You know what. A LOT of these artists don't rate what they were doing before even though it was ground breaking. Because they never got any credit for it. And they all believe making "commercial" tunes is the route to success.
It is a shame and a worrying mentality.
It is worrying.
The real shame is that grime seems to be trying to emulate the hip hop model of business and succeed on those standards. What they might not understand is that this same business structure is basically what has left hip hop a bit stagnant, slow-moving and undiverse right now.
Hip hop is fucked because on one hand you have these pinnacles of commercial success a la 50 Cent, Young Jeezy, etc. and then you have vast amounts of rappers who want to achieve success on those same standards. Some are good, some are terrible, but all have the same goal: to make as much money as their idols.
What this has resulted in are very few growing scenes independent of the mainstream in hip hop. It is almost like if you are not trying to be rich like 50 Cent, then you are trying to be rich like Young Jeezy, and if you're not trying to be rich like either of them, you're trying to make the Wu-Tang record that the world already saw 10 years ago.
I like Young Jeezy, and occasionally I like 50 Cent too. I also like some of the people who have followed in their footsteps artistically. What I don't like is when people decide to follow the leader primarily out of a concern to make as much money as those they are following. The music gets bad very quick, and if it doesn't get bad, it gets lazy.
I will return to the point I have made time and time again on this board:
Boy In Da Corner by Dizzee Rascal: commercially successful, critically acclaimed, internationally recognized... ALL non-compromised grime start to finish. Why is nobody following this lead? Even Dizzee isn't following this lead.