Yes, I did a research paper freshman year about hip hop and whether it still contained a message about problems in urban communities and oppression. I found that over the years hip hop has changed, glorifying thug life instead of creating an awareness of the oppression and bad living conditions in urban areas. Many argue that hip hop began to target white suburban teenagers which sales records seemed to prove. Today there is hip hop that contains that message, but it is mainly underground and not being heard on the radio. Now people seem more interested in making money than really sending a message. But yes, as Sarah points out, that seems to be the case with all music. Protest(political and social) songs aren't really seen on the top 40 countdown... I always found it interesting though why such a large amount of suburban white teenagers would be obsessed with gangster rap. But then again, why not? I am pretty sure I remember one critic argued that they just wanted to piss off their parents/ feel bad ass. It is interesting to compare this situation to poetry though. There are poems that are merely candy, but I feel for the most part poems have a good amount of medicine, some kind of message. I just think that contrast between music and poetry is interesting...