Sigh Where to begin...
The reason there is so much violence in rap is that it sells, period, if talking about murder money and women didn't make the labels money it would not be so pervasive. So really its money thats corrupted Hip-hop, and we all know what big money does to music. There is also a yin to the yang, perhaps you just haven't been exposed to good rap, I'm from NYC and I remember becoming a little depressed with the state of hip-hop when Puff Daddy's awful 'hip-pop' was everywhere then Most Def & Talib Kwelis 'Blackstar' album came out like a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, sophisticated beautiful and conscious anybody curious about hip-hop who doesn't know where to begin should really pick up this album. Then you have some amazing crossover genres comming out of hip hop like Gnarles Barkley's 'Crazy'. Even some of the mainstream artists are pretty darn talented Jay-Z may not preach a good message but his word play and vocals are allway's spot-on, his project with DJ Danger Mouse Comes to mind as particularly interesting its called The White Album The music is made entirely of samples from the Beatles White Albums, pretty cool stuff if you ask me.