Being from " Da Bronx " and a total urban whiteboy I've got an intresting prospective on rap/hip hop or whatever it's called this year.
It went from the sugar hill gang talking about funny tasteing food at a friends house to the fat boys who were just comical, along with kid and play.
Around 87 gangster began to come into the light, talking about drugs, money and 'bangin. NWA and others fill this spot. It brought to light many of the problems of the inner city youth, things like poverty, lack of education and racial tension.
In the 90's there was the whole west coast/east coast split with tupac and biggie smalls drama being a classic example. You also had artists like snoop dogg and the wu tang clan come out, pushing the envalope.
Since then rap has... well it's gone pop. Most guys put out there first album talking about how they bust caps and sell the yeyo( cocaine ). The second almub or even the third if they busted a lot of caps and sold a lot of coke, they are talking about there money and all that playa bull@#$%. It's become commerical, normal and just plain flat.
I personally like it, but very, very little. I prefer gangster to hip hop, east coast to west coast.