Author’s Note: After a couple revisions I decided that the intro and conclusion might’ve been the weaker parts of the essay, while the body is the strongest. I decided not to end the essay with a quote. I had trouble finding one that really worked and I didn’t want to force the quote so I scrapped the idea. I’m pretty pleased with the final product.
I’m a white kid with glasses from the small town of Blair, Nebraska, and I Believe in Rap. No one would guess my love for the genre, but I believe in what rap stands for, not what it looks like. Rap extends beyond race and social class. Rap isn’t specific to any type of person; it can be enjoyed by anyone of any background.
My fascination with rap started when I was about 14. I was a drummer my whole life and because of this I was first hooked to the genre through the beat and rhythmic aspects (which is 50% of rap). After I heard hip hop for the first time I instantly bobbed my head to the low bass and clap of the snare. One of the first beats I immediately clicked with was “Palace” by A$AP Rocky. On this track, A$AP raps over a sick slow-jam beat accompanied by choral chants. Behind that I heard the complexities of musical production and mixing. After the beat I started hearing the intricacies of ‘flow’ and variances in style between different origins of cities.
Soon after, I started noticing the poetry and began to connect with the lyrics, lyrics dealing with themes ranging from ‘girl problems’ to ‘carpe diem.’ Within these words I found comfort and fascination. My interest wasn’t with the auto-tuned rappers who talked about the clubs and such, but with the lyricists who rapped about real life and its ups and downs. That rap meant something; it was genuine. There was emotion and sentiment within the poems.
One lyric that recently left an impression on me by Kendrick Lamar was “You know the reason, but still will never know my life/ Kendrick, a.k.a. Compton’s human sacrifice.” When breaking this lyric down I found a dualistic meaning. At the end of the Kendrick line, he called himself “Compton’s human sacrifice” where in a negative sense explained how Compton is in need, but also on a lighter note he clarified how he will be its savior and voice the troubles of this desperate city. It was lines like these that brought me to the genre, poems that could be unraveled to show a deeper connotation.
I haven’t grown up in the projects or gone to jail like some rappers, but I have experienced the phenomena known as “being a teenager,” high school, and this thing called life. It gets a bad rap (yes, pun intended), but I believe rap is a valid art form in which I found self-discovery and rappers I could connect to even though we came from two very different places.