by Kevin Cardin

Created on: April 22, 2008

RAP MUSIC'S CONTRIBUTION

Vast repertoires of condemnation are often directed at rap music in today's society. For instance, many rappers refer to women as "bitches" and "ho's", or the lyrics glorify selling drugs and promote gun violence. The criticism is virtually endless.
However, one of greatest contributions rap has offered America is often overlooked. Rap music has, perhaps unintentionally, aided in minimizing the gap between races.

Back in the mid and early eighties, the majority of white kids and young adults listened exclusively to rock, heavy metal, punk, or the other types of music that were deemed white music. At that time, rap was just beginning to emerge as a definitive style of music, and was listened to predominantly by inner city black youth. This status quo was maintained for the majority of the eighties.
But during that time, the bridge between rock and rap was beginning to form. Along that road, rock legend Aerosmith was looking for a new hit to trigger a comeback, and so in 1986 they teamed with pioneering rap group Run DMC to collaborate on a revised version of Aerosmith's 1975 hit song "Walk This Way." This duet had a startling effect on the music community as a whole, as even dedicated rock and metal fans who had never listened to a verse of rap were saying, "Yeah, that's cool."
The two entities known as rock and rap were now slowly but surely beginning to drift toward a merger of the distinctively different musical styles. By the mid nineties, rappers began joining rock and heavy metal groups onstage regularly, and today an entirely new genre of music has been created out of the two seemingly different styles. Commonly dubbed new metal, this particular type of music often combines the vocal skill of rapping performed over shredding guitar riffs and monstrous baselines.
And with this movement in music came a larger movement outside the music community. White and black music lovers begin to appreciate each other's style of music, and gained a greater understanding of the respective cultures. So while rap music may not have changed the world entirely for the better, it has, without a doubt, helped a generation of racially diverse kids find common ground.

The Standard Times

Learn more about this author, Kevin Cardin.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.