I'm a dancer so I'm coming from a different perspective but just thought I'd chime in. This is definitely happening. Mr Wigglez (member of rock steady crew) said in a workshop that rap is recording artist production. I don't know how much credence there is in making that distinction but let's remember it for now. This is hiphopheads yeah? How many of you jump in a cypher? How many of you practice the art you consume? How many of you are part of a hip hop community? This is the difference. Rap is just consumed. Hip hop is community. Once its created by someone outside a community (label or artist), it definitely isn't. You can still call that rap, but its not hip hop. Personally I don't hang out with anyone who emcees as anything more than just messing about so I can't comment on the community on the emcee side. But if you look at the DJs and dancers, and you look at our communities, you'll quickly see real hip hop that you can't get sitting in your room listening to childish gambino.

The problem lies in the exploitation of the genre, it sells too well. Everybody knows it but nobody cares because they're happy to mindlessly consume whatever the labels throw at them: the most successful artist are only the ones who labels (not community members) think are going to make them money, not people who represent the culture and community. Just to give a little insight, in the dance community, we're still listening to DJs in the club who play break beats and 80s/90s hip hop cause the culture is important to us. We create incentive in our countries for the pioneers of our culture to come and teach us. There is a problem of too much money in the music industry that doesn't exist in our exist in our community so the pioneers of hip hop dance still have reason to accept invitations to judge battles in London or wherever rather than say "nah I've got a show."

Edit: Anyone who truly wants to learn something about hip hop and the discussion of hip hop/rap debate I HIGHLY recommend this book.

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