Boom Boom Room!

You're at work, or driving, or at home and everything is already crazy. Then your coworkers, traffic, or someone in your family decide it's time to break out their boom box and turn on the local rap station or MP3 track.

I'm 45, and a black American, so those of you who are under my age might find it hard to believe that I don't enjoy rap music, but in fact I despise it, with only a few exceptions. In this world we live in, it's impossible to escape this genre of music.

Television, commercials, movies, radio, and even on the Internet all have been infiltrated.

Enough Is Enough

Where do we draw the line and say enough is enough?

I hate it when I can hear a bass line from a rap song coming from a car six blocks away or drowning out your own car stereo while you're waiting at an intersection?

I feel sorry for employees at drive-thru restaurants; they have to put up with this all day, every day, because of their line of work.

Life and times are tough enough without rap music’s ranting, disrespecting, and glorifying unlawful behavior that almost everyone is listening to today. Cell phones are ringing it, radios are playing it, I-pods are emanating it, and your coworkers are listening to - it makes for a very bad day at work.

The worst part isn't that I don't like this music, but that there are so many kids listening to it that I can't avoid it.

Rap's Impact on Language

I used to work for a movie theater operation and I heard it then as I still do today employees talking like thier rap icons. Many of them have no respect for adults. Some of them can't finish a sentence without swearing several times.

Kids hear the rappers use this language, and they think that it's okay to speak incoherently. Some are as young as 12 and 13. It just isn't right!

True, all hip-hop music does not suffer from this lack of creativity and good taste, but I would defend that a majority does.

Good Music

What music do I like, you might ask?

Well, just about anything from the eighties (Duran Duran, Bar-Kays, Con Funk Shun, Huey Lewis, Depeche Mode, etc.), some 60s and 70s music (The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Temptations, O'Jays, etc.), and a few select albums from the 90s.

Remember when music used to be good?

For those of you who do enjoy today's hip-hop music, I would like to point out that I have nothing against you personally. I just don't share your taste in music.

Here is a challenge; can you name a popular R&B/hip-hop band of this decade?

I recently asked a young “20-something year old” lady this question and she answered, "The Roots, they are very talented musicians."

I replied, "The Roots started in 1993, a hip-hop band outta Philadelphia and they are famed for the reemergence of the jazzy, eclectic approach to rap music that the 1981 group Stetsosonic started. But I said THIS DECADE!"

That's one of the problems with these young so-called hip-hop fans, they don't know music! Or history!

The only hip-hop I enjoy is fusion. Bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park are making a killing by fusing their alternative rock genre with hip-hop. Very powerful music!


If you like hip-hop music, fine, God Bless you - but please don't email me if all you are going to do is "flame" me. I will read it but make sure to know what you are writing about and coherent in your prose and not just "flaming" out of spite.

Thanks for visiting, thanks for reading.

Here is a piece of music that should blow your mind! Enjoy.



For me the voice is the most important instrument. What is a band without a singer, nothing.