Ya`ll can say it was better back in the day, but was it really? The good artists like Public Enemy, LL Cool J, JJFP, KRS-One, Beastie Boys etc, yeah they had sucess. But it was nothing against for example Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, House Of Pain etc. Thats exactly how`s it going now, fat Joe, Cassidy, Talib Kweli arent bad and they dont do that bad. But they dont do like 50 etc.
You gotta look at it this way, Vanilla Ice did better than LL Cool J & Will etc back in the day, but LL Cool J & Will etc are still around caus they make quality music. Thats the same now, Fat Joe, Talib Kweli etc. dont sell as much as 50 now, but they might still sell records in 15 years when 50 will be forgotten.
You could say "Yeah but De La etc did better than Talb doe`s now". True, but Hammer and Vanilla also did much better than 50`s does now. You can blame Internet for that, with the illegal downloading..