Today I was told “You listen to too much rap music.” What I heard, however, was “You listen to too much music.” Music has always been a significant part of my life, and I listen to all types of music. I will admit, I have been listening to a ton of trap music lately, but if you look through all the songs in my iTunes you’ll find an enormous variety, ranging from hip hop to '80s rock to indie bands to Disney songs. I listen to music basically every minute I possibly can. In the last year I have focused a great amount of my attention to rap and trap music. For a long time, I held the same idea about this genre most have: It’s not music. I’m not saying every song from this field that hits the top 20 list and plays on every radio station 15 times a day are all gems, but its entirely too general to hate an entire category of music because of a stigma or misunderstanding of the message. I’m here to break some of those stigmas because I love rap and I think everyone else should too. Sometimes you just need trap music in your life…
Some people have the idea all rap is just about drinking and smoking featuring womanizing men who think they’re the kings of all things. This is extremely false. Granted, there are some rappers who do just this (sometimes only this) but there are plenty of songs out there with real messages, talking about real life. A great example of this, and oddly enough the first rapper I really got into: Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick’s album "good kid, m.A.A.d city" completely changed my idea of the entire style. He speaks about real life problems, problems he had growing up where he did, dealing with peer pressures. Two perfect examples of this are the songs "m.A.A.d city" and "Swimming Pools (Drank)." In "m.A.A.d city," I can just hear him pouring his soul onto the track. In the song, he says (referring to a murder) “Now this is not a tape recording sayin’ that he did it, but ever since that day I was looking at him different.” Real sh*t. Chance the Rapper is another great example of someone who really speaks to his real life. One of my favorite songs by Chance is "Sunday Candy (ft. The Social Experiment)," which is a wonderful song about his grandmother who is his number-one fan. In just one song, Chance has shattered everyone’s mind by rapping a beautiful song for his grandma.
Something else I realized in my exploration of rap music, was that some of these rappers were really clever! Case in point: Childish Gambino. Gambino is a master of his craft, truly. Some of his lyrics absolutely blow my mind with how ingenious they are. There are so many examples I could use just from his song "Bonfire," but so as to try not to offend anyone, I’ll use the least controversial lyric possible. He skillfully drops this line in the song: “Rap step-father, yeah you hate me but you will respect.” I do respect you, Gambino. Controversial to what most people say about Nicki Minaj, she is actually really witty too. In her verse of "Only (ft. Chris Brown, Drake, & Lil Wayne)" she kills me with the line “I don’t duck nobody but tape. Yeah, that was a set up for a punch line on duct tape.”
I’ve given some solid examples here that break a lot of the stereotypes of rap songs and artists. Sometimes, though, none of that even matters. Sometimes we listen to the song for one specific beat drop and every time that beat drops, it’s oh so satisfying. Sometimes we just want to dance and get lost in the bass and the beat like when you’re in the club and "Gas Pedal" comes on. (Who the hell cares about someone saying gas pedal 20 times in a row? No one. But man is it fun to dance to!) Everyone should respect everyone else’s music taste because everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. All I’m really saying is: Don’t hate us trap music lovers. We’re not bad people, we ‘re just people who sometimes need a lot of fast rapping, trill bass, and dope beat drops to quell our musical thirst.
To each their own but: #trapmusicforlife
