People consider conscious rap now, in hip-hop circles, to feel condescending or feel like not a part of the mainstream. And those are the guys who are considered the best. They're talking a lot about partying you know, sex, having fun. And now you have Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Wale, J. And the best rapper became about who was the tough guy, you know? Who's busting they gun off or something like that. You had Tupac and Biggie came out, and then you had Jay-Z. Even if the majority of the content was negative, you had to have that. The best MCs in the world have always - when I first came in the business - always needed to have something conscious, something dealing with the community, something uplifting, something positive.

The history of conscious hip-hop is interesting.

Nikki Giovanni, Poet's Statement for 'RECOGNIZE! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture' at the National Portrait Gallery (2008).

Surely there are those who would demonize this group of young people, but they are only doing what our ancestors have always done: used what they have to get where they need to go.

Aaron Fuchs quoted by David Toop (1991).

Rap is definitely as true to the essence of rock 'n roll as anything that's out there today. The people who considered ' Sixty Minute Man' by Billy Ward and the Dominoes, ' Annie Had a Baby' - as the pinnacles of '50s R&B now are super uptight over the - in quotes - hotel/motel lyrics of rap. I consider the message rap the equivalent of what strings were to rock 'n' roll in the late '50s - a capitulation to the adult norm who can't accept the music on its own terms.

The only trend I do not like in rap right now is the message rap.

Ice Cube, ' Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It', Raw Footage, (January 3, 2008).

If I rob you of knowledge ain't nothin to it gangsta rap made me do it If I shoot up your college ain't nothin to it gangsta rap made me do it

If I call you a nappy headed ho ain't nothin to it gangsta rap made me do it

So if I act like a pimp ain't nothin to it gangsta rap made me do it.

Kurt Cobain, as quoted by Karen Bliss, M.E.A.T.

Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.

Hip hop refers to both a musical and a cultural genre that was developed predominantly by African Americans and Latinos (primarily of Puerto Rican ethnic heritage) in urban communities in the United States starting in the 1970s. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The potential for to deliver a message of extraordinary power, that gets people thinking.

Gangsta rap made me do it text