Being a rapper myself, I do find that kind of offensive. The others here are right: music needs to be judged based more on individual skill versus stereotypes about the entire genre of rap music itself. There are some artists in the rap world I absolutely cannot stand because of their lack of skill and only continuing to make music just to sell records (50 Cent for example.. he used to be decent but now is too commercial.. no diss to Shady though! lol).

As for me, I do it just because I like to and because I enjoy true skill and talent (regardless of whether or not people think I have talent or not lol). Anyways, that ends my rant.

Some of my favorite artists include:
Jay-Z
Tupac
Eminem
Ludacris
D12 (RIP Proof...)
Lloyd Banks
Xzibit