"Is Rap Music?" Makes me ask "What makes a 'Musician' ??"

The question of "is HipHop/Rap music" Brings me to ask "What makes a musician"...

Firstly:

Hip-Hop/Rap is so popular because of its simplistic dance-ability... 1-2, 1-2. Everyone loves to have fun , especially the young.

So number 1: HipHop and Rap is the music of the late eighties and nineties Generation(appeals to the young)

Number 2: Its easy to listen/sing along to (simplistic lyrics in the mainstream) and dance to (simplistic rhythms to move to in the main stream) ...

Most people don't get into the super technical stuff , poetically and rhythmically because there's just too much going on for the AVERAGE MIND to catch...

Most people are passive listeners that don't really dig and search for music of greater substance much like the average person is an average listener when it comes to the NEWS , they take what is spoon fed to them and don't bother going below the surface thus their understanding of "quality" is very shallow. I mean the average person doesn't know what a Pitch Envelope or a scale is. Just like the average person doesn't know what Rex-84 or the Bilderberger Group is...

Then we have the classic debate of saying hiphop producers aren't musicians. Someone once said thats like saying a Graphic Designer isn't an artist ... At the end of the day it all depends on the ability of the finished product to evoke the desired response in the viewer/listener.

Anyone can learn how to play a C - note , just as anyone can learn how to chop up a sample. It all boils down to how far you take that basic ability that defines if you're an actual "musician" or "artist" ...

I mean you could take an 88 key synth and program each key for a different sampled sound and tear a solo apart ... Since you used "sampled sounds" does that mean you're not a musician even though everyone is moving on the dance floor ??

Someone said to me the other day "I saw this kid with a shirt that said 'Drum machines have no soul' and I thought 'neither does a drum kit'" .... Its all about WHO's behind the SOUND MAKING DEVICE , whether its a pair of spoons, a synthesizer, a drum kit or a sampler...

~ATOIS