Hip-hop is losing its culture

Throughout the years, the hip-hop culture has experienced many different transitions.  The genre has migrated regionally in the eyes of the mainstream from the Northeast region of the country, to the West coast, throughout the Midwest, and now currently the South.  Not only has the hip-hop scene been through many geographical transitions, the culture prevalent in these regions has greatly influenced the music produced by many artists over the past few decades.  During the past few years, it seems as if hip-hop has lost all sense of culture. 
I remember growing up around the likes and influences of artists such as Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Outkast, Goodie Mob, Undaground Kings (UGK), Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Nas, Geto Boys, and many other artists who helped contribute to the hip-hop genre.  Nowadays it seems as if the industry has become overrun with one-hit wonders and performers who portray negative images to their younger audiences and also revive the stigma that once loomed over this musical genre years ago.  Whether it is the constant composition of trendy songs in correlation to the fads in fashion or the glorification of delinquent behavior in the urban community, hip-hop has lost the cultural meaning that was prevalent during the golden era of the genre.  What was once a medium for the urban community to present a positive voice for themselves and give the mainstream society better insight into their culture has become another commercialized slave to the American economy.
From the obnoxious, repetitive songs about one's wealth and material possessions to the glorification of criminal activities in the urban setting, it is apparent that the genre has made a drastic transition of once being a cultural art form to a profitable market that has yet to cease in its destruction.  Though not every artist who composes a song should be expected to be intellectual and even militant to an extent, the negativity that is now common throughout the hip-hop industry must change, or else the youth in our country will continue to be negatively impacted due to the intentions of record labels trying to run a business instead of preserving a culture.  Many say that anything controversial or negative in the sense is what sells in today's market, but artists such as Tupac Shakur have managed to move millions of records per album with socially and culturally conscious content.  If no one in the hip-hop industry brings forth this issue to the mainstream and makes it their ultimate goal to revive this particular art form, hip-hop will always be a servant to money.