Wallace, I didn't mean to make it seem Em vs. Will.  Maybe they're big fans of each other's work.  Whatever.

But there are clearly people with a sense of history who don't consider Will a valid hip hop artist even though he raps and has sold many, many records doing so.  And this isn't revisionist history.  From the moment he hit the national charts, people were dogging him and kept on.

Of course, some of it is jealousy.  He crossed over as a recording artist and that makes for bitter feelings (to which Nelly can attest).  I can't even describe what Will has done as an actor and movie star - seeing that he began as a rapper.

The title is meant to be tongue in cheek isn't it?  'Threat or Menace' indicating that these are the only options (non-options, synonyms) that some will consider - that the issue is a closed one as far as they are concerned and their positions entrenched.

Is the coast clear to criticize rap without being considered racist?

Michael Gambon, I understand, is a fan of Eminem's (and presumably other rappers too) because, he says, it is the only place left in modern society where one hears the rhythms of poetry, the rhythms of Shakespeare. (Shakespeare's iambic metre doesn't seem as appropriate as anapest or trochees but anyway...)  

I also thought 8 Mile to be a very good movie with a strong (albeit one note) central performance...watching it I could see the craft that went into the art and understand what others found to celebrate in it.

But to me, it is still awful.  In The Last Boy Scout, when told he is to be made to feel pain, Bruce Willis' character says 'Play some rap music'.  Sums it up for me.

Don't think this makes me racist though.

Whatever?  Ha.

Leroy, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

Ian, your dislike of rap doesn't make you racist any more than my dislike of country music makes me racist.

Oops.  "Whatever" came out wrong.  I meant "Whatever Will and Em.  Just have a baby together already."

BTW.  I love (older) country music.  Pre-80's maybe?  When Waylon Jennings starts singing to me, I swoon.

We sometimes like to kid ourselves, don't we, that it is only in the brains of the ignorant and uneducated that racism can find purchase.

John Byrne: Scallywag or Ne'er-do-well?

John Byrne:  Bon Vivant or Cad?