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Ben Shapiro Thinks Rap Isn’t Real Music
I’m here to talk about our “good friend”, the fast-talking, bad take machine himself, Mr. Ben Shapiro, who believes “Rap Isn’t Real Music”. He not only puts out bad political takes repeatedly, day in and day out, as a profession but also every once in awhile likes to throw bad musical takes as well.
Introduction to Ben Shapiro
One of the most popular and the most repeated opinions by Ben Shapiro in music is “Rap Isn’t Real Music”. For him, it’s the worst thing humanity has been consuming and he has always been open about it even though nobody really cares.
I guess, recently, on “The Ben Shapiro Show”, Ben was talking about the very same subject with a friend and decided to put forward his bad take on music, ONCE AGAIN!
We very well know Ben Shapiro typically delivers his contemptible arguments every now and then. I think it’s time for him to STOP!
Here is that amazing clip of Ben saying “Rap Isn’t Real Music”:
In the clip, as Ben begins his argument, he explains he has a musical case as well as a cultural case against rap. I wonder how a cultural case against rap would be relevant in this discussion about whether or not rap is even music. But still, even if there was something culturally wrong about the rap genre, it wouldn’t make it any less musical.
I’m not trying to go too deep into the subject matter or refute this element of Ben’s argument. This blog post is about music than it is about the “societal issues” that many hip-hop records face or I guess are born out of whether you’re talking about the lingering effects of slavery, police brutality, the drug war, present industrial complex, redlining, etcetera.
Incompetent Points by Ben
But let’s go back to Ben’s musical case against hip-hop that led him to say, “Rap Isn’t Real Music”. In his explanation, he says that his views essentially come from his “music theorist father” who went to music school. Again, no one cares about it. It is just a cheap appeal to his authority to speak against hip-hop music.
Ben, I have one question for you. Is your dad the only person out here with the “music degree” who has studied “music theory”? I guess it’s absolutely not the case. So, according to “Ben Shapiro’s dad’s music theory”, there are three major elements to music:
- Harmony
- Melody
- Rhythm
Honestly, it is as accurate as in its description of music’s makeup as Alchemy’s chemistry or science. But what about the components such as timbre, texture, dynamics, tempo and a ton of other things which are pretty key elements to music? The truth is, the three elements listed above don’t really go that far to describe what music truly is and could be.
Our Arguments Against Ben’s Attack on Hip-Hop
According to Ben, hip-hop only satisfies ONE of the listed elements, i.e. Rhythm. That’s it. I don’t know how much Ben has actually listened to hip-hop, probably not much. Even going back to the most rudimentary age of the rap genre, you can find melodies, the samples being used, and the synths being used.
Even the guest singers appeared on the hooks. Especially today, the most rappers are singers, ever since Drake has essentially normalized the melodic rap flows. Hip-hop has more melody woven into it and even harmony at this point than it had in any other points in its existence. Now, someone please tell me how is rap music not fulfilling those three basic criteria of music?
Let’s give Ben a benefit of the doubt for a while and let’s assume what Ben is saying about hip-hop is a hundred percent true and if hip-hop is just rhythm and nothing else. So, what about the music that lacks rhythm which only has melody and harmony like drony layered ambiance piece music?
Will Ben Shapiro say these aren’t music because they lack rhythm? But surely, he would not make that argument. Do you guys think Ben will come to his show one day and say “this pianist playing the melody on his piano all by himself without adding any rhythm and harmony to its piece isn’t music?”
Ben’s Uncompetitive Stance
“That’s not music because you need rhythm and harmony for something to truly be musical”. Do you guys think he will say this? I bet a million dollars that he won’t be making such arguments even though it doesn’t satisfy “The Shapiro’s Elements of Musical Composition”.
Of course, Ben wouldn’t make that argument because it’s a stupid argument. The only reason why Ben makes the arguments that he makes in the above clip is that historically and politically hip-hop has been left-wing and anti-conservative. The genre questions the elements of white culture that have driven racism and drug war at its core.
Sure enough, Ben doesn’t like this. Ben takes the opportunity when he can to give his incompetent take on any piece of the expression of Black culture. He blatantly attacks anything that shares views against conservative political stance whether at hip-hop genre or at people enjoying “Black Panther” movie.
Conclusion
I don’t think I have much to say on this topic other than Ben Shapiro is stupid and he shouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone.
What do you guys think? Let me know what you guys think about the situation in the comment section below.
