Rapping

I WAS RAISED on a steady diet of classical music, mostly my own choice. Among my favorites were and still are "Bolero","The 1812 Overture", and "The Grand Canyon Suite" Throw in some adult contemporary easy listening on A.M.radio, which in the nineteen sixties still had music, but, thank the gods, very little if any conservative talk. "These Boots Are made For Walkin'", "Cast Your Fate To The Wind", "Ring of Fire". Yes, I liked some country, but that wore off by the time I reached high school. Then, Top 40 Rock n Roll took over. I became a Neil Diamond fanatic. Stones, Beatles, The Who, Zeppelin. The best advice I ever received about anything was about music appreciation, and came from my stodgy, stuffy but compassionate seventh grade music teacher,who adored Mozart. Some kid smart assingly asked him "Do you like the Beatles?", (this was 1967) in an obvious attempt to get under the man's skin. Only hippies liked the Beatles. I poised for an upbraiding, but he surprised us when he said: "I think its important to like a little bit of everything". To this day he remains among my favorite teachers, if only for that sage life changing advice, and every song, every piece of music I have ever loved I still love, including Johnny Cash. Fondly I recall the day when I was about eleven, for winning a transistor radio by calling the radio station and correctly identifying Mel Torme as the vocalist in "Cast Your Fate To the wind". Mother was proud, I could tell. Then, at some point in the late eighties or was it the late nineties I became aware of rap music, quite by accident, and hip hop. My question was and sill is: "What, precisely, is the difference between rap and hip hop? Or are they two words for the same thing? Anyone who can enlighten me will win a fifty seven year old transistor radio, without batteries...Like a majority of white people in my age category, I for years thought I hated rap-hip hop, despite a coupla flings with Eminem.(I gotta lotta growin' up to do. Yo! I gotta lotta throwin' up to spew). Then, National Public Radio descended from the airwaves, and lit my fire, (the Doors). Now I understand this: I am perfectly capable of becoming a hip hop rap fan. Terry Gross, perhaps the best interviewer on the planet, last week featured a week long series of interviews with hip hop rap artists on her excellent program "Frsh Air", in celebration of the fiftieth anniverary of the invention of hip hop at a party in the Bronx. I decided to give it a try, and soon became hooked. Her interviews featured Biggie Small, Jay Zee, and Cool El El Jay, or whatever his name is, and Shawn Puffy Combes; the biggest names in the genre. And there was a lotta talk about Biggie Small,and Tupac Shakur, both victims of gang related gun violence within six months of each other in 1995. Terry Gross made no effort to speak in some phoney ebonics accent; she's too professional for that. She maintained her cool Ivy League intellectual style, and let her guests do the ebonics, which to a limited extent they did. The rapore between the rappers and she was outstending, a perfect balanced mix of intellects. Perfect gentlemen all, honest,insightful, courteous, warm, and kindhearted, willing to share. They shared much, and I learned much, about hip hop and the people who create it. Most importantly I learned that there is a great deal more to it than bitches, ho's and gang violence. There is the bittersweet tenderness of unrequieted love, like in nearly all forms of music.There is a great deal of social commentary and criticism,, which is often lacking in other genres. And there is indeed a reason why the most successful rap artists have achieved great success;they are sll smarter than hell. Yo! Not only is Jay Zee extremely talented musically and verbally, but is a muh fuh-ing billionaire, through his record sales and 24 (twenty four!!!) grammies,and best of all, he has the good fortune to be married to Beyonce. (Some people have it all). Long story short, I now understand much more about the genre, where it came from, what it means. Jay Z went from dealing crack on the streets in Brooklyn in the mid eighties to making a fortune as the greatest hip hop rap artist of all time, by consensus. His interview with Terry Gross was riveting. His greatest revelation? That you can take the rapper out of the black ghetto, but you cannot take the black ghetto out of the rap artist. Upon cursory reflection, that is mere common sense, and true of everyone. Rap on, homie.