Man, Ice T's apology and Method Man's comments had more intelligence in them than any song I've heard on the radio lately. They where excellent, productive comments about the state of hip-hop. Soulja Boy was just the lightening rod for something that needed to come out. Rap is dead. I mean, sure, rap is alive in the sense that accordion folk music is alive, that some one, some where, still makes and cares about it. But as a main stream musical genre, it's dead. Rap, from beginning to end, is about lyrics. It's about rhyming. It's about stories. It's about complex flows. Otherwise it's just techno or metal or pop with a bassline. The reason its dead is because of people like Soulja Boy (and many others) don't bother to actually write lyrics any more. They have the opportunity, they have the buzz, they have kids' ears, they are the ones who are defining what rap is and will be. And they can't be bothered to even attempt to write lyrics? Hell, we have a forum full of lyrics that are leaps and bounds above what's on the radio now, and that's just sad. I agree with Method Man and Ice T, Soulja Boy's songs suck and he's squandering his opportunity. And because of that, the music that I love is dead.