Rap: Good or Evil?

Today, my friend Austin told me that a General Authority of the Church said that rap music was not music. He had no idea which authority said this, claiming that his seminary teacher told him this, which I don't doubt. So, in order to understand just what exactly the problem was with rap, I kept asking him, "Why is rap not music?" He never gave me a real answer, saying, "The Prophet tells us so" (which technically wasn't true entirely) or "It drives away the spirit." Now, these are good answers. The Prophet tells us not to listen to music that is vulgar, which is what most rap is. That is true. And it's true that vulgar things drive away the spirit. But, they are not specific enough- wait, now that I think about it, it is. Dang it! But anyway, he still implied that ALL rap is not music, which is untrue. B.o.B. makes great music. Yes, there are some songs that swear very mildly. (Which I try to find edited versions of. I HATE swearing.) But he sings about things that matter, which is what songs are for. It is also true that most rap artists, Like Ludacris, only talk about sex and there most appropriate songs are about drugs. It is also true that, like Eminem, they swear a lot. Me, being very stubborn, tried to get this through his head. He soon got very ticked of and told me to be quiet while he searched for the talk. He didn't find it. This made him even more mad. Then, just as when I thought things couldn't get any worse, his dad told him that rap can be good and that there was even a funny song that he liked by some band that I guess my friend knew of as well. I think at this point, since his own father disagreed with him, my friend was pretty furious. Adding to his anger, I, being the one who doesn't let go of things quickly, pointed out the fact that one of his favorite artists, Weird Al Yankovic, parodied a rap song, which came out as White And Nerdy. Very much enraged by now, or maybe heart-broken or something like that, Austin got up and hurried downstairs to be alone. It was then that I realized just how foolish I had been. Just how important had this argument been? Not very. Did it matter that I had won, assuming I had? No, it hadn't. Why didn't I just let it go? Because I wanted to be right. Why was I so insistent on being right? Because I didn't want to be wrong. I was so sure I was right though! The truth was though is that neither of us were right or wrong. We each had an opinion. About ten minutes later, Austin came up and apologized. I'm not quite sure for what, but he did. I apologized as well, saying that I had made a very foolish decision. We forgave each other and everything was normal again.

So, other than to teach you a lesson in letting things go, I want to know, is rap good or evil? In my opinion, rap can be good, but people such as Ludacris and Lil' Wayne give rap a bad reputation and artists like Eminem need to stop swearing all the time. If he were to do that and cut out some other things that are inappropriate, he would be amazing. So, in conclusion, comment and read the next post.

Thank-you for reading!

Just for the sake of being random, I asked my cousin, who listens to much rap, what the most appropriate song by Ludacris is. He named some song like "Bubble-Gum Pop" or something like that.
"Oh wait, he said, that one's about drugs."
SERIOUSLY? An artist's most appropriate song is about drugs? That's insane!