I am also heavily confounded by the sudden hatred of hip hop and rap. not 5 or 10 years ago you crazy white kids used to love the shit out of it, now the "in" thing is to hate it. I chalk it up to a new generation and racism becoming popularized once again on the internet. But mostly I think the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of cable music channels and their playing of the worst form of hip hop, what I like to call "player rap." Unlike gangsta rap which glorified poverty, living in the projects and trying to hustle cash, player rap is all about being rich, surrounded by bitches, and spending money on status symbols. Basically it's all an episode of CRIBS set to a cheesy beat.
The rap I listen to is all old stuff. On my compilation CD's in the car I've got nothing but people like Slick Rick, Kurtis Blow, Big L, Pac, Gang Starr, etc., and more "recent" stuff like Wu Tang, Twista, Reakwon, acts like that who just put out enjoyable music without getting completely lost int he materialism. Just like most genres of music I find that 95% of the current hip hop is garbage, but every once in a while a little nugget of decency comes around. I kinda draw the line in the late 90's/early 2000's. All the best of the best are either dead or unrecognizable, like Snoop Dogg who justs sits back, high as shit, and waits for people to approach him to be on their club-friendly pop track to boost sales and radio playability as opposed to making his own records these days.
The last good rap album, pound-for-pound, was Blackout by Meth and Red. Not one bad song on the whole thing, you can listen to it front to back and never have to hit skip track. It's too bad Method Man only comes around as often as Saturn.
