I used to think rap was all crap. Then I discovered that it's only about 95% crap, just like every other music or general entertainment form out there. It seems to me that the difference is that most rap listeners don't seem to employ any sort of discernment at all. They'll like anything as long as if fits into a general category, regardless of its quality or whether it's already been done a thousand times before. (BTW, I see this same paradigm in the anime category as well.)

There are a number of rap artists out there that are/were phenomenal. While I dislike Eminem, I'm starting to recognize that he might be one of them. The Beastie Boys were, too, not because of their rapping abilities, but because of the other stuff they brought to it -- the punk and the balls-to-the-wall sampling. Run-DMC were very cool, too (despite the fact that I blame them for Aerosmith's renewed career). Digital Underground, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest are all worth listening to, even if you don't otherwise like rap (I'm sure you rap-liking folks can see right through my bias). And even some of the acts that ended up spawning todays' mostly-crap ``gangsta'' rap were good, especially Public Enemy. Not to mention uber-classics like Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash, if you like funk, like I do.

Which brings me to why I really hate rap. There is no space left for the rest of the (traditionally) black music community. The only other black music out there is what one of my (black) friends refers to as SBM (Sentimental Black Music) -- you know, the Luther Vandross/Barry White-type acts. Where's the funk? For god's sake, George Clinton hasn't released an album in six years. And the rest of the more standard R&B-type acts? Nowhere to be seen.

I don't really hate rap. But I hate the fact that it destroyed everything else.