Just a quick note I want to make about this topic, for the people bickering about this and that, and for the people bickering about the rap genre in general. Rap is apart of the larger concept of Hip-Hop, which most sources would say mainly consists of rapping, beats, and dancing. But for all intents and purposes, the definition of the genre is wide so we'll call dancing, reception. Hip-hop is an art form that actually incorporates the reception in the product. You often hear people say that rap is shit because the rap they hear on the radio isn't socially conscious, but what you have to understand is, [i]there was no intention to be.[/i] As a hip-hop fan, I appreciate all styles, from Slug, Eyedea, MF DOOM to Chief Keef, Future, and Young Thug. What I'm trying to say is that being socially conscious is not the pinnacle for judging a rapper. Many people call Lil Wayne a horrible rapper because his subject manner is very typical, however his lyrical output is far from horrible. His rhymes are littered with word warping, double entendres, metaphors, assonance, etc. While the content may be lacking, the form at which it is said is superb. I won't go around calling Lil Wayne the best, however I'm just explaining that he's not the worst. And now I wouldn't call people like Future, Chief Keef, and Young Thug good rappers, but I will say that they aren't bad Hip-Hop artists because their work accomplishes it's intended reception. While you more edgy people may say "oh if that's your scale of judgement then that means hip-hop is a shit genre compared to mine," to which I say, no, idiot, not everyone wants to headband and moshpit when they party. If I judged the metal genre by how well it would be received in a club, I could call it an absolutely shitty genre. However if I judged the metal genre by the artist's intentions, you have a beautiful genre filled with raw emotion. If you go out and judge mainstream radio rap by how socially conscious and abstract it is, of course you're going to call it shit. If we judge rap/hip-hop by the artist's intentions, we have a diverse genre that can go from communicating emotions and social attitudes to getting people dancing and having a good time. You have to appreciate music by its ability to accomplish its intentions, not by your own reservations.