is their youth & the fact they're broke imo.

i was listening to a lot of noreaga the past week.

and it's like even if he rapped like this today:
a) he isn't 22 years old any more so it won't be the same.
b) his whole lifestyle has changed because he's been in the entertainment industry for 15+ years.

but i started thinking about it and this was such a common element about almost every single breakout rapper, yet never gets acknowledged directly.

i think you could be a half-ass rapper but if you're young & broke and people think your image is cool - you're already way ahead of the rest of the pack.
rappers who sound exactly the same 20 years later like raekwon, i couldn't be any less interested in hearing in 2012 and i think in all honesty a lot of it is because a lot of rapper's overall appeal is based on them selling their youth & lack of entertainment industry $.

because he was always a bit too cryptic/esoteric to be considered a dude trading off being just broke & grimy.

Rae was smooth even when he was broke.

I hear your point on Nore but at the same time Nore was always more about the attitude/ridiculousness/personality than it was him being a great rapper.

.

the street/gangsta rappers who hit on some mainstream level correct?

and the fact that The War Report was full of great production

I only loved Nore bc he was broke

>and the fact that The War Report was full of great
>production

no discounting tradgey's ghostwriting, nor the production.

however, wouldn't that logically make you more a fan of tragedy and the producers on war report than noreaga?

but consider the commonality amongst say, nearly every single popular rapper?

it's too common to ignore and not explicitly acknowledge.

If this describes you and/or your friends, cool.

If you're making a societal statement, alright.

But I'm very conscious of myself, and I can tell you, I don't think this.

Now, the youth thing? Agree for the most part, but it's no so much about youth and it is NEW.

2 Chainz is, what, 35? To most people (who don't know his DTP background) he's new and thus exciting.

....pulled me into an rap artist, their music or their image. In fact, it's never even been a requirement of mine to connect with an artist to enjoy the music. Either I like a song or I don't. Nothing else matters. I never cared about authenticity either 'cuz I figured most cats were lying anyway...

When I was a youngster in the 80's, everybody looked old as fuck to me, Africa Bambaataa, Run DMC, Doug E. Fresh, all the way to KRS, Kane, Rakim, Salt'n'Pepa, PE....So age was never an issue.

And even in the early 80's, alot of hip hop had a "Get This Paper" or at least a "Fake it 'til you make it" sheen to it. So I never really paid attention to any brokeness. Kool Moe Dee, Slick Rick and later a Tribe Called Quest had videos on tv, so they were rich to me. lol

If you're equating hunger and energy with youth, I can see that, but even then, it's still about the overall vibe of the song, rather than the rapper themselves.

are broke and young when they come out.
so it's difficult convincingly discern how much impact that has on how well they are liked.

it's like saying "looking back, all our favorite basketball players were tall."