Kanye is one of those artists who make very good music but are not the best lyricists / emcees. But very clever artsist. Maybe I see a lot in him.
I believe there is space for various forms of hip hop. In the states, different regions have different styles. So long as there are people you making the music for that's fine. However, I have to say I dont feel artists like Nelly, Ja Rule, 50 cent, the Game and a whole lot of crunk artists -I dont feel their beats, lyrics, style, personalities, etc. But I don't have a problem with their fans buying their suff. What I have a problem is the force feeding us of this garbage on radio stations & mainstream media. It would have been much better if there were diverse raido shows and radio stations that really gave a damn about other types of genres and sub genres ( sorta like KAYA fm & Y fm when they started out) then things would be better. I guess it exists in countries with a more deragulated broadcasting environment. Then I would move between various styles.
If people could dance to, say AMU/ Hidden Force in party with women and then go home to listen to Kaptain/Tumi or whoever? But cats oare so dogmatic, this seems almost impossible.
I once made a compilation of local commercial songs to bump when I'm with non-hip hop heads, especially chicks. Something everyone could enjoy & still be hip hop. I was criticised by a lot of "REAL" / "CONSCIOUS" cats I know. But I still had a lot of "undeground" music & saw no contradiction in having a commercial CD I had CONSCIOUSLY compiled to be commercial. But the same cats want to have fun like everyone else. Well, Maybe, not?