It is so sad how the public seem to tag rap with negetivities like violence and gangsterism. People make the mistake of judging a good rap album by how hood or gang-related the artist is(are). Rappers now dwell on that factor and sell gangsterism. It's now about how good you can paint a gang-related/affiliated picture in your lyrics, mixed with ghetto 'rags to riches stories'. This should not be the case in judging how good a rap artist is. It should be about the lyrical content, mic skills, delivery and flow.
You have exceptional rappers like common, talib kweli, lupe fiasco, mos def, kanye west and krs 1 that don't fuse any form of gangsterism in their lyrics.
Back in 2006, after nas dropped his hiphop is dead album, southern rapper, young jeezy questioned nas's rights in making that statement. His reason was that nas had never been in a gang, he has never sold drugs or busted guns before. Now, should that be the criteria for making a statement like 'hiphop is dead'? Is that the criteria of a good rapper?
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