well, adolescent as it might sound, yeah, i do feel somewhat let down by hip hop. not everything 'back in the days' was brilliant of course, and it did have its own problems, but i do feel like hip hop has kinda dropped the ball. maybe its just something that comes from listening to something so much, that after a while, it all seems samey and you get jaded, but hip hop just seems so complacent, so willing to reinforce the status quo/toe the corporate line in so many ways, its like people arent even 'trying' to up the stakes anymore. or at least, because its pop music now, hardly anyone is unwilling to venture too far outside its one dimensional comfort zone in case it ruins their chance to get paid like 50 (i mean, half the new rappers out proudly say they dont CARE about the music, theyre only in it to make money and i cant help thinking that in spite of this being an extension of the usual rap bravado where youre too cool to give a shit about anything, the attitude has had a large trickle down effect onto scores of other MCs who think that actually, no, you DONT have to care about rapping and you can still make it). im not one of these 'golden age' fetishists that only likes hip hop when it subscribes to soul/funk samples and knackered breakbeats or whatever, i love a lot of the new production (even though much of it is devoid of hardness), i like the fact hip hop hasnt (sonically at least) stopped changing, but there hasnt been any great new rappers to come from the genre in quite a while. no one is really saying anything of note, or saying something vacuous/something thats already been said in any fresh, vital new way. jeezy can barely rap to my ears but hes one of the biggest names in the US, which is bizarre to me. the low expectations and standards for hip hop are dismal IMHO. maybe this all sounds bitter and jaded and while i still enjoy things from mike jones (strangely i especially love it when he repeats the same old lines over and over like hes unaware hes ever said them before), slim thug (diamonds was brilliant), lil jon, ying yang twins, even D4L and dem franchise boyz or whoever, maybe modern hip hop as a whole just isnt for me. but people who say stuff like 'hip hop hasnt changed' or 'if you dont like it now, you probably never did' are talking shit.