Ok so I've been reading all these posts and seems most of you are little out of touch with how things are these days. Being a junior in college I can explain how things really are. In todays world rap and hip hop are two different things. The majority of rappers out there are all talk and no show. You can pretty much compare their songs and videos to actors in a movie. It's not real, and it's not who they really are.
The whole reason hip hop songs exists are so they can be played in a club full of drunken college students and girls have some good beats to dance to and guys can either watch them get on top of the bar and stare at them or actually dance with them, and hopefully hookup with them at the end of the night. That's the sole reason for hip hop. It's all about having fun.
Those are you who are not familiar with current rap music out there need to take a listen to Jay Z's new album Kingdom Come, and Nas's new album Hip Hop is Dead. Both of these albums are gonna change up the whole rap "game." They talk about how all the music is crap these days, people can't rhyme, all they do is talk about their wealth, etc. It's not gonna be about the cars, and the rims, and the bling, and the sagging, and the thuggin', etc. Jay Z and Nas are hands down the best lyricists out there and some of the most respected rappers out there. They have the ability to switch it all up. You should really take a listen to the music on their albums if you really want to know how things are today and how they will be in the future.