Hip Hop culture is getting distorted by the fact that it now generates money, so the moneymakers come in with their influences... but the essence of hip hop will always be revolutionary, regardless of the amount of gyrating buttocks in glossy music videos.
The business is to blame more than the rappers, most of these rappers who are busy promoting stupidness, are coming from a place where they have nothing, and when you have nothing and someone throws millions of dollars in your face, on the condition that you promote what *they* want you to promote... well it takes a strong-willed person to refuse that, and the last thing this system teaches people to be is strong-willed.
"Owners got them whips [i.e. nice cars] and rappers is slaves... if you wanna eat you gotta hiss [be snakelike; promote negativity]"- dpz
What saddens me now is nuff of the new generation of "hip hop heads" don't even hardly know who is KRS ONE, Rakim, Poor Righteous Teachers etc... to them Jay Z, Tony Yayo, etc. *are* hip hop... but tools like that will never define the essence, of what hip hop is...