... none of that would even be happening right now. That's not to say Juvenile is a bad rapper; in fact, he was one of the best from the South in the '90s. The point is that rap has grown so much from its early beginnings that it's no longer just two categories -- gangsta rap and more gangsta rap.

Even if you take none of that into consideration, you can't ignore history. When hip-hop was first was invented in the late '70s or early '80s (depends on who you ask), DJs were the Batman to the MCs' Robin.

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A rapper's job was mainly to hype the crowd up with "yes, yes, y'alls" and such. The DJ did the heavy lifting by mixing the records and keeping the party moving. Because most fans were just there to have a good time, the acts that garnered the most attention were those who could keep people dancing and having a good time. Sounds familiar, right?

It's that they all make pop music. Yes, they're rapping while they do it, but it's still just another form of pop music. That might not have been the case with all of those acts throughout their entire careers, but they got there eventually. Pop music gets played on the radio. Even in the days when there weren't any active white rappers that anyone cared about, there was still plenty of pop-oriented rap to go around.

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince are an obvious example. Same with Kid 'N Play. When they were dominating Hollywood with movies like Class Act and the House Party franchise ...

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... their comparatively average music was tearing up the radio. Or what about MC Hammer? Do you think "Can't Touch This" blew up because he was selling independently-pressed copies of the single out of his trunk on the streets of Oakland? No, the radio did that. Mediocre artists get the most attention. That's just how radio works -- be it rap, rock, or whatever else.

Besides, what are you doing listening to the radio, anyway? If you have a radio at all, the technology that makes using it to listen to pretty much anything you want possible is readily and cheaply available. If you're at work, you probably use a music app of some sort. Complaining that your favorite rapper doesn't get enough radio play is like complaining that they don't get written about enough in your local newspaper. It's fine, no one's paying attention to those things anymore anyway. If you're annoyed by what's being played on the radio, that's your own doing. Suffer in silence or get an aux cord like a functioning adult.

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Given their success, their methods seem like an easy-to-copy means of getting your song on the radio and played in the club. It's true that this sometimes leads NY rappers to neglect their Yankee heritage in favor of a more Southern style, mostly in the name of selling enough albums to buy cars and shit. And while it does take me having to check iTunes to see who even made some of these songs when I hear them, it's still mostly only a problem if you're listening to the radio or happen to be at the club. These songs are avoidable, is what I'm saying. If you're hearing them, it's probably because you're the exact market they're shooting for, whether you like it or not.

Furthermore, the problem isn't even as chronic as people make it out to be. People throw it around a lot because, again, Southern rap is so huge right now. But what names come up when people talk about the best rappers of today? Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Big Sean, J. Cole, and Future. Of all those rappers, exactly one is from the Deep South. One of them isn't even from this country.

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And not a single one could be confused with each other, because their styles are so different. From their delivery to the production they choose, it all sounds different.

Even if this complaint held as much merit as it seems, it's nothing new. Rap is a trend-driven medium. Once something gets huge, no matter what part of the country it emerges from, it's going to be copied by scores of rappers hoping to use it to achieve similar success. When West Coast rap was dominating the charts, veteran New York rappers like Masta Ace suddenly started rapping about rims and low riders and whatnot.

That song is so Los Angeles that it's got a known Scientologist in the video.

Or how about the curious case of Ice Cube littering his third album, The Predator, with all kinds of iggity-diggity stuff just because Das EFX was huge at the time.

Fact: Before the remix you know and love so much, "Check Yo' Self" sounded exactly like "Shoop" by Salt 'N Pepa.

The point is that these are just trends, and they aren't always a bad thing. When they are, they gigitty-go away. Incorporating influences from different styles is how any form of music evolves. Sure, there will always be those who overdo it a bit or clearly just take up a new style for financial gain, but people see through that and those artists eventually disappear. No trend will ever kill rap music entirely, regardless of what Nas says to the contrary. In fact ...