I'll leave the jay-z dissing alone, it's obviously a very touchy topic here
But I do want to bring back up something I said before, about the radio format, and the lack of growth for artists as well.
Before Pac and Biggie died
Radio stations (depending on where you lived) play talent from your region.
West Coast, obviously played and catered to music from the left. Your G-Funk, your bay-area, ect ect
East Coast, obviously played stuff from artists from the 5 boro's and Long Island.
The South, I don't even remember what the south had.....2 Live Cru, OutKast, Goodie Mob, 8-Ball and MJG, Dungeon Family ect ect
Anyway, what I'm getting at is, a lot of those artists that came up through the ranks, that went on to make classic albums, started off regional, and were only played on regional radio.
You can turn on the radio, and you didn't hear party anthems 24/7, you heard real hip hop. It wasn't dumbed down stuff, one second you had Biggie & Total "Can't you see" the next you had GZA with "I Gotcha Back". One second you had Shook Ones Pt 2 playing, the next minute you could hear Group Home's Supa Star. At night you had the battle of the beats, and they were new songs on the street that were given a chance to get some shine.
All that stopped when you had to share the air space with other regions. I think that hurt artists and it hurt regional sound as well.
That's just my two cents
