Hip hop is all around us, on the radio, on TV, in adverts, streaming online, in shops and in films. In 2017, hip hop surpassed rock to become the biggest music genre in terms of total consumption for the first time ever. Eight of the 10 most listened-to artists of the year came from the R&B and Hip hop genre, led by Canadian superstar Drake and L.A. virtuoso Kendrick Lamar.
But as the genre has branched out to an ever-wider global audience, has the rise of hip hop over the last few decades come at the expense of the diversity of its lyricism?