Slightly off topic

Do you think modern hip hop promotes more negative stereotypes than "old school" rap did?

One on hand you have a emerging underground/expiremental scene, while on the other you have more blatantly comical and obscene hip hop then ever before

While in the 90's you had a bigger focus radical politics, now it's more about swag and loose punchlines.

That being said, mainstream hip hop has always had a few main subjects:
inferiority of women
gang life
ass in general

Over 20 years it really hasn't changed a whole lot from sir mix a lots "i like big butts"

Is the pop side of hip hop going to be like country music, where we just hear the same recycled **** from now on?

black music in general lost in soul by the late 70s

I prefer to listen to artists with positive lyrics, and I'm never short of artists to listen to.

i can agree to an extent, although these days i think the biggest focus on hip hop is the production. even so, there's artists in the mainstream that'll have songs about more than that (Kid Cudi, Kanye, etc) but i admit even they can fall into the trappings of women, money, cars.

but then again, i'll listen to something good regardless of message, so i'll trade great music for a lackluster message anyday.

Pretty much that's how it goes, you made a perfect analogy to country music where there tends to be some common themes that are overdone within the country genre.

Just because those common themes ARE mentioned that doesn't mean that everything that is released will have said themes.

Country music has been around for hundreds of years though, and a lot of those themes has to do with its origin, and longing for a simpler time where it was acceptable to beat your wife and hang ******s.

For a genre that is so young i would hope that, as a whole, it would elevate more by now.
Because it's a form of music based on samplin and combining sounds i wish it would take more influence from some more interesting sources.

In the 90's for a brief while you had a period of really cool positive jazz influenced hip hop, that was really great, and still consumed by the masses. Then for some reason that dissapeared into club and gangster tropes again.

I do have some hope, with ODFWGKTA and various self-aware, hip hop-parodying artists coming up and getting recognition, but as a whole I still think hip hop is incredibly immature and stupid when represented on commercial mediums.

Rap is the music equivalent of reality tv right now.

Hmmm I need to stop you there. I think you mean MAINSTREAM rap is the music equivalent of reality tv.

Old school is where new school came from..

I'm just sayin.

spoken like a true old timer

You cant really have one without the other. Music evolves.
Old School was relevant and spoke for that generation. As new school is today.

Easy E, Wu Tang, Big L, Rakim, =====> Tupac, Biggie, Nas, Jay Z, Mobb Deep Out Kast =======> Kanye West, 50 Cent, Eminem, Lil Wayne (current) =====> J Cole, Drake Kendrick Lamar, Blu, Big Krit (if they dont fall off) ..Hip Hop will always be good....that old school vs new school **** is stupid..there is always true hip hop....