You Guild Guys are a much cooler bunch of cats than I expected.
Perhaps I have not taken to time to search out the pretty flowers hidden amongst the noxious weeds of Rap. I'm not liklely to change, I'll still look for my bouquets in different gardens.
I heard Stevie Wonder when asked about Rap respond with: "I can't learn anything from rap", and refuse further comment. It was an oddly reserved response but perhaps Stevie was a man of wisdom. He wasn't shot in a drive by.
The most egregious violation of my right to cover my ears & control what I hear ocurred at a giant swap meet.
Two budding redneck fellas were selling giant car speakers & 6 million zigawatt amplifiers from the back of a pick up truck. They were playing some of the more extreme rap examples of the day, from time to time, as the choice phrases came along they reached over & tweaked the volume & broadcast their message at concert volume over the entire facility, some acres. All the while watching the crowd for
reactions & slapping themselves on the back.
The message was lost to no one. Criminy, after you take the word Muthaf@#$r out of the "Lyrics" few words of more than one syllable remain.
Now had that happened when I was the age of these two clowns, a couple of the more pugilistic members of the local citizenry would have felt it their civic duty to demonstrate graphically just why good manners and respect for others are so important in civilized society. At the time I believe it may have even been legal. I certainly would have never thought to go to the authorities & complain because someone cleaned my clock for calling him a mutha whatever and his wife an "F ing bit@h
Many a bloody nose has been administered and many a duel fought over issues more trivial.
Wife insulting at one time in the distant primitive past was taken more seriously. Ahh, but we have evolved and now are more civilized people .
I listened to my counter culture vinyl a while back, Fugs, Mothers of Invention, Velvet Underground & such, & felt a twinge shame for some of my behavior as a youth. It was 98.6% trash of the first order. My friends & I listened to & studied that stuff, forwards & backwards. Looking for the true meaning of life? We were however much more discrete & didn't spend much time "Puttin it in yer face" Just wasn't a safe & sane thing to do. Respect for others wasn't optional.
Had Dillon or Seeger or Leadbelly or just about anyone else of the times
brought this nonsense to the public they'd still be doing time. More importantly, their contributions to music & society would have been pretty meaningless.
Lenny Bruce got in a bit of touble over 7 or so words, Jim Morrison spent some time speaking with the authorities over a weenie wagging incident, more recently, Ozzie Osbourne, or was it another of those Devil acts, thought it best to take biting heads off birds & small animals out of his show. Elvis did pretty well even though the Ed Sullivan show chose to keep the cameras focused above the waist. Good Lord, I'm gettin old!!
Elemets of Rap are well beyond reasonable limits. Perhaps there is "art" or value sprinkled sparsely in the medium, but you know, When you consort with Pigs you are bound to get muddy from time to time.
