I'm not a fan of it; it just doesn't conform with my tastes.
However, I can recognize what separates the (c)rap from the other hip-hop that attempts to break out of the mold. For some reason, Nas's widely-revered Illmatic album is possibly the only album I enjoy from the genre on the whole (if there was ever an 'epic' rap song, then "It Ain't Hard to Tell" is it) ... the more underground artists/albums, while I can see they definitely reach for more artistic aims than garbage like Ludcaris and goose shit like Nelly, they do absolutely nothing for me, save for a few tracks here and there maybe. Yes, I am referring to artists such as Jedi Mind Tricks, Atmosphere, MF Doom, Madvillian, Jurassic 5, etc. I mean, fuck, I know and have heard what are considered the 'good' rap artists.
Two things bother me most about rap (besides the more commerical rap's bottom-of-the-barrel shittiness):
1. For the most part, the emphasis is placed on lyrics moreso than the music it seems...
...yes, Sage Francis writes lyrics with wit and poetic quality, but most of his 'beats' fail to reach me (even the bits with saxophone and whatnot don't do it for me). Which one of you said that music, in proper construction, can express far more than any lyrics can? Well, I most definitely agree with this. Perhaps this is why my tastes are orientated more towards instrumental acts with hip-hoppish vibes (e.g. for example, electronica like Amon Tobin)...
2. The other emphasis on putting lots of stupid fucking interludes, skits, samples, random crap like someone's worthless answer machine messages, etc. on the album.
It is a great way to break up momentum and basically counts as filler (both the 'shitty, commercial' rap and the 'artistic, underground' rap is guilty of this, really... take a Ja Rule album and you'll have this shit, then take Madvillain's "Madvillainy" album, and you'll have the same kind of interference). And yes, I am well-aware that plenty of metal albums have this same problem as well, but I've noticed it more with rap...