Hip-Hop: No Bad Rap Anymore

Before saying goodbye to the Grammys for another year, here’s a final set of nominees to consider.

The category: Who was Wednesday’s biggest winner?

The nominees:

(a) Lauryn Hill, who won more Grammys than any other female artist ever in a single year--five, including best album for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

(b) Grammy credibility. After years of embarrassing choices, Grammy voters have made the most deserving back-to-back best album judgments since Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and U2’s “The Joshua Tree” won in ’86 and ‘87, respectively.

(c) Women. Hill’s victory was the fifth time in the ‘90s that a woman has won for best album --a sign that there is finally equal opportunity in what was once a male-dominated pop world.

(d) Madonna. After years of being ignored by Grammy voters, the former Material Girl finally won three awards, including best pop album for “Ray of Light.”

(e) Hip-hop. The “Miseducation” victory was the first time a hip-hop--or rap--album had ever won in the Grammys’ most coveted category, a sign that the music--so maligned over the last two decades--has finally won widespread industry acceptance.

There are reasons to vote for all the choices, but the best answer is (e)--hip-hop itself.

Much like rock ‘n’ roll before it, hip-hop has had to struggle for acceptance against a skeptical adult pop audience.

The knock against this sometimes raw and radical style initially was that hip-hop wasn’t really music. Pop traditionalists couldn’t understand that an art form could be built around turntable scratching and lyrics that were spoken rather than sung.

When hip-hop entered the pop charts through Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979, it was dismissed as lightweight. By the time Run-DMC rerecorded Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” in the late ‘80s, the music took on a harder edge that attracted young rock fans.

But the chances of it moving into the adult pop diet pretty much ended with gangsta rap of N.W.A, a sometimes violent and misogynistic style that has become synonymous with hip-hop in the public’s mind. Though some hard-core rappers have articulated frustrations and desires of a generation with the intensity of some of rock’s most prized figures, the music was too harsh for mainstream ears.

There have been positive voices that could appeal to a wider audience, but no one has linked the heart of hip-hop and R&B; to pop traditions as brilliantly as Hill in “Miseducation.”

In the collection, the 23-year-old emerges as an ambassador for hip-hop the same way one of her heroes, Bob Marley, once served as an ambassador for reggae. She has not only helped lift the art form to a new level, mixing it with the craft and accessibility of Stevie Wonder. By selling nearly 4 million copies of “Miseducation,” she also has shown other hip-hop artists that they can venture away from the “thug life” themes and image and still be hugely successful.

Despite all the acclaim she has received, Hill still seemed like an outsider Wednesday--no doubt remembering the days when hip-hop was dismissed so freely.

“This is crazy because this is hip-hop music . . .,” she said at the podium Wednesday night, proudly waving her best album trophy.

It was a moment of triumph for everyone who cares about the future of pop music. Hill’s Grammy awards made it official: Hip-hop is now a strong--and welcome--part of our pop experience.