While many people associate rap music with explicit lyrics and off-color subject matter, the first musicians who labeled themselves as rappers sang music that was played on public radio with no need to censor any of the lyrics. The rap music community is divided by the traditional rap that is free of explicit lyrics for the most part and the more radical style of “gangster rap.” Some rap artists, in an effort to release more CDs and sell more copies, often offer a recording in both an explicit version as well as a tamer version that eliminates the harsh lyrics and often replaces entire verses with friendlier lyrics. A rapper is often a musician and a salesman or woman who hopes to sell his or her art to a receptive buying public without compromising the art that is the music.
