Why Rappers & Musicians Don’t Mix

Let me get on my soapbox (like you REALLY want to hear this):

1. Rap requires a sense of timing (like most Black music) that must be nearly perfect. ANY mistake in rhythm will be blatantly obvious, and, well, just because a person is a musician doesn't mean they have RHYTHM.
2. The tone structure in Rap is EASTERN, not WESTERN. I know people think that they are just "winging it" or "freestylin'" or doing whatever they feel, but the expression still is within a certain framework, or else you wouldn't recognize it as Rap. Hip Hop's musical sounds are very similar to music in East Africa, China, India when it comes to Hard Core. Softer Hip Hop is more Blues oriented, so it is easier for musicians trained on this side of the world to pick up, but still difficult because of reason #1 above.
3. Most musicians are very ARROGANT. I know this, because I am a rapper AND a musician--I play trombone, and also know some piano, tuba, and can play a little drums, AND I rhyme and write music. (Most of us trombone players have good ears too. Because the horn has a slide and not buttons like a sax or trumpet, you have to listen a bit more to be sure you are in tune.) They here a simple, programmed beat and bass line and think that's all there is to it. They don't realize the stamina and focus it takes to duplicate that on a horn, guitar, or drum set with little or no mistakes.
4. Rap is just too BLACK for a lot of artists. They fear it. They are awed by it but still want to undervalue it or exploit it, just like our country tends to do with Black Youth. I really think that subconsciously they don't take it seriously because they don't take young black people seriously and hey, it's young black people's music!! This goes for musicians, REGARDLESS OF WHAT COLOR THEY ARE.
5. Rap has rules that musicians feel they don't have to learn. They learn the rules to play Jazz, R&B, Classical, Blue-Grass, Rock, and so on, and since they think Rap has no structure, they think they can take the same approach to it that they take to other music and they CAN'T. There is no institution or conservatory for Hip Hop or workshops for musicians to learn Rap as Music or books about the subject. I've had people suggest that I write one, but to be honest, I prefer to keep the rules unwritten so that the music will stay fresh and we can have at least one African-American artform that someone won't tell me how to play because he read it in an outdated book somewhere and think that ONE SINGULAR BOOK IS THE BIBLE FOR A TYPE OF MUSIC.
6. Musicians don't know enough about Hip Hop to be able to communicate properly with Rappers and DJ's. Rappers and DJ's, ON THE AVERAGE, have no formal training in music, so they don't know how to communcate with musicians. EVEN IF THEY DO, LIKE I DO, THE MUSICIANS STILL TEND TO IGNORE YOU BECAUSE THEY DON'T THINK YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MUSIC BECAUSE YOU CAN ROCK A MICROPHONE OR SPIN A RECORD.

The above are some reasons are why DJ's and MC's tend to dislike musicians, and why most musicians will call rap "noise". The DJ's and MC's have no patience for musicians, and don't know how to speak the language of music so that musicians will understand, and the musicians are too arrogant to admit their own ignorance. And even if you can speak both languages like I can, the musicians still want to feel superior and will resent you for knowing something when, as a Rapper, you are expected NOT to know ANYTHING at all about Music.

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