...by trying to pigeonhole gangsta-rap as some west-coast specific sound when in reality most New York stuff people dig is (almost) just as negative and nihilistic. I don't like west-coast G-rap too much either. At the same time, one of my favourite mcs ever is prime-era Redman. What did he do in his lyrics? He smoked weed, he fucked people up, he called women bitches etc. He did it in a skillful and funny way but still, it's negative. Trying to make a distinction between him and Eazy-E, Snoop etc. based on content alone just doesn't work; anyone with a functional brain can see this...

Needless to say, the same applies to Wu-tang, Mobb Deep, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, Big L, MOP, BCC, Beatnuts, the Clipse and a shitload of other holy cows.

Saying that I don't like Gangsta rap based on its content while at the same time digging the shit out of these groups is hypocritical to say the least.

Meanwhile, if you would remove all that type of ''negative'' stuff from my Hip-Hop collection, there would honestly not be enough quality stuff left for me to be able to say that I'm a *genre* fan; a couple of Native Tongues, Public Enemy, freestyle fellowship/project blowed and old school records and some random other shit is what would remain more or less...