im with vigilante on this one, i think with most music these days if you eat up whats fed to you from the mainstream then you wont even touch the surface,
commercial us rap is big business and what gets exported is mainly the bling bling gangster rap that is almost totally seperate to hiphop,
you know when you are listening to hiphop because as much effort is made of the djing and beats as the rapper, check anything by blackaliscous/solesides/quannum,
jurassic 5,
soul position who have brilliant rappers and dj/producers like dj shadow, cut chemist and rjd2 and then say hiphops all about guns
apart from the fact that they are using ryhme, thats about how true it is to the original values and elements, and most true hiphop heads dont rate them either but heck if your choices as an artist are to stay in the gutter with your true music, or make it big time in the states just for singing about guns and hoes, then what are you gonna do???? most rappers/singers would go for the big time - thats why crap tv shows have queues half way round the city for auditions cause everyone wants their 15minutes of fame, the main reason why theres so much of that rubbish is because people buy it
same reason theres a continuous supply of x-factor and manufactured boy/girl bands, its not cause thats the height of musical talent, its cause they have a product they know they can sell and most people will lap it up
but for every gangster rap record that comes out - theres somebody somewhere putting out original tunes, that you have to look around for, i mean if people didnt go looking for music then everyone would still think meatloaf was the epitome of rock (maybe a bad example)
and dont count out other countries for hiphop either we in the uk have some of the best talent out there, roots manuva, phi-life cipher, mark b, taskforce, skitz
darren