To all of you all so witty hopefully rap is dead people. Personally I can do without all of the boring ass starbucks/apple ad/Norah Jones snooze fest that I am sure many if not most of you enjoy but not even a fraction of people go around to piss all over that shit.

To the article Lil Wayne nor any other single person can save a genre of music let alone sales though Timberland sure tried over the last 3 or 4 years. It is some what unfair to compare Lil Wayne's mix tape work with a studio album as they have much different focuses. With mix tapes the use of production is more open as sampling laws can basically be ignored as they are not for "commercial sale" and the use of tracks from hit songs is a norm both of which just can't happen on a studio album. Also, the track selection is different. No one expects radio friendly tracks to appear on a mix tape but a studio album has to have at least a couple of radio tracks along with some club bangers.

And finally to the "hip hop purists" get over your selves. One of the best parts of the rap genre is that the young eat the elders over and over again keeping the genre filled with fresh blood. Have you listened to a KRS 1 album from the last 10 years? He is awful and would be a bigger joke if not for his BDP work. Or listened to Rakim lately who is mostly miss. Then there is the backpacker crap that is raps equivalent to starbucks music for the most part, in other words boring with few exceptions see Def Jux for example.

You deserve a star but you are wrong on one part, those that cite Nas, Talib, Roots, Common, West, Lupe or white underground act are not for the most part fans of the genre but hipster name droppers. It is always these same 4 or 5 names that these people drop to show how "deep and stuff" they are when they buy these albums to sit on there cd racks or Ipod to show how cool and down they are. They will then usally throw out some shit about the old skool and the history while ignoring that for the first dozen years rap was just dance music that has more in common with Solider Boy and the Chiken Noodle Dance than any of the above named rappers do. They ignore that Flash was not sure about releasing the message because it was such a departure from its dance roots.

To those pointing out that teenagers in the past had babies so what is the big deal, here is why it is a big deal times have changed. Today, there are very few jobs available to high school grads or drop outs that will pay over 10 to 15 dollars an hour and have good benefits. The number of teenage moms that finish a BA is next to none and the number that get even AA is not that great. The chances of a long term relationship with the mother and father together is in the 30 percent range and even with steady child support most of these fathers will never be able to afford to contribute significantly financially. The cost of raising a child is only increasing with higher food, health care, rent, clothing, schooling and transportation costs. The mothers will have no choice to work at least a full time jobs leaving the child to be raised at best by family members such as grandparents or worse left alone with little guidance. 40 to 50 years ago a teenage parent would have been able to get a good paying union job which today are leaving by the factory load overseas and to right to work states.

Even with comprehensive sex ed it would not have changed much as I have yet to hear of any sex ed program that goes into detail on family planning. These girls wanted to get pregnant which no amount of condom and pill talk would have changed there minds but maybe knowing that they where several times more likely to give birth to drug and alcohol abuses, drop outs and criminals that might make them wait a couple of years though i doubt it.