I personally like the sound of the "keep it real"-era more than both the west-coast gangsta rap AND Vanilla Ice/hammer/Young MC stuff it "rebelled" against. I also like it more than the Puffy/No Limit/Cash Money era that followed. Considering that "Keep it real" was NEVER as successful or influential on the stuff that followed (unless you live in some bizarro-world were Rawkus/Fondle 'em/"indie"-stuff (which I agree often sounded dull) actually REALLY mattered in terms of shaping the sound of hip-hop as a whole) as less "keep it real"-stuff was, this seems like a non-issue to me. I'm grateful for the music Gang Starr, Wu, bootcamp, D.I.T.C. and otehr "keep it real"-type crews did in their prime.

There was some garbage too but so what? We are talking about a few years before Puffy and co took over with their party sounds and commercially successful rap never sounded "Keep it real" anymore after that. Those years were great IMO and if the artists were fuelled by a "keep it real"-attitude and it helped them create the music they did, it strike me as a good thing since I like the music...