Now first of all, this is only a theory. I don't know if it is true. But it would sure explain a lot.
My theory is that rap and hip hop was designed not to please people, but to please some people- its own fans and others like them- but to offend the sensibilities of older white people.
The problem with this is that a middle-aged white person in 1980 is likely to have grown up not only with Beethoven and Chopin but also Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles.
So to offend the sensibilities of older white people in 1980 who grew up on Kind of Blue, Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles, rap and hip hop had to offend the sensibilities not only of European-based music like Chopin, but all the older Black music that had become popular, from The Temptations to Miles Davis before 1968 to Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane.
Which not only limited the music, which after all is still American music, and still draws upon a base of European and African music- African music that sounds more like Kind of Blue than hard rap- which not only limited the music but forced it to sound harsh to a very wide range of sensibilities.
The result is a very narrow and often overly harsh genre, where it is difficult to do it well without it sounding harsh, and where it is difficult to come up with variety without it sounding harsh.
But one which still has plenty of scope and range within the sensibilities of its fans.
And that's fine.
But the entire music scene should not be like this.
We need to get away from expecting the entire music scene to be like this.
There should be room for the John Coltranes and Jimi Hendrixes and Whitney Houstons of America in our music scene.
Anyway, it's just a theory.
Listen to and create whatever music you want to, music is not gonna break anyone's bones after all!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. I believe something similar happened to punk as well- it was trying to offend the sensibilities of all the fans of most of the older musics, from Coltrane to Hendrix, and ended up with a very narrow range of possibilities! Grunge was as successful as it was because Kurt Cobain expanded the musical range by adding a few more musical elements adapted from metal in a very successful way, giving Grunge much more creative scope than punk- unfortunately just as America went into a big psychological funk that we have yet to pull out of, making it hard for us to explore those greater possibilities. (though Pearl Jam, Radiohead, and, drawing on hip hop as well, Billie Eilish and Finnean have done this very well!)
And Patti Smith embraced a lot that the rest of punk rejected! (the kind of things The Doors, Bob Dylan, and Springsteen are known for!)