I personally liked some of the old Vanilla Ice,Run DMC sort of thing..Not that Im an expert on rap..believe me Im far from it, but I think rap has drifted from it's original roots... Same with metal, we have Slipknot and Linkin Park..instead of 17 years ago, Metallica and Maiden...But the whole "hair metal" thing really hurt it, then with Nirvana coming shortly around the corner, eeek. Metal has never really been a mainstream style of music..Although the true metal bands don't stand a chance at mainstream success in english speaking nations...Personally I think Edguy and Blind Guardian might be massive superstars if they had anyway to publicly display their music. I suppose the same has happened with rap, I might look at Nelly and P diddy as phonies if I listened to underground rap.. It also annoys me to hear..."shake it baby, dont care bout cha boyfriend, Ima badass p.i.m.p. and chicks dig me, but dey don't wanna ge w-choo white boy" Being played in public, it's sexist..unintelligent,immature..Talentless,..well with the exception of Eminem and a few others. I think it has a very bad influence on the youth of today, , But the majority of youth is always screwed up..especially in my city, yes it has one of the highest crime and theft rates in the english speaking world but..No matter where you walk, there is a group of 13 year olds throwing stones at someones home, or harrasing the elderly. One of the reasons Im learning karate.