all of that is not mainstream, except for kanye, and kanye sucks. i guess i should have clarified that, i know there is still good underground rap coming out, but the mainstream shit is pathetic. it used to be there was good mainstream rap, too short, the click, tupac, wu tang, redman, the old school no limit, now its just laughable.
honestly though, i would have never said, even back in 96 that rap had more content that other genres of music. jam bands especially OWN rap musically. phish, particle (if you havent heard particle, you have to) string cheese incident, galactic, the big wu, a perfect circle (although they arent really a jam band) now thats music.