Crazy how rap has changed so much. The one thing I really appreciate about hip hop/rap more and more as the years go by is how closely it mirrors society at large. I mean yes, at certain points in history other forms of music like rock/roll either directly affected society (political/cultural) or were shaped by it. But at some points that's not necessarily true. The music itself might have changed/evolved (for instance rock and roll from the early/mid 80s head banging shyt transitioning to grunge) - but it's very difficult to tie that to society at large.
Rap on the other hand went from being influenced by all the partying in the early days (late 70s to early 80s), to the hardcore crack era in the late 80s, at the same time you had the pro-black response in the late 80s/early 90s; as minorities began to grab a bigger share of the national economic pie you see how hip hop followed in the late 90s. Even though I honestly can't get into a lot of the more modern cats, they're still influencing society in ways that other forms of entertainment etc only dream about. Think about the irony of rap being the soundtrack to this country's social/cultural/political history over the last 30 years.