Urban Hat€monger ?

OK , first off i`m not going to pretend to be the biggest hip hop fan in the world. But I do love the occasional hip hop album from time to time. But there`s something thats been bothering me for a while now & that is this.

Hip hop has become stale.

Seriously , listening to hip hop now reminds me of rock music circa 1975. It`s lost it`s touch with it`s roots. It`s all big budget self indulgent wanking. It`s like Puff Daddy is turning into the black Phil Collins , Eminem is turning into what Alice Cooper was , at first dangerous & shocking but I wouldn`t be surprised if in a couple of years he`ll be hosting celebrity golf tournaments. Quite frankly the whole genre is dissapearing up it`s bling bling arsehole.

Now I know what you`re going to say , you`re going to say 'but there are loads of great underground acts' , and I would imagine there are. Just like there were good underground rock acts in 1975.

Anyway , we all know what happened following 1975 in rock music ... thats right ...punk.

And I think thats what hip hop needs right now , i`m not saying musically. I mean as so far as impact & reaction to it and make it fresh all over again.

Quite frankly Hip Hop is calling out for a Sex Pistols style band , one that`ll kick the genre`s arse into the next decade , one that`ll consign to the likes of Puff Daddy , Akon , 50 Cent , Mario , Nelly & all those other 'pop stars' that don`t have an original idea in their collective heads to the dustbin of history.

Like I said , i`m not the biggest hip hop fan , but I think it`s about time that the genre had a good cleaning out.

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HuKitKat

for lack of better words,

I agree

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Difficult takes a day, Impossible takes a week!

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Listening to the "big budget self indulgent wanking" is certainly not the same as typically seen with kids who relate to generic, uninspired teen angst anthems. Most of your examples are club pop stars, where most people care just a bit more for the dance beat than the words spoken.
However, all those guys got popular in different ways. Eminem was authentic, and if this were 2000, he could very well be the "sex pistols style band' you're looking for, someone who was heavily influenced by the original hip hoop roots but tried to break away from the racial and social stereotypes. Unfortunately, he resorted to shock tactics, otherwise no one would have cared what he had to say. The more he got involved in the rap game, the more he became what he didn't want to become. He's slowed down tremendously, and still figures that taking cheap shots at unpopular celebrity figures will sell records. His songs are practically just as ghetto-moronic as his protege, 50 Cent- a minimal-talent fad rapper who's nine-shot gimmick gave him undeserved leverage. Even within G Unit, he happens to be the least talented, lyrically and otherwise. I'll give Nelly some credit for opening the doors for Midwest rappers, although he did it by basing his choruses around catchy, sing along nursery rhyme styles. He's a pop star, and once again, even within his own St Lunatics clique, he's probably one of the lesser talented lyricists.
But, the rappers know just as well as the records execs, the marketers, and you and I know- those kind of dumbfounded hood anthems sells (for whatever reason). Who would have thought 20 years ago that these kind of lyrics would merely become played out hip hop cliches? It's ironic that most of the time, the people buying these records are the same people being demeaned and demoralized in the songs.
Really, this thread can be applied to a much broader scope, current music in general. You can't really "clean out" what sells. And as you expected, yes, there are great rappers out there who don't get as much recognition. If you, and everyone else just started believing that, then hip hop wouldn't need a spring cleaning. Those artists would be making money, and rightfully so.

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As far as those good rappers are concerned, take a look at guys like Nas, KRS One, Ghostface Killah, Scarface, Raekwon, Kurupt, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Dilated Peoples, 8ball, tech n9ne, etc. Most of them have their brief "bitches and hoes" moments, but are also well established lyricists in the rap game, and also achieve some sort of commercial success (to an extent). If you focus on one sector of any given genre, anything can look bad. For example, take the Indie Forum. A guest coming by seeing the same old threads on Bloc Party, Hot Hot Heat, The Bravery, The Killers- sh*t, you can say Indie needs a clean up. Or the rock forum, with people STILL talking about SOAD and Slipknot all day. I can go on for hours.

anticipation

word, i miss the rappers like NWA, Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys

Urban Hat€monger ?

Oh don`t get me wrong i`m not saying that things are not like that in other genres on music , it just seems to me that in hip hop it seems to be a lot worse.

I mean lets be honest when was the last time a big name rapper came out with a successful, critically acclaimed album with universal appeal that changed the way people looked at hip hop & broadened it`s horizons?

I think the last one I can remember was Public Enemy`s Fear Of A Black Planet & that was over 15 years ago.

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hookers with machineguns

^ I love Public Enemy, but in my opinion, rap started going downhill after the demise of Pac and Biggie (really, they elevated each other. personally, I consider Pac one of my favorite artists period. Rap or otherwise). Really, I think someone like Nas can indeed be mentioned in the same breath as those artists. He might not have international appeal or be a big name, but the talent is undisputable (well to me).
But I do agree, it is pretty bad with the rap game. For instance, the artists you mentioned in the first post- probably among some of the WORST and undeserving commerically successful artists of the past two decades.

anticipation

tupac isnt fit to shine biggies shoes. Biggie is 10 times better in my opinion

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I think I remember someone on this site saying "Biggie is a storyteller. Pac is a poet". I agree with that. But, Pac had so many good songs (not to say Biggie didnt). I don't think I could name all of them in one sitting.

Growth and Development

Yup agreed. In my opinion underground and old school rap are the way to go. Mainstream is sinkin, there are only a few good ones left like Nas, Jadakiss, Eminem, T.I. and so forth.