When rap came out 30 years ago I thought it was just a fad

If you're comparing Rap to Jazz, 80s and 90s Rap music was free-form, inventive, improvisational. There was a similar niche market.
But now it's a formula like Pop music, it's mass produced for the younger generation and along with that comes the fashion so your kid can look like his favorite thug. IMO, this mass-marketed formula not only includes music that sounds the same, but all Rap artists now look the same.

I can understand how Rap music and it's fashion is so popular, due to some very smart marketing people, but I cannot understand how Hollywood and celebrities embraced it.

Someone earlier said that Rap took a wrong turn and I agree.  I was listening to this style of music since the term "Rap Music" was coined as a genre. For me, it goes back to 1980ish with The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Anybody who's heard their song "The Message" knows what real Rap is about. These were a group of young Black men from the South Bronx with a social and political message about growing up on the mean streets.

For close to two decades, groups with a message such as Public Enemy, NWO, Run DMC (who were more tongue in cheek), Kool Moe Dee, Salt-n-Pepa, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Tupac in the 90s and so many others produced rhythmic and lyrical music. Some were political/social statements and some were just fun.
(and I'll agree that James Brown was the king).

Then came a generation of self-indulgent, "me generation" types and I can't explain how the music and the business changed except for the greed of the "artists" and their management, and the record labels.
The "formula" I mentioned earlier was created and the mass producing of music and music videos (everyone featuring big booties and the Hip-Hop stars living the good life while still being a thug and maintaining "street-cred") flooded the market. This formula includes a "one style fits all" type of Rap/Hip-Hop with heavy Auto Tune as a major part of the track. Only a handful of today's artists have anything to say; most songs are about being a thug, tapping that ass, bragging about sexual prowess and wealth.

And as mentioned earlier, it's mostly young White men and teens who are spending the money supporting this genre. Look at how many suburban HS kids dress the part and show no respect for women.

One note on Rap and Hip-Hop artists having no musical ability, I'd have to agree when talking about today's Rap. When this criticism arose back in the day, the Beastie Boys started to appear live playing their own instruments, which caused other Rap groups to tour with live instruments.

The Roots are a very talented band; I'd never include them in the category of today's Rap.
They have their roots (pun intended) from Jazz, Soul, R&B, old school Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock with some multi-cultural genres thrown in.

Agree, taters. I've seen them play here in Philly (their home town), and it's Funk/Jazz fusion.
The rapping is part of the dumbing down of music for the younger generation.

If you ask the roots themselves they have the completely opposite opinion.  The are the intelligent side of hip hop.

I can see that. My comments about the Roots pertain to their influences and musicianship. But Rappers today don't need or have any musical ability and wouldn't even know the names of the music legends that came before them.

I guess the Roots would label themselves a Hip-Hop group. Sometimes the rapping is very musical as in the following clip;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojC0mg2hJCc
 
sometimes it is just bad Rap with a very good musical accompaniment. 

Tostadosunidos, what's your definition of music and what's your definition of rock and roll?

I'll paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart...
"I can't define it, but I know it when I hear it."

There's something to be said to be born at the right time. :-)

So true.

I've been silent since early in this thread when I stated that I was listening to Rap in the early days. After seeing this thread going in circles, I have to say that I agree with calvinj's statements.
My earlier statement....

For me, it goes back to 1980ish with The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Anybody who's heard their song "The Message" knows what real Rap is about. These were a group of young Black men from the South Bronx with a social and political message about growing up on the mean streets.
For close to two decades, groups with a message such as Public Enemy, NWO, Run DMC (who were more tongue in cheek), Kool Moe Dee, Salt-n-Pepa, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Tupac in the 90s and so many others produced rhythmic and lyrical music. Some were political/social statements and some were just fun.

This is what calvinj has been saying, that Rap was the only way these groups had to express themselves. And people took notice. Back then it wasn't about dissing women and who spent the most time in jail. I call it music and a good part of it is performance art. Today's Rap has morphed into some bad formula music that I do not like.
Tastes change and mature and I listen to Classical now, but I kept my old Rap CDs and 12 inches.

This discussion reminds me of when I was involved in the punk rock movement in the late 70s, NYC. People said that wasn't music. It's funny that the white kids who were into Punk and New Wave (post-punk) all welcomed the Rap movement of the 80s. But when we were that age, we were open-minded.

bdp24,
I saw the "60 minutes" segment about the composer/performer of "Hamilton." Yes, he's a very talented young man.
He said that he wrote the music to be sung in the Rap style; that's his interpretation. You don't have to like it, in fact I don't think I could sit thru an entire Rap musical to be honest.

This Broadway musical is another example of Rap that is here to stay and is not part of the "thug" genre. Earlier, I cited the Roots as an outstanding band with a Jazz, Funk, R&B sound using Rap and Soul styles to perform their vocals.

I dislike the Rap I hear today and the message it's sending to the younger generation, but there will be diversity within the genre in the future. And if you don't like it, that's fine; we all have our own unique preferences. This isn't a forum to convince you to like Rap.