“If I rhyme about home and got descriptive/
I’d make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit/”
—K’Naan, “What’s Hardcore?,” The Dusty Foot Philosopher

Nowadays, nothing seems to annoy this writer more than the fecklessness and sheer acquiescence of those whom, for lack of a perceptive fan-base, are considered “Gangsta” or “Hardcore.” This topic is no new one. For years, the “Studio Gangsta” has hollered tales of past crime exploits on wax, and for years, those same personalities have escaped through back doors, snitched on comrades, and softened-up faster than rotten bananas, when confronted by incidents they previously claimed to have casually partook in—robberies, stick-ups, chain-snatchings, gun-battles etc.

But my greater gripe is less about the foolishness of these fictional characters, and more involved with the normalized nature of cowardice growing among the Hip-Hop artist community.

To be sure, the last 10 years have produced a great deal of commercialized jargon passing for Rap music; but this fact takes nothing away from the reality that a good...