Is Hip Hop Gangsta?

Yea, I ask the question- 'Is Hip Hop Gansta?' Do rappers have to be gangsta to be considered 'real' in Hip Hop? It seems rap music listeners always feel that a rapper has to be a gangsta and rap about drug dealing and violence to be considered a real rapper. What is real? Real should be about being yourself, so why do the Hip Hop community feel that a non-gangsta real rapper is not to be respected? I think it is just absurd.

As long as you can't tell me that Hip Hop is gangsta, then you can't tell me that a non-gangsta rapper should not be respected in Hip Hop. I guess Hip Hop in the 90s (which was predominantly gangsta/mafioso) made people believe that real Hip Hop has to be gangsta. That's why people don't respect rappers like Drake and Macklemore. Hip Hop is a means of expressing yourself, and what is going on in your community, or the world at-large, so why should everything be about being gangsta?





If Drake is rapping about his life, and he is telling the truth, shouldn't he be considered real? Why should only rappers that are braggadocios and macho be considered real in Hip Hop? If you don't like what Drake raps about, it is all good, but you shouldn't consider his music an inferior form of hip hop. Well, I guess my post is more of a question. All i just want to know is....Is Hip Hop Gangsta?