Yo homies, hows it going down in the hizzle tonight? What didn't understand my gangster colloquialisms? I'm a white male from the south in the USA. I grew up listening to Rap, forsaking my forced country roots, although i'm a bit of a mixed bag music wise currently, I consider rock and rap both music. I myself consider myself an amateur songwriter, and an amateur rapper , I even have a song on youtube. Rap, Rock, Country and even jazz are expressions of yourself and are just artforms - to say that this thread has generated some ignorant stereotypes about rap covers the topic fairly well, as people seem more riled upover what is played in a CD player than religion, politics and issues that actually having a bearing on our lifes. Now before i'm told that rap is mainly guns, drugs and misogynistic themes i would strongly implore you to explore the entire genre - from A tribe called Quest to Sage Francis, Atmosphere, Apathy, KRS ONE, Master Ace, Genus Pro, Parallel minds and other alternate rappers who don't get plays on the mainstream clearchannel playlists. - I've heard rap that deals with deep religious themes, breakups, divorces, dealing with grief and relationships and even politics. Heres a quote for your paper "Music is self expression, the only bad music is the kind of music that you cannot relate to - or connect with. No two people will ever have the same music tastes verbatim and in many ways music is a key to our personalities. Our tastes define us as a person on many levels." ~Das Tip.it Adminstrator A Rapper who pens lyrics and spits rhymes who jams out from everything from Bach to Korn to DMX to Atmosphere to Coldplay to Willie Nelson