Rap and Hip Hop are no longer what they used to be. It has evolved into another form of pop music.
Essentially all (commercial) rap went downhill after 1996 with a few exceptions here and there. 75% of the artists that have saturated this genre in the past 6 years have little talent.
All it has become is a commercialized endeavour to bring a fake thug image to the suburbian world. Most of the kids today bump **** for music that has thoughtless lyrics repeated constantly over and over again. Others just scream some bs that they try to pass off as hardcore and throw in a clean bass line to it and they call it music.
50 Cent got shot 9 times. Big whoop. Does that make him a good artist? Hell no. His voice is crap and so is his style.
Jay Z is a hack. Always has been. Only reason he even got big is because Pac and Biggie got taken out of the game and he took advantage of that.
This Sean Paul character is another Shaggy clone trying to pass off his annoying voice as music. He should be shot. Lil' Kim has always been the same old whore that she is, and she profits off of dressing like one and singing about how big of one she is. She should also be shot.
You have annoying kids coming into the game with annoying names, like Chingy, making rediculous pop music and getting paid millions to perform it. Nelly is a hack.
You think Puff Daddy or P. Diddy is good? Get your head checked. The only thing he is good at is doing business. He's a good producer, nothing more. After Biggie died all he did was sample beats from popular songs and do a weak rap to them.
The saddest part about most of this is that you got kids who listen to this crap and then they try to be something they aren't claiming that these people are artists with real talent. If you are one of those people you should be shot. These guys have no artistic talent. The only talent they have is fooling you into paying them money so they can spend $80,000 on jewelry which will get stolen from their hotel rooms whle in Las Vegas (Nelly.)
Don't get me wrong. Not all of the popular artists are bad. Take Eminem for instance. Before he became popular or even released his first single on the radio he was doing freestyle on local radio like the WakeUp Show in the Bay and other shows. He would show his lyrical skill and he'd battle people openly and show how he could pull a real rhyme, that made sense, and sounded good. Then he went on to capitalize off the stupidity of people by exploiting their desire for controversy. He's a good artist and he's laughing his ass off everytime he goes to the bank.
Ludacris has some skills on a similar level as well, but he's quickly selling out to a pop style himself. Missy Elliot has always had skill, and been a respectable artist. Dr. Dre since his days in NWA has always been a great producer, be it Death Row or Aftermath, and he keeps the beats flowing. Snoop is a hack now. In '93 he was real with Doggystlye and Murda Was the Case. He'd rip the stage up at the Up In Smoke tours with Tha Dogg Pound and others. Canibus is one of the best lyricists ever - his problem is that he hasn't been able to come out with a decent album - ever. Nas, another popular artist, has always been true to himself and shows his skills through the mic - even if he does bite off Pac's style now and again. RZA is a thinking man who can pull a rhyme out of any word you throw to him. Method and Red, though they quickly sold out, are still great on the mic. There's plenty more I haven't thrown out there like Ice Cube and some others.
Rapping about money, cars, gold teeth, "bling bling", and getting women is not what real rap or hip hop is. That is what you call pop - no better than Britney Spears.
Kids these days need a reality check. If you like hip hop or rap, that's fine - but make sure you know the difference between that and pop music.
The one thing I can't stand is when people claim to be something or someone they aren't. If you think wearing baggy pants, a silver chain, walking with a stupid limp, and bumping Nelly or Lil' John on your radio makes you look hard - then you deserve to be shot.
If you want to appreciate rap for what it really is, then listen to some real artists. If you really want to get deeper into it, then listen to underground artists who do it for the love of music and not for the money. (ie: Andre Nickatina, Mac Dre, E 40, etc)
eek: weird shania twain assosiation from my last line above 
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