[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

It's about time if you ask me. The article also states that rap is 30 years old? I didn't know rap was around in 1977.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Rap today is what country music was 30 years ago. Instead of losing a horse, a divorce, and driving your pickup truck, it's killing cops, yakkin' 'bout your ho, and bling-bling.

[Mark]

Rap is to music as etch-a-sketch is to fine art.

[BurbankKarl]

fo shizzle.

[1Old Pro]

Uh Oh, the gangstas are going to have to cut back on the coke and diamond earings.

[JCEccles]

Oh, man. It's about time.

That sonic flatulence has been running about 29.5 years too long.

[mowowie]

I admit I liked Run DMC's album "tougher than Leather" back in the 80's...ok, i said it. :)

[ExGeeEye]

What fresh abomination will take its place?

(As I secretly hope for the day when "classic rock" stations "rediscover" the joys of the music of the Reagan Era...1981-89)

[zook]

I have two thoughts on this. The earliest rap song I can think of is the opening number of the broadway musical "The Music Man." I can't think of the name of it now, but it's with all the men talking on the train.

As far as the reason for the drop off in rap sales, I can only imagine that it has to do with the fact that there is such an overwealming amount of high quality rap music to choose from, that it waters down the market. People simply can't decide which high quality rap music to buy, so they stay home.

Just one of the paragraphs above is sarcasm. Can you guess which?

[Mad Dawgg]

"The article also states that rap is 30 years old? I didn't know rap was around in 1977."

Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang; it was one of the first hip hop hit singles.

[Slings and Arrows]

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[Squawk 8888]

I didn't know rap was around in 1977

Rap began as an offshoot of funk- the first I heard was Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, released c.1979. It was nothing like today's rap; it was party music. Will Smith launched his career as a comedy rapper, going by the name The Fresh Prince.

[jimfree]

As I’ve said before on this forum, a friend once told me in fun that square dance callers were the first rap singers; the lyrics were just different.

[Tanniker Smith]

Not hard to see. Very little is original these days. More and more is sampled and remixed and snipped and re-used and borrowed and whathaveyou. Well, the folks that actually like that stuff are "borrowing" it themselves -- downloading, copying, watching YouTube.

And to be honest, only recently have I heard my students rapping "known" rap songs. They usually do their own or stuff they hear in the clubs (that they are several years too young to be in). Much of that latter stuff is a lot filthier than the stuff on the radio, too.

[1Old Pro]

IMUS has taken rap language maintream.