Does anyone remember a guy named Tupac??? He flip-flopped more than anybody, and people called him "real" for it. I could throw some song names out there but you already know all of them.

As people, we change our minds - but moreso, we are apt to feel differently (sometimes resulting in contradiction) about certain subjects for who knows why - depending on what day it is, or what mood we're in, or whatever. I've been to a strip club but if I were to have a daughter one day then my ass would be dead before she filed her employee application there. I smoke occassionally but would never push that on anybody, especially those younger than me. In fact, I would (and do) urge them not to. Does this make me a hypocrite? Maybe. But in some way we all are.
I think it would be a bigger mistake to claim that we feel the same way about everything all the time. Jay-z doesn't feel like Big Pimpin all the time, but I'm sure there have been times (as can be heard in his records) that he just wanted to party and fuck bitches for the night.

While I'm certainly not defending Nas, I just wanted to get that out there. There definitely is too much contradiction like that in music today. But I think the bigger problem is that we glorify and popularize the side of music we could do without - the Big Pimpins and Oochie Wallys. If the people listening weren't buying those records, how many rappers would really be making them?

good post. we need more of this.