http://entertainment.sympatico.msn.ca/celebs/articles/1116998.armx
50 Cent ties record with Beatles for uh… records. 
Armageddon a little tired of these hip-hop bands ruining good music.
Well, I’m glad 50 Cent and The Game declared a truce, whoever these fellows are. If they keep shooting at each other one of them is liable to get hurt.
He (Billboard chart editor Geoff Mayfield) said: “It’s always dangerous to compare anything to The Beatles, since they hold such a singular place in music history.”
Yeah, it’s also dangerous to compare musicians with actual musical talent to these gang-banger rappers, who, IMO, should never be confused with musicians.
I think you should be careful!! They carry guns! Well, I guess they couldn’t find you.
Much as I hate to agree with you, of all people 
, it’s true. “Jack and Jill went up the hill…” is poetry, not music. 
GASP!!! Blasphemy!!! 
It’s over. Pack your bags.
I don’t see how you could make a case for that. Too much of it? Sure. Monotonous? You bet. Long past it’s use by date? I wish.
I don’t see how you could not regard Bo Diddley as the first rapper. Simple repeating rhythms, simple lyrics that called to mind rather cleaned up street jive. Yet Diddley was one of the seminal rockers. Sure he played an instrument, and rather well. But scratching DJs are clearly percussionists of a sort and IMO deserve to be regarded as musicians. Early rap like ‘The Message’ could be very powerful and I’m glad it happened.
The huge difference is that, instead of rap being one group’s style it became a movement. Instead of groups doing the occasional rap they do nothing but rap. Nobody copied Diddley in the sense of just stealing his act. For years just about every beat group did a few Diddley numbers and that was fine. It would have been dreadful, though, had every black rock musician for 10 or 20 years been a Bo Diddley disciple, pure and simple. Yet this is exactly what happened with rap. I’m a long way from the source but I have trouble understanding how it got to be so lasting. I do know that there is a lot of anger in the ghettos and in the bedrooms of middle class, white, adolescent boys. But African American music used to move from fashion to fashion at an almost frightening pace. I have no idea how it managed to get bogged down so badly.
The problem I have with much (though perhaps not all) rap is the monotony of it. Sure, “Bo Diddley” and “Hey, Bo Diddley” are relatively simple and repetitive (though no more so than “Aiko, Aiko”), but even Bo Diddley himself didn’t stick to that formula. Just work your way though the songs on [u]His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection[/u] at Amazon.com. There’s quite a bit of variety there, including covers of Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed songs. Even his most repetitive numbers seem to have more expressiveness–more of a musical quality–than most rap.
I know this is an over-generalization, but from a strictly musical point of view, I find rap as offensive as big-hat C&W or Bobby Vinton-Tommy Sands-Paul Anka pop.
Even the most diverse rap artists are far too monotonous for me. I love Will Smith and LL Cool J as people, and I’ve tried to like their music, but I couldn’t sit through an entire album of their stuff unless I was already in a coma.
I just have very limited taste, I guess. (I never liked Frank Sinatra, either–no matter how many Black musicians claimed that he had “soul”.)
Oh rats! I was hoping this was going to be a thread about the actual apocalypse.
I’ll take the Beatles over any rap any day… and I’d definately rather talk about the apocalypse than rap as well. But then, if all the world becomes rappified maybe that will help bring on the apocalyse so perhaps they are related??? 
No offense meant, but some music just feels really bad to me before even hearing the lyrics. Like if only washing out my ears would get rid of that creepy bad feeling I get inside after hearing it.
Soooo anyhoo… anyone want to talk about the book of Revelations? 
Sara
Mike, I’m sure we don’t differ much. More a matter of emphasis than a disagreement about worth. My point was just that if the hundreds of songs that employ the shave-and-haircut-two-bits rhythm with repetitive lyrics count as music so must rap. I didn’t say it was good music. Oh I did bring Bo Diddley up for another reason; he actually recorded raps, ie monologues over repetitive rhythms. ‘Say Man’ is probably the best known. I do know about his variety; I probably own most of his 50s and 60s singles and album tracks in one form or another.
It’s funny about Sinatra. I used to find him unlistenable. This I’m sure was mostly to do with his personality. But somehow I could see the cocky, sneering, face every time I heard the voice. (A lot of singers who would have been equally unpleasant didn’t flaunt their personalities in the music.) A few years ago I started listening to some of the classic Sinatra albums and I found them at last listenable. I began to see what people liked in them. I still don’t listen to them much though.
As for commercial country and the faceless Bobbies, I couldn’t agree more. My point was just that bad music is still music. I think that most rap I’ve heard is bad music. Yeah, I’ve bought CDs to explore rap and I’ve had to take them off after a couple of tracks. Again, I wonder if the music would be powerful if only a few people did it and if they did it in combination with other things. I think it probably would be.
Okay. I’m willing.
Really? Cool! 
I’ll have to take you up on it another time though when my brain isn’t in serious shut down mode. Goodnight!
Sara (stumbles off to dreamland)
I’m willing as well on the topic. But what is the book of Revelations? Perhaps the particilar scripture in question is “The Revelation to/according to/ John”?
In the Authorized Version it is traditionally The Revelation of St. John the Divine. Internally, it says “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Personally, I was willing to let the plural/singular issue slide.
Me too!!
Oh and listen to Olabelle’s version of “John the Revelator” at the following link-
http://www.sonymusicstore.com/store/catalog/MerchandiseDetails.jsp?merchId=62527&skuId=62543
In the early fourth century when the present canon was being decided upon the "Revelation of John " nearly didn’t make into the authorized list according to early church history. Now , go find out why.
Bruce
Is it a discussion of the canon or of the contents and message of the book? It wasn’t the only one controversial. Even in the time of the Reformation there were those who wished to throw out the Epistle of James, or at least to downplay it.
Then there’s [u]the Blind Willie Johnson version[/u]. (Disc 2, Track 15).