I don't see why so many are being stereotypical on here. Stuff like "Hip-hop artists are stupid," and "People who listen to hip-hop are stupid." Ridiculous. I'm a rapper and I sing RnB and I'll be the first to tell you, I'm very intelligent. Now, I can't defend hip hop's influence however. It's terrible. Talkin about slappin hos and being a pimp, it's pretty sad. It's going to teach my generation to disrespect women. I mean I'm only 15, but I've listened to rap and hip hop for about four years, and most all of it is pretty terrible until you get to the deeper stuff- stuff like Tupac's better songs. Even Eminem and 50 Cent do have these decent, deep songs.
But, needless to say, the songs that get played the most generally aren't very decent nor deep. Kanye West's new Gold Digger lyrics might be kind of along the lines of slapping hos, but take a look at Jesus Walks, Through The Wire, And I Heard. They all actually have some deep meaning. They're all pretty good songs that don't send terrible messages to the youth.
Many were attacking Kanye West, he's not the one to attack. Perhaps one of my favorite artists needs to be attacked- Nelly. His songs are just that- songs. They have no deeper meaning and all they do is tell the youth to be annoying. Also, you've talked about "gangster rappers," well, they can also send a good message depending on who it goes out to. Scarface's song "My Block" is more gangster rap, but it's sending a message to the youth in the ghetto- that they can still be successful.
On a whole, hip hop has kind of sunken from being deep in any fashion, but then again, look at Run DMC- they didn't always have the best lyrics 🙂 But, some hip hop is making a positive change.. I think someone mentioned Common. He's a positive rapper. Some rappers out there today are making decent songs and decent lyrics, but those who aren't are very detrimental.