Why Ben Shapiro Is Wrong About Rap

Try 2 months of Skillshare absolutely free! skl.sh/12tone19
Well, looks like it's that time of year again. When Ben Shapiro (or anyone else) argues that rap and hip hop aren't technically considered music, they're flying in the face of basically all established scholarship on the topic. And it's not like we're just making this stuff up, either: We have good reasons for interpreting music (and specifically hip hop) the way we do. They're not even complicated reasons, which makes it mystifying to me that Shapiro's been repeating this same argument for at least a decade, but still, someone's gotta explain why he's wrong and I guess that someone is me.
Patreon: / 12tonevideos
Merch: standard.tv/12tone
Discord: / discord
Mailing List: eepurl.com/bCTDaj
Facebook: / 12tonevideos
Twitter: / 12tonevideos
Instagram: / 12tonevideos
Email: [e-mail]
Last: • Understanding Thriller
My first rap video: • Is Rap Music?
7 Levels of Jazz Harmony: • The 7 Levels of Jazz H...
Defining Music video: • What Even Is Music?
Script (With sources): docs.google.com/document/d/1b...
Huge thanks to our Elephant of the Month Club members:
Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Ron Jones
Howard Levine
Duck
Brian Etheredge
Gabi Ghita
Elaine Pratt
Ken Arnold
Khristofor Saraga
Len Lanphar
Paul Ward
Benjamin DeLillo
Mitchell Fund
Susan Lingenfelter
William (Bill) Boston
Owen Campbell-Moore
Anton Smyk
Chris Prentice
Jack Carlson
Dov Zazkis
James Treacy Bagshaw
Christopher Lucas
Hendrik Payer
Andrew Beals
Thomas Morley
Jacob Helwig
Duncan Dempsey
Patrick James Morley
Tyler Leite
Paul Grieselhuber
Thomas Linevitch
Cattus_ex_Machina
David Rapoport
Braum Meakes
Derek Parnell
And thanks as well to Corvi, Henry Reich, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Abram Thiessen, Anna Work, Oliver, Jc Bq, Adam Neely, nico, Michael Fieseler, Rick Lees, Ben LaRose, Justin Donnell, Dave Mayer, Thomás, rhandhom1, Davis Sprague, Paul Quine, Alex, Harold Gonzales, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Arnas, Sarah Spath, Skylar J Eckdahl, Marc Himmelberger, Chris Borland, Caroline Simpson, Daniel Gilchrist, billy roberts, Elliot Burke, Alex Atanasyan, Alex Knauth, Michael Alan Dorman, Greg Borenstein, Tim S., David Tocknell, Elias Simon, Nathan Petchell, Blake Boyd, Trevor, Michael McCormick, Lilith Dawn, Jonathan Beck, Dmitry Jemerov, Ian Seymour, Charles Gaskell, Luke Rihn, Rob Holton, Jerry D. Brown, Elliot Jay O'Neill, Elliot Winkler, Payden Nissen, Tom Evans, Fabian, Ohad Lutzky, Kurtis Commanda, James A. Thornton, Benjamin Cooper, Kevin, Ken Bauso, Max Wanderman, Brian Dinger, Hape Company, Stefan Strohmaier, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Shadow Kat, Adam Kent, Lee Rennie, Richard T. Anderson, Angela Flierman, JH, Jake Lizzio, Mark Feaver, Kevin Johnson, Brian McCue, Stephan Broek, David Conrad, ml cohen, Sylvain Chevalier, Darzzr, Roger Grosse, Rodrigo Roman, Francois LaPlante, Jeremy Zolner, Rowan Fox, Paper Coelacanth, Britt Ratliff, Eddie O'Rourke, Ryan, Jon Bauman, John July, Volker Wegert, Danny, Matthew Kallend, Patrick Callier, Joshua Gleitze, Emilio Assteves, Alex Keeny, Alexey Fedotov, Charles Hill, Valentin Lupachev, Joshua La Macchia, Chris Chapin, John Paul Welsh, DSM, Gary Butterfield, Niko Albertus, Luke Wever, Ben in RI, Elizabeth von Teig, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Connor Shannon, max thomas, Jamie Price, Kennedy Morrison, Red Uncle, Darrell Milton, Kirk Natoza, Doug Nottingham, Todd Davidson, Scott Howarth, Barendo, Smackdab, Nicholas Wolf, Ben Phillips, Paul Guziewski, Alex Larking, Scott Nystrom, Douglas Anderson, Greg Hodgdon, ZagOnEm, Robert Beach, Peter Leventis, veleum, Kevin Boyce, Lamadesbois, Aaron Zhu Freedman, Hexa Midine, Nicholas Steicke, John Polgreen, Tuna, Mathew Wolak, Mark Sibly, Killian Hackenschmidt, Blake White, Michal Mikolaj Maslowski, Todd Hauser, Phillip D Neal, Aaron Epstein, Chris Connett, Scott Frazer, Eric J Amorelli, T, Lincoln Mendell, Vincent Engler, Noam Fields-Meyer, Luke, salman karout, Carsten Lechte, Sam Rezek, Lucas Augusto, Matt McKegg, Dominic Montanez, Marcus Doyle, Beth Martyn, Caitlin Olsen, Taylor Martin, h2g2guy, Kenneth Kousen, James, Skyler, W. Dennis Sorrell, Mordredd, Melvin Martis, NoticeMK, Natalie Ferraro, Hubert Ulber, Emily Christ, Hikaru Katayamma, Adeline Mueller, Sarah Sutton, Doug Lantz, Evan Satinsky, Strattara, Stephen Shepard, Anna, Brian Cohen, James Little, and RaptorCat! Your support helps make 12tone even better!
Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[@12tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections:

[@TheArchsage74]

"My father's a music theorist" is the new "My wife's a doctor"

[@sainthuckelberry]

Turns out music facts don't care about your feelings.

[@Lukz243]

"jazz is a skill degradation from classical"

[@HaliPuppeh]

"Rock is a degradation of jazz and jazz is a degradation of classical."

[@admkbldwn]

"Why Ben Shapiro Is Wrong" is an entire genre

[@LordPixel2012]

According Ben Shapiros argument a drum solo isn't music.

[@SethKotta]

"It's not a form of music, it's a form of... 'rhythmic speaking.'"

[@user-dj6mj5ck6s]

When his voice came in, I literally couldn't tell if it was someone making fun of his voice or actually him speaking

[@baconbitz7937]

You forgot one important argument on Shapiro’s side...

[@nataliagonzalez1698]

“Jazz is a degradation of classical” lolwut

[@ililililil8385]

Ben Shapiro: "Leftists are elitists"

[@bananabattlebean4858]

"Professional opinion haver". That's the best description of Benny Sharp I've ever heard.

[@MyChevySonic]

Ben "I use my own definitions" Shapiro can't appreciate music because it requires an independent mind and soul.

[@chekovsgunman]

"Otherwise we're forced to conclude that he just doesn't know nearly enough about rap to be speaking so authoritatively about it, and what are the odds of that?"

[@ericmyrs]

Ben Shapiro: "Jazz. Degradation of skill from Classical. "

[@estebban345]

According to shapiro's logic if my dad is a surgeon i can perform open heart surgery

[@Roxanneredpanda]

Remember when Ben Shippero said John Lennon's Music is bad because John Lennon didn't know music theory...

[@keedt]

"my wife is a doctor and my father went to musicke school, therefore I am right and you are wrong" -- Shen "logic man" Bapiro.

[@_staterus]

“But here’s the thing: I’m an expert in the field.” Man just ended Shapiro.