Hip hop used to be feeling, not form—A boom-bap rush that could, and would, be interpreted and articulated differently by it's various creators. It was this loose constitution, open to infinite amendments that bred the broad crop of creative, innovative rap in late '80s and early '90s. However, things changed. When the financial stakes is high, that which makes dollars makes sense, and consequently a more polished and rigid vision of hip hop emerged in the mid-'90s, and it catapulted the genre to new heights.

Hip hop continued to progress into the new millennium and brought even newer...