I agree with Turntable whaen he says that "rap as a whole" isn't dying we still have some great rappers - upcoming (Rhymefest, Lupe, Papoose etc.), underground (Masta Ace, Dead Prez, Black Thought,Mos and Kweli) and veterans (Will, LL, KRS, Rakim,Common etc.). We had so much great hip hop this year- maybe it wasn't played on the radio but it was sure there, infact there was so much that I feel like have enough time to listen to all of it fairly.
Will just wants respect and love - so he likes having high record sales but he would much rather have cats on allhiphop.com talking about how dope he is than having a pop fan buying Lost and Found and only listening to tracks like "Switch" and "If you can't dance".