nah man, i dont think so.
50 and co are fine examples of what is wrong with USHH.
they kicked off a trend a few years back, where by it became cool to brag about how g you are.
selling crack aint cool.
robbing heads aint cool.
killing people aint cool.
i really dont want to listen to this when i listen to music. is there absolutely nothing else they can rap about??? is every waking second of their day-to-day life spent dedicated to being a law breaking badman? i doubt it.
off the top of my head i can name (bear in mind i stopped listening to current USHH a while back): 50, lloyd banks, tony yayo ("hey guys i know, ill use a slang word for cocaine as my stage name!! itll show people how bad i am!!!"), young jeezy (the whole snowman concept was stupid, how his record company let him get away with it i dont know), dipset (if i never hear a dipset song again i will die a happy man. anyone heard camron crucify marvin gayes lets get it on?) and fat joe (joey crack - how bait do you want to be??).
im not saying all USHH is weak. as i type im listening to a gangstarr beat. i just played "the world is yours" by nas. it seems to be anything from this millenium is weak.
ahem, akon.
Granted, UKHH is the same. its not 100% on form either. but im willing to bet again that a lot of the heads who are criticising it do not know shit about UK stuff. we seem to go over this again and again in this forum, when a Uk act gets some exposure in the states. 12oz had it when dizzee did it, then the streets, now sov.
none of these artists are hip hop. they are grime. US heads just assume that cos they are rapping, its rap. grime is different to HH and personally im not that big a fan of it....
its just that i dont like seeing UK stuff being picked on when it shouldnt be.
rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh, rant over.