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There is a growing problem that I want to touch on concerning out modern day perception of rap music.  Hip-Hop has always been about competition as a result of being influenced by aggression and rebellion.  However, we’ve come to a point where when we analyze a track we focus more on which rapper murked the other one instead of enjoying the collaboration for what it is.  In other musical genres collaborations are viewed in terms of the artistic quality of the music, while if two or more rappers are on one song the track’s analysis seems to mainly be upon who rapped better.  Its part of hip-hop to compare different rappers, but we seem to be focusing less on the music and more on the conflict.  The funny thing is that artists who have love for each other’s music decide to make a song together for us to enjoy, and we just dissect it and try to turn it into a competition between the different artists instead of a piece of music.  This new view that people, especially bloggers, have on hip-hop is changing its dynamics. It is good in a way since it inspires a competition which pushes artists to try and out-rap each other resulting in better quality music.  However, it seems like the way we’re viewing hip-hop nowadays is taking the artistic aesthetic away from the genre.  Lil’ Wayne’s song with Eminem is one of the only good ones off his album, It’s a very well done collaboration where both artists’ styles work really well together on the track.  All people seem to say when analyzing this song are who they thought rapped better, Em or Weezy.  Again, there’s always been competition, but since when has the competition or perceived competition become more important than the music itself.  Lets keep the competition going, but not forget to respect the dopeness of the music.  What if one day Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen made a collaboration track, would we all analyze it by which artist sang better or whether the music was good.  Again, rating and comparing rappers’ performances is an important aspect of hip-hop, but should not be the conversation that defines the genre.