It’s time to end the rap/rock feud.

Of all the musical feuds, the rap/rock feud is quite possibly the dumbest one.

If you’ve been following this site for a while, you’ll probably notice that my musical tastes are all over the place.

Even back in the early years, I was talking about listening to Iron Maiden, Pat Benatar, The Dead Kennedys, and Billy Joel. My musical ADHD has only gotten worse. Now I listen to everything short of mumble rap. People riding in my car hear anything from Green Day to Sir Elton John to Tech N9ne to Gwar to Da Tweekaz to Katy Perry to Tupac to Hatsune Miku to- you get the idea. Rides with me are musical insanity.

Now, I know I’m the outlier here, and not many people ping-pong between this many genres, but I’m beginning to notice that a lot of my friends have one set genre that they like and nothing else. Which is cool, except some of them get genuinely upset if they have to listen to anything else.

I’m looking squarely at my metalhead friends here. For some reason, metalheads have a propensity towards hating anything that’s not metal, especially rap music. They’re without a doubt the biggest contributors to the rap/rock feud. Given that many rappers have been doing collabs with metal artists over the last decade, I’m surprised that the feud between metal and rap still exists. Metal and rap are both aggressive genres, it’s only natural that the two of them should come together. Even in the late 90’s you had Kid Rock incorporating rock guitars into his music. And before him, you had Aerosmith doing “Walk This Way” with Run-DMC way back in ’86.

People like what they like, and the guy jamming out to Hatsune Miku will never shame someone else’s taste in music. But it’s weird to me when someone lives inside a musical bubble and only listens to one genre with no interest in any others. Especially to the point where they start bitching when someone puts something else on. I have certain friends who will outright hijack the music with Spotify’s “Group jam” feature and make sure to queue up nothing but the same handful of metal bands. If I try to break it up with classic rock or rap, I have to listen to constant shit-talking or huffing and puffing. In one instance a friend intentionally skipped my songs in my own damn house. What is the cure for such disorders? Beatings, of course. Never fuck with the host’s music, especially when the host is me.

Another friend of mine, who prefers classic metal like Megadeth, Slayer, or Manowar, doesn’t go to such extremes, but he’ll leave the room if a rap song comes on. That’s how much he hates rap music. I’ve asked him about this, and he just parrots the same old stereotypical rap/rock feud nonsense that everyone else does: “Rap sucks, it’s stupid and it’s all about drugs and violence.”

Let’s talk about this stereotype for a moment.

Yes, a lot of rap music is about drugs and violence. These are two predominant aspects of growing up in a black community, so of course they’re going to dominate the music made by black people.

The thing is though, you don’t hear the tracks that aren’t about these things. That’s because the labels don’t promote them as heavily as they do the tracks about selling drugs and smoking the ops. Violence sells, plain and simple. You’ve probably heard DMX’s “Ruff Ryders Anthem” or “X Gonna Give it to Ya” 100 times, but you’ve probably never heard “The Rain”, a song of repentance and DMX taking responsibility for his actions. You’re familiar with Tupac’s “Hit’em Up”, but what about “Brenda’s Got a Baby”, a song that laments the all-too-common struggle of teen pregnancy? Rap songs portray the struggles people face growing up in the hood, not all of those struggles involve drugs and guns.

Anyone who seriously believes that all rap is about slinging dope and shooting people hasn’t actually listened to rap music beyond a few mass-marketed songs.

People tend to forget that rock music has its roots in blues, which was created by black people to lament the struggles they faced in their communities. White people sort of hijacked this, and rock music as we know it was born. One could argue that rap music is the modern equivalent of blues, in the sense that it’s used to portray the struggles black people face now (albeit more profanely).

You might think I’m singling out metalheads and rock fans here, and you’re probably about to say “Well what about rap fans? Why do they get a pass?”

I grew up in Philly and went to public school all my life. As such, I spent plenty of time around rap fans (who, yes, were mostly black). While most of them didn’t listen to rock music (admitting to liking rock music is kind of taboo for urban blacks), they were at least respectful of it and didn’t put it down. At worst they might jokingly call metal music “devil-worshiper music”, but it’s not usually meant in a hateful way. Conversely, militant rock and metal fans have no problem insulting rap music and its fans by calling it shit or saying that rap fans are all uneducated idiots. The “uneducated” people listening to songs about pulling drive-by shootings are more respectful than rock and metal fans, go figure.

What’s so “educated” about rock music anyway? Chord progressions? That doesn’t mean shit, some rappers can say more in their measly little four-chord beats than half these guitarists who stand there and wank away at their guitars for 10 minutes at a time. I’d rather listen to Kanye or Dre than pretentious dicks like Manyard James Keenan who do entire concerts with their back to the audience and sing songs about anal fisting.

Rap isn’t for everyone, and that’s cool, but there’s no need to show it disrespect (except for mumble rap, fuck that garbage). Rock and rap share a common ancestor in blues music, they’re pretty much cousins. The rap/rock feud makes absolutely no sense to me, and I’m glad to see it’s slowly dying out. I’m always on here lambasting Gen-Z, but one of the things they seem to have gotten right is expanding their musical palates beyond a single genre. I’m also happy to see more rappers and pop stars collabing with rock bands. I heard Lil Uzi Vert on a Babymetal track the other day. Jelly Roll even did a song with Falling in Reverse. This kind of thing is a step in the right direction for sure.

It’s about time music fans came together to encourage their favorite artists to step outside their genres and make even more awesome music. It’s cool to not be interested in another genre, but there’s no reason to be a dick about it. This rap/rock feud is pointless, and anyone taking part in it is an elitist asshole.