The State of Rap in 2012

In the old days you appreciated rap as an art form and you appreciated rappers as artists

For example someone like Biggie or Rakim or whoever.  Whereas these days, people lower their standards and consider rappers like Kendrick  Lamar art because the internet has democratized things so much that people are judging all these rappers on the same level that they  judge themselves, and in doing so, are sort of able to see themselves as the rappers. By elevating whatever rappers they’re listening to to the level of a genius, then they elevate themselves to that same level and vicariously live through them. But nobody could even try and compare themselves to Biggie, because Biggie was Biggie and they were “Joe Schmo.” Now any Joe Schmo has a chance to be Kendrick Lamar if they roll the dice and start putting out mixtapes. Of course there are some exceptions (Dom Kennedy, Freddie Gibbs, Big Krit, Earl Sweatshirt, etc.) but in the early 1990s there's no way someone like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, or A$AP Rocky could have amassed as large a following as they have now.