I like music. To me, rap is words plus beats...not music. And like Tony Randall said once in an interview..."I don't like Rock and Roll because it's just so...monotonous." I know I'm getting old because I feel the same way about rap.
I think rap developed in part because as a society, we quit stressing music in school. Lack of free instruments and instruction in lower income schools helped bring about the rise of rap. Some pretty ingenious shit imho, "Oh, we don't have instruments, we'll just rhyme over a record." But, musically speaking, it's a pretty dead end road. Being the pervasive musical idiom these days that infiltrates all genres..pop, jazz, country, everything....it's a drag for me. Drum beat techno-bore.
The last good rap record to me was The Digable Planets 1st record. Shows you what a square I am.
*edit addition-Kanye West is supposed to put an end to my way of thinking. Saw him on Saturday Night Live and couldn't tell why he was supposed to be any different than everyone else.