Before the explosion of cookie cutter rap artists there were struggling emcees begging to have their rhymes heard. They rapped about things their public could relate to like racism and segregation, before “bling bling” and “grills.”

Nowadays there are two components for surviving in the modern realm of hip-hop—masculinity and power. The same kind of hyper-masculine violence in movies, video games and military culture affects the youth. America is a hyper aggressive nation, thus an artist like 50 Cent is palatable in an environment that perpetuates cultural violence.

Emcees like Big Daddy Kane and Kool G painted pictures of silky rap gangsterism that inspired the hundreds of rappers who came after them. Out of the rubble came artists like Notorious B.I.G. and NWA. Though they continued to rhyme about the mansions, the Moet and the ladies, their raps also reveal the causalities on the road from struggler to hustler to player.

There is no doubt that hip-hop is an integral part of pop culture, which makes the current state of rap a crisis. Rap has drifted into the shallowest pool of lyrical possibilities and the latest version of hip-hop betrays the attitudes and ideals that framed it in the early ‘70s. The recent commercialism of hip-hop got the best of it and has given the whole genre a horrible reputation.

But there is still hope. Rappers like People Under the Stairs, Beans, Edan and A Tribe Called Quest have pulled themselves from beneath the trashy rap and have managed to produce intelligent rap, ‘70s style. They have broken down the walls of the modern day hip-hop and are expressing themselves with lyrical flow.

It is hard to separate the good from the bad, but there are a few things you can look for to determine if a rapper is a below average. If a rap begins any of his songs with “This is (insert their name) comin’ at ya from (insert name of city they represent)” they you can bet that their creativity levels are low. If the rapper in question uses sneaky words to hint at questionable material, such as “laffy taffy”and “milk shake,” it is a sure sign that they are struggling to come up with good material to rap about.