Gee Nigel, what a coincidence. Gangsta's Paradise was also the first 'Rap' song I was able to warm up to. It's a classic and I still like it to this day. I'm just not a big fan of "put your hands in the air, act like you really don't care" type Rap (or HipHop - I'm not really sure what the difference is ). I dislike the fact that in some of the most popular Rap, the best parts of it are samples (usually from some other genre'). I do think that it is foolish not to acknowledge that Rap music is not an integral part of today's music scene and today's society in general. We may not LIKE it and we (as musicians) may never play it, and I, for one, will never enrich the coffers of today's Rap artists through the purchase of their products, but it's still there and widely embraced by the children and grandchildren of those that 'hate' it. But wait, didn't we go through this with Elvis?

Hey, I say 'live and let live'. "For everything there is a season". It took a long time for society to warm up to Picasso (some never have) or musically, Thelonius Monk or Frank Zappa. Give it time, at some point there will be 'Rap Sunday' at early Mass (got to keep those collection plates full somehow ), but I see the BIG explosion being in Tele-Evangalism - I can already picture JayZ in a flowing white robe saying 'put your hands in the air......'.

chas