Are Rappers the Modern-Day Mozarts?

Image Courtesy: Strike Magazine Tallahassee

It’s three in the morning, and you still haven’t finished your study review for this test tomorrow. You need something that will keep you awake and focused; something that easily activates both the creative and logical sides of your brain; something that can carry you through the manic highs and depressing lows of college algebra.

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You need music. If this were the 1920s, you might reach for your favorite classical music record to keep you entertained. But this is 2022, you pick up your phone and shuffle through Spotify for the greatest hits rap has to offer. So, why has this cultural shift occurred, replacing the high-class classics with underground rap? And are they more similar than we think?

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You might be asking yourself by now, what even is rap? Well, according to my mom it is just a bunch of loud noises, and to that, I say listen to Beethoven’s pieces. But officially, rap stands for Rhythm and Poetry. In the 1970s, an MC (Master of Ceremonies) was a rapper who delivered spoken poetry in a consistent rhythm that played over originally composed beats. The primary themes of the spoken poetry, or lyrics, were usually political or sexual in nature and often linked to social commentary. The rhythmic complexity of rap is highly understated, as each poetic line is frequently full of alliteration, innuendo, colloquialism, and extended allegories that build off of each other. So, with its lyrical ingenuity, it is no surprise that rap has risen to the #1 most-listened genre in the United States. To say that rap does not have the same depth as classical music is to completely disregard the cultural significance rap has had in its short lifetime. Rap can confront the difficult emotions and political ideas of the modern era in the same way classical music did 150 years ago.

Image Courtesy: Hope Fell

The controversy created through the various dramas of famous MC rappers is curiously similar to the firestorms created by legendary composers. To put this into perspective, let’s talk about the most famous composer to date: Wolfgang Mozart (Baller Rapper alias). Mozart publicly undermined convention in his childish demeanor and his flagrant spending of the fortune earned in his career. Sound familiar? Discourse did not just erupt in his public image, however. Wolfgang circulated immense controversies in his most notorious operas, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Both pieces conveyed intense themes of resisting public authority and promoting sexual liberty. The storyline of common people who suffer and ultimately triumph over their oppressors can be interpreted through a modern lens, compared to the rapper’s humble beginnings and grind against the “opps” to success. In this way, just as classical music was an instrument to amplify the voice of the people, rap hands the mic over to the marginalized of society.

So if the style and purpose of rap and classical music are so similar, why is one so highly regarded and the other regretfully dismissed from academic and cultural discourse altogether? From powdered white wigs to platinum blonde bobs, we have to remember that while the music has differed to some degree, the only thing that has really changed is our perception of it.

Strike Out,

Writer: Hope Fell

Editor: Noelle Knowlton

Graphic Designer: Alli Pryor

Tallahassee