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Man you are really killing it with the emoticons! I think for those of us raised on Hip-Hop, who have called it music, it does give it some legitimacy when professors who teach music acknowledge Hip-Hop as 'music'. I think we long for that sort of acceptance. While it doesn't make or break the genre, being accepted is always important. (right?) In regard to jazz, YES call and response is a component of Jazz. I didn't say it is exclusively associated with Cab, I only used him as an example just as I would have used Ella as an example since they are both considered important voices in Jazz. Call and Response is a critical component of jazz and it is the play between musicians in quintets and quartets that make jazz tie in so well with Hip-Hop. Showing how jazz artists call out each other during their solos allows me as a former instructor to draw a comparison to a Hip-Hop emcee who interacts with the deejay and his audience. Where you had the lead trumpet or sax carrying the solo in jazz, it's the voice in Hip-Hop that carries the solo. I think one of the coolest attempts at authenticating Hip-Hop as music was with Buckshot Le Fonque (Branford Marsalis' group). I think when people place Hip-Hop into a box (I get that it is your opinion) it completely ignores the groups like Roots or Stetsasonic or Spearhead. What's really important to me is that making a connection to jazz through the call and response connection allows me to introduce younger people to jazz. Introducing my students (when I taught) to jazz allowed me to introduce them to the Harlem Renaissance and show them how the poets and writers derived a lot of their style and culture from the music and that today's artists and writers are no longer connected in the same way which is why the Black community is struggling and fractured. Another reason I brought up call and response is because when people discuss Blacks and music the discussions start with field songs and call and response and this continues through the creation of blues, gospel, rock and roll and has continued with Hip-Hop (are you starting to get the feeling I've planned this discussion out for a while? lol) I do understand what you are saying about emcees not having to carry a note, but in the same sense couldn't we argue that Free Jazz isn't music sense it doesn't have musical qualities outside of the fact that it uses instruments? The idea that orchestral music only incites when synchronized with personal emotion kind of implies that rap is emotionless except for its lyrics. But I get this discussion and I kind of agree so I won't try to counter this one. It is not enough that rap is considered simply a genre. Hip Hop is an acquired taste and once people are introduced to the correct songs and music they will begin to build an affinity and appreciation for the artform akin to what people have done and do with both jazz and classical. If you'd like I will put together a playlist of songs you should listen to that will definitely give you pause enough to consider Hip-Hop beyond just Snoop and Lil Wayne who are way down at the bottom as far as I'm concerned. Just say the word and I will work on it. I'll do my best to put together a list with as few samples as possible. :-) One emoticon