Is hip hop too soft now?

50 Cent took rap back to braggadocio lyricism with a hint of sensitivity like LL Cool J - the sensitive G, if you will.

You want overt hyper-masculinity, the apex was reached with N.W.A. and guys like Too Short. They never made a ballad. The closest NWA came to a love song was "I'd Rather F-ck You".

There was a time when hip-hop music was the hottest thing on the planet and with stars such as Kid N' Play and DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince not since the Sugarhill Gang's 1979 hit Rapper's Delight had we seen a new style of music that everyone could enjoy. But when rappers such as the late Eazy-E and British rap star Slick Rick debuted in the 80's we started seeing a trend that hip-hop and rap had never experienced before that continued into the 90's when Snoop Dogg came on the scene along with Tupac Shakur and Warren G and when Dr. Dre released his debut album The Chronic in 1993 it set the standard for what the future held for rap and hip-hop. Female rappers also became popular and when Queen Lafifah became a star with her debut single Ladies First which also featured rap artist Monie Love Queen Latifah became one of the most popular hip hop artists and soon paved the way for female rappers like MC Lyte and Da Brat and when Da Brat debuted in the 90's she became a mega superstar and is still a success. But if you notice rap music today you'll see that many of the songs deal with lyrics that really ain't what they used to be and have lyrics like "i'm number one or i'm the best" and with stars like Nicki Minaj and Kanye West making their marks I think we are seeing the rap music of the future