First of all not many rap artists and fans out there know what the true meaning of Hip-Hop is. Can you even call them artists? They just rhyme their ways in search of cash and hoes and not the love for Hip-Hop. They just don't know the true culture. It goes deeper then rhyming about your Lincoln Navigator "rolling" on "twenty-inch dubs". Hip-Hop was manifested out of four elements. The four elements of Hip-Hop are b-boying, graffiti, dj-ing, and lastly emceeing or commonly known as rapping. With out these elements, they shouldn't even classify what they call their music as Hip-Hop. .
Emcees used to make their records with passion, with their lyrics based on their life experiences, emotions and aspirations. Now most of Hip-Hop like this remains underground, but if it's not like that, can we still call it hip-hop? The majority of mainstream (commercialized) Hip-Hop lyricists use their fortunes and girls to create records. I think this is a decaying state to the Hip-Hop culture. Hamelock Nelson states that, "The quality of rap music has suffered a serious condition of commercialism" (1). Basically, the key to get into mainstream Hip-Hop is to completely change your image and your music. .
I hate the fact that most people today have this fictitious stereotype on hip-hop music. Because of commercialized hip-hop and society, when people think of hip-hop, they think of cars, cash, girls, clothes, and jewelry. Because of this stereotype and the commercialism of hip-hop, not many people feel the same love for hip-hop and not many people want to listen to it. People are tired of seeing the same flashy videos and hearing about getting this girl in bed. I know I"m tired of seeing and hearing this gibberish. Variations of it is tolerable, but I don't prefer listening to it. The only thing I can do with it is dance to it. I can't really listen to it and feel their lyrics as if I was to listen to underground hip-hop, which I believe is the hip-hop that still keeps it real.