Generalisations, they don't help anything.
I've noticed there's alot of hate here for hip-hop, it really gets on my nerves when I see people saying, "All rap/hip-hop is is black men talking about their bitchs, hoes and money", yea it is, in the same way rock music is men with half their face covered by hair crying about their ex girlfriend.
Let's be honest, the majority of the albums that make it to number one these days are bought by 12 year olds who don't know what file sharing is. You may personally not pirate music, but millions do, this is proven by the fact that now number 1 takes 500,000 albums sold, when before it was a couple million. Would you really judge all music by what a 12 year old kid thinks is good?
There is so much good music out there and the majority of it doesn't see the charts, so condemming a whole genre and it's fans because 50 Cent sucks is just unfair, the majority of people in the world of hip-hop hate 50 Cent just as much as the next guy. You should look at some of the real stuff before you start spouting off about how bad whole genres are. This post goes out to hip-hop fans who hate all rock/metal aswel.
Personally, I grew up listening to stuff such as Guns N' Roses, Metallica and U2 to name but afew, then as I got older I found hip-hop. I never understood what people meant when they said "It has no meaning", as whenever I want some educated music with a message I go for hip-hop, whereas whenever I want something fun to chill out to I go for rock, the majority of the time atleast. There is some rock bands that focus on message such as System Of A down, while some hip-hop is good for relaxing to, such as Nas.
So let's not focus on hate, let's speak about what we like about our favourite genre of music and maybe post an example, so everyone can enjoy the best of all worlds.
I'll kick things off with some hip-hop I like, my favourite hip-hop artist, Immortal Technique. His songs really opened my mind up to different ways of looking at the world and the realisation that the person telling me what I have to do with my life can be trusted no more than the person living next door to me. He is also very booksmart and has led me onto read about many interesting people and events.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP1exQ8tcUc
Suppose I'll do one for rock aswel, best go for Sonic Boom Six, they're a really fun and original band who also give some social commentary, they're pretty new at the moment and really could claim some more fans if they signed to a major label, which they have chosen not to do, but check them out.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iGetOXVJGk
So, everyone, go ahead, you will not be judged.
Also, do you agree with my first paragraphs? In that people do not open their ears enough and speak about hate without really knowing what a certain genre is all about.
