Yeah that is far worse then then terrorism, gun rampages, war and all the other trivial stuff.

If you don´t like the music don´t listen to it.

Amen.

Nah. It's not dead. It's just not being forced onto the mainstream like it used to. It's still popular, it still has talented artists, it's still big in the clubs, and it's still the sound of the streets.

I'll actually argue that now is a great time for rap. There are a lot of AWESOME artists out there: Immortal Technique, The ROOTS, Wise Intelligent, Lil B, etc. The only problem is, those guys are underground and have a very political message that mainstream execs do not like.

Rap has been severely filtered over the years and it gives the genre a really bad name. The only "artists" allowed on the radio are people talking about deviance, drugs, money, hos, and consumer products. Rap is still great. Just the REAL artists don't have the avenue to the masses they used to have in the 80's and 90's.

You really think that's worse than terrorism and other horrible stuff? To me there's difference between shitty news and bad/horrible news...

I don't listen to it, but when every other song sounds like it on the radio it's hard to avoid...

Funny that I only recognize Jay Z and I have never heard of the others.  Perhaps I might have but I have no clue who they are.  The only song I liked from Jay Z was Big Pimpin and that was probably because of UGK (and the beat was decent and Jay Z didn't sound like complete shit).

I'll just list the only rap I ever cared for..

2 Pac, Cypress Hill (Black Sunday and Cypress Hill IV were bad ass), DMX (his first few albums when he came out), Eazy E, Master P (yes he has some pretty shitty songs later in his career but when No Limit first came out they were good, aka Ghetto D), Mystikal (raps fast, almost as fast as Twista),  Bone Thugs n Harmony,  Three 6 Mafia, Wu-Tang Clan, UGK

2000+ doesn't have shit compared to those rappers.

Rap is nowhere near dead. Mainstream music as a whole is dead(creativity/talent wise, with a few exceptions). If you look for good Hip-Hop it's easy to find, and a good amount of Rap albums released within the last couple years are easily among the best albums of all time. It's pretty much the same case as rock, you can easily say rock is dead, too. But, if you dig deeper and discover the amazing indie bands out there, it'll easily change your view of the current state of the music industry. It's really not as bad as you think it is.

Mainstream rap that is on the radio and TV predominantly? Yea that is awful most of the time. Those songs are usually strictly following some type of formula to appeal to the masses. You may find one or two songs every couple months that are actually good which happen to sneak their way onto the charts.

The underground/mixtape scene is a completely different story. There are some impressive rappers out there who simply smartened up and stuck to the more creative independent route. There you can usually find people at their hungriest, with music mostly unaltered by the demands of "Hip-Pop" corporations.

Right now during this recession, Hip-Pop has reverted to this really corny 'Triumph" stage where every popular song is talking about overcoming the odds or something. You can tell because the beats for all these songs sound very similar. The only producer who does this that stands out (who I know by name only) is Alex da Kidd. Examples include:

Eminem- Not Afraid. BoB - Airplanes. Slaughterhouse & Cee-Lo - My Life. Big Sean - My Last

Other themes include corny 'college-geared' sounds like Chiddy Bang or Flo-Rida club songs with minimal rap verses.

Overall though, the sound of rap has changed, and I still love it for the most part. The audio quality has obviously improved with the times, and some rappers have great ears for production. Rappers are still embracing conceptual projects and 'sounds' to their music. By 'sound' I mean something that can be defined and constantly appears in their music.

Jim Jones recently adopted a...gothic sound in his recent mixtapes with the Vampire Life Series. Vado has a real spectral air to his songs (Hands Down is the best example). Kid Cudi pretty much has in own genre of music. Kanye & Good Music are embracing 'Trap-Futuristic' right now to mixed results...Ye's lyrics have faltered quite a bit in the last 12 months. But for some odd reason, I find my self listening to a lot more Pusha T.

Rap had more of a message in the 90s than in the 2000s.   2 Pac strived for change in some of his songs (hell he even had a changes song).  Sure he had his "hardcore" songs but at least most of his songs actually had a message.  Rap past 2000+ = fuck sluts and whores, get fucked up, avoid gold diggers, sell out to bitch made songs (aka girl songs),  etc

Lupe Fiasco summed it up simply that there is no balance.

15-20 years ago, for every 2 Live Crew , you had a De La Soul. There was room for introspective and rambunctious rap. Now, there is absolutely no rap based on technique, wit, or positivity in the mainstream. It is sex, money,  guns, weed, and this weird fixation with taking other men's girlfriends all the damn time.