Most things don't start out as commodities. Don't forget that the very foundation of this country was built by using people as products for commerce. You can bet that anything these folks (and others) create will be commodified. In fact, young children learn early on to place more value on things they can buy or get money for. Expression is nothing if it can't be bought and sold.

>"Lyrical content, which shifted from the majority of songs
>portraying the rapper as being poor, or dependant on crime to
>make money while living in the ghetto, to being wealthy and
>having the best jewelry, clothes, liquor, and women.

Not every rapper was poor, or living in the ghetto, or involved in crime. Even in the beginning it was easy to categorize rap music as expression, not something to commodify, until the mainstream demanded it.

None of this is new...it's bigger than hip-hop or rap.