Yall are looking at the small picture here. Yes he hustled his way to the top so you cant knock it right? Yall already know he came from NWA who was putting the real shit from the streets out to the public. He became a household name, capitalized off it and then what? There's a point in life where you go full circle.
In retrospect, it is actually debatable whether NWA were really putting out the real shit from the streets - today we know a lot more about the history of the group and the background of its members than people back then did and there seems to have been quite a strong Hollywood element in the whole thing, especially after Cube left. The subsequent development of their careers certainly supports that view. That's not to say they did not make the world aware of a lot of truths about the situation on the streets, but the truth is that even if they weren't in it for the money from the very beginning, they certainly were towards the end. And if Cube wasn't in it for the money when he went solo and he channeled his anger and creative energy into making those classic albums, he is in it for the money now.
Can you knock him for hustling his way to where he is now? You can't, he made his money, more power to him.
But there will always be a strong element of hypocrisy when you have started as an artist that was the face of a rebellion against the system and you eventually became part of that system. And much more so when you make tracks that talk about how corrupt the system is AFTER you have made that transition.
It's a contradiction that has been part of hip-hop since the first time anyone made money out of it. Hip-hop used to present an alternative to the mainstream (that's not the case anymore because there is a whole generation now that has grown up after that era was over) but as it became successful, it got swallowed by that same mainstream it was supposed to be an alternative to. Same thing happened with the baby boomers who became hippies in the 60s and early 70s and eventually turned into the cogs in the corporate machine that made the world the corporatocracy that it is now.
That's how life is...
Craig knew that the game done changed and the youth is being exposed to a bunch of bullshit that they're believing. Not only in the rap game but the whole entertainment industry showing the new generation that this is the "American way" and its normal. Its crazy how back when us 70's/80's babies were growing up, music with a positive message was accepted and our television had a moral to a story. Today its Chief Keef, Jersey Shore, Keepin Up With The Kardasians.
These are much bigger trends that hip-hop, as you point out too. Hip-hop would have been most likely swallowed up even in their absence; there was a small chance it could have evolved into a niche market and a compact subculture the way heavy metal did, but it stood absolutely no chance in the bigger scheme of things
Appreciate that an established artist is telling the public how it really is. If your knockin Cube for putting a political track like this, why arent you knocking 2pac for putting a out "They Dont Give A Fuck About Us." or Michael Jackson's version "They Dont Care About Us."
Because 2Pac died before he could sell out so we are allowed to keep the hope he would have never sold out. Note that I am not saying he would have, although when you comapre 2Pacalypse and All Eyez On Me, the difference is clear.
Also, Cube is not telling anything people who would listen to that track don't already know. Just check the approval ratings of the main institutions in this country.