinkers who do not drink casually due to pressure from outside forces. He says that rappers tend to over-glorify alcohol as a great thing. Kendrick also uses this song to describe his personal experience with alcohol with the line, "Now I done grew up with some people living their life in bottles". This line shows us that Kendrick was surrounded by many alcoholics while growing up in Compton, California. Lamar knows the negative effects of alcohol on his family members' lives and is determined to stay away from the pressure of alcohol put on him by other members of the rap community. As AgentP mentioned, Lamar definitely has brought in jazz music to his songs. Some songs include "Alright" and "Wesley's Theory".

Hope that helped

I totally agree GoTwins, I'm really excited to get into the part where we have to break down a song, I was just struggling with the beginning of the essay which was describing rap music as a whole. It's also sort of hard to explain what makes a rapper great to someone who doesn't listen to rap music.

I understand not liking it, but I don't get how people don't even respect what Kendrick is doing. The story and presentation throughout Good Kid Maad City is amazing, and songs like The Blacker the Berry and How Much A Dollar Cost are incredibly thought provoking.

Ahhh ok, I'd basically say something about rappers who put meaning into their music (Kendrick, J. Cole, Logic, etc.) rather than some rappers who rap about the same thing. (Pu$$y, money, weed)

Words basically no one understands. Just sound with no meaning. Like Surface By Aero Chord

Lol that song's EDM.

most songs are simply:
poetry + music + beat

It can be bad poetry, terrible poetry. It can be spoken or sung. Spoken word is usually different, rarely over music.

Rap is like:
spoken word + beat

The spoken word can flow like poetry - rhyme schemes, stanzas, etc. Or it can just be freeform, like stream of consciousness poetry. It's hard to throw rap in as 'poetry' since most people have this view of poetry that precludes excessive swearing and comparing dick sizes and such - but hey, to each their own.

BUT rap can feature (hah!) all kinds of other things:
- real musicians
- singing (usually the hook, sung by someone else)
- beatboxing
- random crap sounds (rooster crowing, telephone ringing, beeps/boops, etc)

You can't put down rap entirely, when some guys are putting in thought and meaning, and some are even injecting real musicianship (or at least, actual musicians). If you have a dude like Kamasi Washington playing on your album, there might be something good about it. Some rap is a true artistic product and could/should be respected as such. A lot of out-of-touch mayo boys will talk about 'old school rap' as being better than today, but it was slower and sounds silly now - "I'm gonna go down to the STORE, to buy a hat for twelve forty FOUR". Was it better? Ehh. Maybe less inherently negative.

The problem is that the "music" industry as a whole is doing to rap what it was doing with pop acts and boy bands before it. It's gone from a legitimate expression to something that is soaked with 90-95% 'product'. Over the years it became more and more about image (money/cars/tattoos/guns/drugs/toughness), it was pushed more and more into the mainstream, and more and more kids that could rhyme a few simple words were signed to contracts, put in a booth, and given computer-generated beats (complete with annoying sounds and "hooks" sung by actual singers) and ghost-written lyrics they could rap, while they spent their time being tattooed, working out, coming up with names that involve dollar signs or "Lil" or animals, and cultivating a 'persona'.

Sadly, it's largely gone from a cross between poetry and music, to the musical equivalent of WWE - a scripted, marketed product that the kiddies are eating up. Many of today's rap products can't sing a note and don't really have any musical abilities. Kendrick is an exception for this reason - while his message may not resonate with most people, and track names like 'This Dick Ain't Free' don't exactly lead you to think there's a lot of musical/artistic pleasure to be derived from it, hey, a lot of kids have grown up with rap being piped into their ears for 10-15 years…so at least it's this and not Lil Wayne masterful pieces like "Mah Drank".

From a music-wide perspective, looking at bluegrass and classical and opera and pop and metal and progressive, rap is clearly and easily the "least musical." A given rap selection is the least likely to feature real musicians, or real sung notes. It's least likely to embrace odd timings, and most likely to feature repetition ad nauseum (miiiight be tied with bad current pop for that honor). It 'samples' the most heavily - a huuuge number of rap tunes rely on previous rap tunes, or old vocals, or old slices of tunes to make a new/rehashed product. It's also the most likely to feature immature lyrical content glorifying oneself or putting down others, swearing, sex, and other stuff that will light a 14 year old's ears up. It takes the absolute least amount of talent to get into production-wise, and the least amount of effort and comprehension to listen to.

If rap were food, it would be McDonalds. It's widely available, marketed hard, and it tastes good to an unrefined palate, but if you spend your life focusing on it and excluding other genres, you are just missing out on deeper, richer experiences (for your ears). If you are picky about it and avoid the mass-produced talentless hoarde in favor of some diamonds, good for you. But if you are all about it, all day every day, to the exclusion of larger talent pools and more phenominal musicianship, vocal abilities, and songwriting that will stand the test of time - then you're just eating McNuggets all day, man. Good for you, if that's what you want.

(Classical is like, broccoli, in this metaphor)