Rap and hip hop has a serious quality control issue because supporters of rap music feel that if they admit that the mainstream rap scene is dogged with a load of posers it'll give ammunition to all the anti-hip hop luddites. The mainstream music is awful and so is that "pimp/gangsta" image, but if you look past that into the underground scene, some of it is very good.
But rap will always carry this stigma. Ice T didn't do it any favours early on, and now it will always be mostly associated with the glorification of degenerate thugs and criminals. Rap really needs to reinvent itself and get a whole new genre to remove itself from that stigma.
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