Has rap music experienced a "Golden Age" yet?

I was just thinking about music I have enjoyed throughout my life. I have liked almost every kind of music at one point or another, rap included. The question, though, is has rap music changed significantly throughout the years? Look at rock music. It went from stuff like "Rock Around the Clock", to Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, and so on. It also brought forth so many different sub-genres like metal, acid, techno, punk, etc.

Is rap stagnant? If so, why do you think so? This isn't a racial issue: rap crosses racial boundaries and other music considered to be "black" music has not been so stagnant, such as R%26amp;B, the Blues, and Jazz.

Is it a lack of creativity or is it simply such a pure form of expression that it doesn't need to evolve?

Has rap music experienced a "Golden Age" yet?

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i would characterize today's rap music in one word - decadence. for a time in the early 90's, rap was at its creative peak, exploring issues such as race, politics, police, partys, the future...intelligent issues. nowadays, it's all about hos, smackin' dat, money, and only disconnects itself from the reality of life most rap fans face. i mean, what average rap cd-buyer can relate to some iced-out thug driving a bentley, wearing full-on burberry? personally, i think rap should have a lot to say about today's world, what with the war in iraq, the ruins of new orleans, the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer, but it's too concerned with materialistic things.

if you were to label the golden age of rap in progressive terms, i'd say the golden age of rap has already passed (it being in the early 90's). our current 'stage' of rap is probably most akin to the excess-laden 70's arena rock period.

it's kind of sad, really - and i know there's lots of underground rappers doing great things...but the face of rap today is too narcissistic to care about what's going on in the world. if all you can express is degrading women, getting your swerve on, and how expensive your possessions are, then rap has truly passed its point of being relevant.

Has rap music experienced a "Golden Age" yet?

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Lack of creativity.
Lack of creativity, Gangsta rap is POP Now, so when britney and all the other little blonde girls came out.

the only differnce is Thug copycats came out in RAP

more guns, more drugs to the point, they don't even describe where they came from anymore. You think rappers today give an accurate picture of the hood , NO WAY

They just go staright to gangsta rappin, there is no balance anymore there was Krs one, d-nice, a tribe called quest to go with Too short, Ice -T and NWA but now it's all one sided

Hip-Hop has many sides to it theres soul, club, rock/rap, battle, underground, neo, gangsta

Hip Hop/ rap golden age past. Before there were rhymes MCs now it's like a beat and they are straight saying nothing.

I have to make sure a rapper is an artist before I can start "buy" (dl) their albums.

Rap is stagnant thats why we will hit 40 year old rappers cause these new dudes suck, but that's because Gangsta rap is played all day.
The golden age of rap was inthe late 80's and early 90's. Unfortunately now it is all garbage. Nobody is saying anytihgn anymore except ridiculous crap about pimpin', expensive cars, getting drunk, and trashy women.

I think rap should be removed from our culture now. It is completely irrelevant to normal society, and it only glorifies, and contributes to it's bad side anymore.
The golden age was around the time of Biggie, 2pac, when Wu Tang clan was together, early Jay-Z, Nas, early Snoop. After that, its kinda gone down hill, but there are some good artists and songs out there. But nothing like the early 90s, to me thats when rap was at its best.
Rap goes back much farther them many people think.

Even Jimi Hendrix took a shot at it but that track was

not released until the late 90's (Dorella Du Fontaine)

The first "commercial" rap song was not really even

rap but Blondie is credited with it for the song

"Rapture" which had a rapping section.

Personally, I think Aerosmith did a fair amount

of rapping before rap became mainstream.

Run DMC recognized this and I'll bet that's why

they did "Walk This Way" back in the early days

of rap.

I'm not a fan of rap but it sure seems to me that

it has evolved over the last 25 years.
Rap had its golden age in the late 80's / early 90's. Now Rap and R%26amp;B are just variations on the same old same old Pop music. Nothing really original has come on the scene in a good ten to fifteen years,

You could arguably date the end of Rap's Golden Age from the rise of Babyface, but that really gives Babyface more blame for turning Rap into "Another type of Pop" than he really deserves. He's a symptom of the problem, not the cause.