When will rap music be less mainstream?

I love Hip Hop. I find most other Audiogon persons posting on this subject are very negatively slanted toward this genre (and it appears rarely have been exposed to the music if at all), given the sophmoric answers I see all the time.

Hip Hop was the best selling genre in the last 20 years. Rock and Jazz are a mere fraction of its sales. Beyond its commercial success, it has also developed a sophisticated market that constantly pushes it to mutate. I think the most intelligent music magazine OF ANY GENRE is Wax Poetics, which over 38 editions has showcased Afro-centric rap music and hip hop (as well as R & B, Soul, Reggae and Jazz). It is the best written magazine we have.

As with any genre, there will always be "artists" that are so derivative and mainstream that they become an afterthought down the road. Rap and Hip Hop have had a high percentage of "one hit wonders." However, it has also produced artists of great depth. I believe that these selected artists and titles will give you a rich and tempered view of sonically arresting music that will stay fresh to your ears:

From England, I can highly recommend The Streets (A grand don't come for free) and Roots Manuva (Awfully Deep).

From New York, the Beatie Boys (Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head), Eric B. and Rakim (Paid in Full), KRS-One (A Retrospective), Kurtis Blow (Kurtis Blow), LL Cool J (Radio),Lauren Hill (The Miseducation), the Notorious B.I.G.(Life After Death), Run DMC (Run DMC) defined the essential East Coast Hip Hop Sound. Public Enemy had the best album of 1989 with "It Takes a Million" which married potical and social commentary. Other artists I can recommend are the Wu Tang Clan and Jay-Z from the outer neighborhoods of NYC.

The Roots are one of the best live instrument bands from Philly.

From the South, I can highly recommend the production of Timbaland, especially with Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliot (So addictive; Under Construction). I can also recommend Spank Rock and OutKast from Atlanta.

Chicago has produced Kanye West (808 and the Heartbreak) and Common. Detroit produced Eminem, who was the best selling artist last decade.

Los Angeles has spawned the Black Eye Peas, A Tribe Called Quest (The Love Movement), Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube.

Try these and tell me what you think. Be open to new sounds and you will be rewarded.

Rap = the tormenting sounds from Hell. =8^)

"Rap" - they just left the "C" off of the word.

Bongofury, point taken. For me though, it is simply a matter of taste. I have kids who play, or did play, rap music frequently. I listened to it and realized it wasn't for me. When I say wasn't for me, I mean I was not the target audience.
Listen and let listen is what I say. Still, I don't care to be assaulted while stopped at traffic intersections. Also, I'm sure there are people who take offense at the language when their small children are treated to it.

Darkmoebious, you are dead wrong on that. Be it Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or even Elvis Presley, all of the early rock 'artists' who with the exception of Elvis in that group, wrote their own songs, and my God PLAYED THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS, gave huge credit to those whose music they were emulating.

Hollowing Wolf, Robert Johnson..... there are a ton of great blues ARTISTS who are revered, and rightly so, for their absolute greatness, and their role in the founding of Rock n Roll. You just need to read a little bit about the Rolling Stones, and especially Led Zeppelin, they all enthusiastically gave credit to their influences.

Also, they didn't just take their recordings, because they were not talented enough to play the music themselves, and write lyrics over them with a drum maching pumping out a bass line. Instead they took the music to a different direction and added their own slant on it, with songs written and played with the Blues as it's base influence.

Huge difference.