interesting comments by all...from those who seem to know about rap & hip-hop, those who don't know as much as they think they do, and those who've never really listened to it but feel they know all about it.
by no means am i an aficionado, but i was actually alive when hip-hop first came on the scene and have listened (and not always liked) as it matured and then evolved.
first, let me answer the question posed by the poster of the thread. 50 annoys me to no end...an album and a half in and he suddenly thinks he's the man? don't think so... always have been a fan of dre and snoop. u have to respect LL because he's one of the few from the "golden age" of hip hop (mid-80's when hip-hop broke out) who can still put it down 20 years later.
now...i feel the need to ask why people still talk about "gangsta rap", when it pretty much died along with biggie and 2pac? while many rappers still bring the street to the studio, that has always been a part of hip-hop, and i don't think that will ever change, but most of the rappers today only devote a cut or two off a cd to reminiscing about the danger of the streets.
second...if there were no such thing as "bling" cuts (songs devoted to bragadoccio), hip-hop never would have made it out of new york...what is hip-hop without, "i'm bigger, better, badder, have more women, money and cars"? again, that goes back to the roots of the genre, if there's no place for that then there's no place for hip hop in your cd collection.
third...hip-hop, like most other genres of music has many styles. to lump rap together is like saying all rock is the same or all country is the same. if rap sucks and metal rules, what about the hip-hop/metal artists? or have u taken the time to listen?
lastly, i saw some good comments in response to the question of what rap/hip-hop has added to society. i often wondered myself, what middle-class suburban kids who whined about how misuderstood they were and how out of place they felt added to the music scene in the 90's, but then i didn't ask nirvana to justify their art.
i don't like most hip-hop, i'm not a fan of most of the stuff that comes out of the south, but i've come to like some, and i'm a jazz fan who, along with fans of classical music, are considered to be among the most elitist music listeners of all. i bet if some of u who claim to hate rap actually listened to it, you might find an appreciation for it, as i did.
