My taste in music is alot different than it was as a young kid or teenager. I grew up listening to Run Dmc, Nwa, epmd, Eric B and Rakim, and the Geto Boys for the most part.

These days though Im listenin' to Nas the most, his lyricism is just so much greater than anything remotely close to mainstream thats out there right now. Id shoot myself if I was listening to the Mims-this is why im hot BS lol. That song sums up every reason why hiphop sucks these days.

On a decently short list my favorite rappers for the present day would be

Nas, Cormega, AZ,(those first 3 made up the Firm with Foxy Brown), Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Tragedy Khadafi, Immortal Technique, the Roots, Rakim, Saigon, and Papoose.

I like 2pac and Biggie, and lets not forget Big L who died also but I believe that 2pac hurt hiphop as much as he helped it. Every kid, doesnt matter if its the inner city or suburb, wants to be a thug. Then the south's influence that you can be a thug with diamonds, lamborgini's, and a pound of cocaine only magnified it.

If I had to pick a couple truely mainstream artists that Id listen to, Id probably say Fabolous because of his lyrical ability. He makes crappy albums but the mixtapes are real nice. Another nice dude is Ransom, hes not real mainstream but hes on DJ Clue's label so Im sure he will get at least as big a name as Joe Budden. Joe Budden would be the other guy, really impressive lyrics.

Youre going to see alot more artists coming out with mixtapes than albums in the years to come. They are basically being released for the streets so artists are going to make 85-90% off of the mixtape rather than making 15% off of an album that comes out in stores. With the decline in record sales due to bootlegging in hiphop, the mixtape is the way of the future. Artists are puting out a mixtape each month and getting rich off it. They arent mastered copies so it doesnt take much effort to pump alot of them out. Artists dont have to get clearance on samples either and you know how much hip hop artists sample other genres.