The Value and Appeal of the Rap Lyric Beyond the Considered Trappings

There is an appeal to hip-hop and rap music made explicit by its growth in both the mainstream market and media exposure.  Some of its growth can be attributed to its history of connecting with cultural hot points, moments of polarizing conflict, and dual magnification and reprisal of the traditional American dream or American ideals.  Some of its growth can also be attributed to its occasional pressures on the envelope of accepted musicality and what can and cannot be called music and the several points and fields of interest that engage and reward listeners.  Some of its growth can even be attributed to its roots in inflammatory or aggressively positioned call and response and attribution of voice to the marginal personality, place, and lesser known story.  Part of its appeal, an underexposed segment that should be duly credited as a contributing factor to its growth, lies in the transformation of voice to tonal percussion instrument.  As can be heard with several minutes of listening to other genres of music that feature a prominent human voice, the voice attempts to mirror or exceed in purity, often successfully, the clear tones and scales generated by the instruments playing behind the vocals or to so grossly offset that purity that the contrast becomes so stark as to border on profundity.  In hip-hop and rap a similar thing happens that challenges the ear and greatly increases its value and appeal (its growth) except that the coloration and depth is not in the struggle of bass and treble clefs with voice, but in the struggle of voice with devices, real and synthesized, of percussion.