Ok, i understand where the confusion is coming from. first, lets think about what music really is. There are so many different forms of music it is hard to tell what is and what isn't valid. we have Metal, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Electro, Prog, R&B, Rock, and many others. plus, each catagorie has almost an unlimited amount of sub catigories (Electro house, Heavy metal, Acid jazz...) each catagorie is just as valid as the next. and then there is the genre in question, hip hop. If you define music simply as a collection of soundwaves that have order and consistancy than yes, rap is definetly music. it may not always have harmony and melody but more often than not it does. If the voice is an instrament than why cant language be used the same way. if you listen to band like "The Mars Volta" you might notice that the lyrics usually dont make sense, however, the words that Cedric uses just SOUND good together. he uses the cadence of words, and how different emphasis's in different places can make your ear focus on different parts of the song. He uses the english language (and sometimes spanish) as an instrument. Poetry has always been very close to music. They share a lot of the samee terminology (Stanza, Meter, Verse...) and all hip hop is, is a merging of poetry into music. some might say that the earliest rap song ever written is "Subteranian Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan. in that song he doesnt hit a single note that is condusive to the key of the song. Rather, he just sort of speaks the lyrics. sound familiar?
