The "Hip-Hop" you hear on the radio nowadays is more like Hip-Pop. Real Hip-Hop is long gone from mainstream attention, and what you hear is just a bunch of wannabes trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. There are still numerous underground artists keeping the real Hip-Hop alive.
Look at stuff from the 80s and early-mid 90s like A Tribe Called Quest, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Nas, and Rakim and you'll see what I mean. They talk about their struggles, political issues, REAL relationships, etc. There are even some rappers back in the day that straight up refused to curse in their songs (C.L. Smooth).
Not only was the song material better back then, but so were the artists. From Kool G Rap's insane multisyllabic rhyming ability to Rakim's smooth flow, the music was pleasing to the ears even if you weren't paying attention to the lyrics. Nowadays all you hear are fakes claiming to be gangsters and growing up in the ghetto when they experienced nothing of the sort. I fail to understand how their meaningless noise got so popular.
