>I mean I love Born Like This. My favorite rap album from 2008
>is The Renaissance. I ain't saying we need to start putting
>out age limits on anything.

I feel you and I know that's not what you wre implying.

>Holy shit is Drake boring. So is Cudi. So, to some degree, is
>Lupe. I like Wale's flow/energy a little bit but not enough to
>generate a real reaction like others have led me to in the
>past. This isn't some cranky-old-man steez either. I wish
>these rappers at least generated enough for me to hate on them
>if nothing else. Instead it's indifference.

Drake I can live with (but I doubt I'd buy his album or anything(. Co-sign on Cudi (and Asher Roth). And I find Lupe EXTREMELY boring. Wale can be cool, but after seeing him in concert, my opinion of him lowered a bit (not dynamic or interesting at all). I root like a mutha for dudes like MURS to blow up on a major label, but he hasn't done it and I don't know how many more shots he'll get to do it. Of the new young guns, there's only one I see that typifies the "back to basics" approach you espoused in the o.g. post, and I know you don't really like the guys music.

>eh, you move enough units independently (which a genuine
>ground-up version of turning-the-genre-on-its-head could do)
>and then a major can bankroll it later.

But, yeah, look at the guys who are blowing up independently. Like Drake, they're offer up pretty much the same fare that everyone else offers up. Like everything else, hip-hop's future is artist's catering to the niche market: finding they're established and loyal audience and catering to it.