OK OK - I do not like Gangsta Rap music... It is all so contrived and samey to me. And I hate they way all Gansta's throw out love to Tupac and Biggie and every other dead artist - it's always so fake to me. They were on the whole such obnoxious people that many people wanted to shoot anyway that giving them props all the time is pathetic. The other things with Tupac is we keep having to hear all the stevestojantty tracks he laid down but weren't good enough to release back in the day - and are only good enough now because he's dead. I saw a documentary about him Mom who said that she's just thankful that she was left with so much material to remember her son with - and I thought - BOLLOCKS, she's happy he left all that material so she can make money out of it.
Similarly I was interested in the music scene that bred the Gangsta rap genre, so I read a load of books about Suge Knight, Tupac, NWA, the growth of gangsta rap, Dr Dre, Eminem - you name it. The thing that strikes me about all of it is that in the first instance the music they create is generally really decent, heartfelt music. As they all progress they turn into whinging fame monkeys who shoehorn in lyrics about murder and 'gats' just to be cool and their music is shoddy imitations of their earlier work.
Rap is crap if you ask me. Give me some good, honest Hip Hop, and I'm fine. But rap??? forget about it.
That said, new groups like Black Eyed Peas are entertaining, so too are Outkast who seem to have eschewed some of the elements of rap that I detest.