I grew up in NYC listening to red alert and mr magic on weekends. At that time, rap was exciting, positive and fun - a bit unpolished and silly at times, but still a great listen.
Then this whole east coast/west coast thing got out of hand and old school lost out to new school. Gangsta rap was the new 'thing' and the older rappers like Run-DMC, Grandmaster flash, were out. The sound was new, and the anger was there. Initially, it was a constructive anger (Chuck D of public enemy) but then it morphed into something new and - ugly. I remember the day that WBLS announced that it wasn't going to play the gangster rap any more because it wasn't positive, and switched format to a R&B station (could you believe something like that happening today?)
You can tie the ascendency of hip-hop directly to Napster. All of a sudden, music was 'free'. With the demise of paying clientele for most music of good quality (& any back catalogues), the music industry had no idea how to market (and make money).
So, who's your market? Anyone who lacks tech sophistication or access to technology and a high speed internet connection so that they can't download and burn your music.
#1. Anyone who doesn't own a computer or have access to a high speed connection - i.e. the poor
#2. Anyone who isn't old enough to understand how to download music and burn it (remember - this once upon a time wasn't that easy) - kids under 15 or the under-educated
#3. Anyone who is stupid enough to want to purchase the 'value added' stuff that comes along with the album (album art, poster, whatever) because they still have that 'new is better mentality'
- again most kids under 18.
#4. Anyone who doesn't care - the lazy
(note: any 'racial' demographic you read into the above is your own damn prejudice. Get over it.)
So, there's you target audience. Folks that are too stupid, too inexperienced, or too lazy to find other means of acquiring their music. Mostly dumb kids.
Hence you have your choice on the radio of either aggressive rock, targeting disaffected young males or hip-hop, targeting other the other demographic of disaffected young males. Or classic rock, targeting the boomers. Not much of a choice, if you ask me. I still like old school, though.
I enjoy filling up my back catalogue of 600 cd's buying the used cd's on amazon for about $5 a pop. Thanks record companies for not turning out any music that's worth listening to in ages. Just picked up 3rd Bass's cactus album and Downtown Science. Great stuff.