Perhaps That Was A Controversial Claim

In a previous post, about Senioritis, I mentioned that I would rather be listening to music than doing homework. Not a particularly outspoken claim. What I think is perhaps a bit outspoken is what I said next: that I find listening to music to be an intellectual activity.
I'd like to come from three angles at prove this claim. First is a basic straightforward argument that music makes you smarter. The second argument is a very Stephen Johnson-esque argument, about how it helps me from a cognitive standpoint. The third focuses much more on the idea of emotional intelligence.
This first argument might be the hardest to sell. To help it go down easier, I'd like to emphasize the idea that different types of intelligence result from different types of music. For this argument, I'd like to focus specifically on the genre of rap. And not Kanye West or even Eminem style rap, but mostly underground, indie rap. Rap like Billy Words' "History Will Absolve Me" or Aesop Rock's "Skelethon",  both albums I've been very into recently. The intellectualism of both of these albums fall mostly in the interpretation of their lyrics, which are very often littered with literary references. Take for example, "The Man Who Would Be King" by Billy Woods. The chorus of the song is the third stanza from White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling, the title is a reference to a short story by Rudyard Kipling, and the whole song is filled to the brim with references to the Bible, Edgar Allen Poe, and Rudyard's life and other works. As someone who is very interests in that album,  I find it worthwhile to look into these references, which included reading White Man's Burden. Undoubtedly, this exploration of his references has made me a smarter person, both sociologically and in terms of my knowledge of literature. Another great example of this is "Zero Dark Thirty" by Aesop Rock. While not quite as full of literary references, the Rap Genius of the song reads like a research paper. One lyrics generated an explanation that took up more than the screen. He also makes lots of references to culture around the world. Not only do I find myself becoming more aware of the world around me, I am forced to try to understand and interpret the meaning they're trying to put in the lyrics.
Which brings me to my second argument. While we tend to think of listening to music as a time for relaxation, our minds are never really relaxing. As I think Stephen Johnson proved pretty well,  our minds are working hard even when we have no conscious idea that it is. While listening to music, you are not only analyzing and attempting to understand lyrics, you are identifying and predicting patterns,  as well as noticing breaks to patterns that had been previously established. While these mental workouts manifest themselves as an experience of pleasure, they are nonetheless mental workouts, and they're even more pronounced for someone like me who listens to music avidly and is always trying to expose myself to new genres, artists, and songs.
Finally, we get to what is perhaps the most obvious intellectual benefit of music: the strengthening of emotional intelligence. Music, at least for me, has a power emotionally that very few mediums have. While I've watched my fair share of emotional movies or shows and played my share of emotional video games, there really isn't anything that can touch me like a song can. And when music does touch me significantly, it's not an effect that lasts only as long as the song or album. The music forces me to be more reflective of myself, and often helps me to become more aware of myself emotionally. This self-awareness is an intelligence that I think our culture heavily de-emphasizes. The idea that emotions are weak and that the biggest demons in one's life are always going to be real-life obstacles. I have never subscribed to either of those ideas, and music has helped me explore the strengths of my emotions as well as overcome the obstacles my own mind puts up.