Talk about standing the test of time, though.... I remember hearing very early hiphop, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, etc. in the late 70's, early 80's, and no-one thought it would last the decade. Yet here we are, nearly thirty years later, and it's dominance continues to grow. Very few jazz styles lasted in the marketplace that long... even swing, or bigband.

It's not that I don't like some of the music, although like many I worry about the ethics behind a lot of gangsta lyrics (and why on earth ANY woman would want to shake her booty to such misogynous tunes beats me... You've come a long way, baby!), but it seems to be an un-performable music for most musicians. The beat is primary, but rarely reproducible without sampling, and the main content on the top is not a lot of music, but multi-layered vocals and rapping. Good for the singers and rappers, but it leaves the poor keyboard player with little to play other that triggering loops.

Perfect for DJ's (after all, they invented it!) but for the live musician not a whole lot of MUSICAL challenge... Lots of technical ones, but little to PLAY...