For The Last Time: All Rappers Are Artists
There’s been a growing discourse and movement of people feeling the need to separate “rappers” from “artists.” The problem is that this separation is completely unnecessary, because rapping and making music are in themselves art forms, so every single rapper is an artist.
A Formal Introduction
Before we go any further, I want to pull up a few examples I found just so we’re all on the same page of the conversation we’re having. We can see certain artists here being referred to as “more than just mere rappers.” Calling people who have taken the time to develop their craft “just mere rappers” comes off as a condescending way to write off rappers who don’t fit into whatever box this user decides qualifies someone as an “artist.”
The logic can be a little hard to follow here(probably because there is none), but from what I’m gathering:
Kanye West? Artist.
Lil Baby? Rapper.
Kendrick Lamar? Artist.
Benny, the Butcher? Rapper
Tyler, the Creator? Obviously an artist.
Nas? Oh, he’s just a rapper.
So what exactly defines an “artist” to these people? Do they have to produce their own instrumentals too? Does their music have to appeal to a certain “intellectual” crowd? Why can’t we just accept that all rappers are inherently artists based on the merit of rapping alone?
Rap Is Art
To put it simply, art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. By this definition there is no reason rapping itself shouldn’t be considered art. Putting words together to express oneself in a creative way should always be considered art. Putting those words to the sound of music only reinforces this. People aren’t arguing whether poetry is art, or whether spoken word is art, or whether singing is art. Rapping is so closely related to all of these things, why the seperation of whether or not it is considered art.
Hip Hop seems to be the only genre of music where this type of discourse happens. Nobody questions whether Pink Floyd were artists or “just a rock band.” It sounds ridiculous to even ask that, so why do artists like Freddie Gibbs get this treatment?
Writing off hip hop as a lesser form of music is nothing new. This attitude has perpetuated by mainstream media and middle america for decades(see: Ben Shapiro having the audacity to say hip hop doesn’t qualify as music). Why should fans of the genre & culture continue to push this narrative by having these pointless conversations? At best it’s uninformed and at worst it’s an attempt to discredit an art form with it’s roots in inner city black culture.
“But I Don’t Like *Insert Rapper* so They Aren’t an Artist”
At the end of the day, your personal opinion of a rapper’s music doesn’t dictate whether or not it should be considered art. Any time somebody raps, it is art. NBA Youngboy is an artist. Logic is an artist. Future is an artist the same way Kanye West and Tyler, the Creator are artists. Some rappers may be better than others of course, but that is because some artists are always going to be better and more talented than others, but this doesn’t change that all rappers are in fact artists.
In conclusion, there is no real argument you can make for why any rapper is not also an artist. Rapping in itself is an art form and deserves to be respected as such.
