1. It’s not unfair, I didn’t grow up in Chaka Aretha or Marvin Gaye’s era, but I know their songs and can respect their contributions to r&b/soul. You don’t have to be from a generation to at least know the icons, a few of their hits, and respect what they did.
2. no one is asking them to pay homage or even act like that’s the music they love, I’ve seen interviews posted on here where they were actually dissing older rappers and happily not giving a fukk they don’t know the music - I believe Kodak was one. It’s ok to say you’re not familiar with the music and keep it moving respectfully
3. Back to the point of my original post - I love hip hop, I’m still going back to listen to classics that were before my time just for knowledge’s sake - shyt, last spring I discovered Digable planets’ blowout comb and that became a favorite album of mine. You can’t try to finger wag older listeners as not loving the music when the actual participants in the music show they don’t love the art. And just like I give old stuff a try, I’ve given these young dudes a try - the ones charting are garbage to me. But I love the music enough to at least expose myself to create an informed opinion. Many of them don’t and revel in the fact they don’t care to try
expression to my liking of 90’s and early 2000’s rap. I like some of the new music out here even though I prefer the music from my formative years. Hip Hop has has always been a young man’s game and forward pushing albeit positively or negatively. I may not be too fond of what my younger fam and associates listen to, but it is what it is 
