Running off on a tangent alert!!!!
I don't think one is better than the other, to be honest. They both exist in their own respective worlds.
I love the boom bap/golden era sound. There was something special about that era, in regards to you feeling their soul and their real creativity shine through the record. I don't get that with the "boom bap" artists of today. People are trying to become these great lyricists for the sake of being a lyricist, which I can hear in the music. I get in my moods and just bump the golden era joints hardbody...
I love trap also, but it's more of the EDM version...the instrumental type
(see example or ) .
I love the way they are put together, and the sound design and automation is fascinating. The ability to create an instrumental that literally doesn't need lyrics is underrated in my opinon.
Old trap like old TI and Jeezy I can rock to, but most of this new trap features artists where their lyrics are literally unintelligible. Just mumbling nonsense over a hard ass beat. (see Example: )
No preference on lyrics, to be honest. Many old heads (such as myself) complain about how there's no lyricism today and that somehow everyone from the 90s had bars with meaning and didn't rap about the same shit. Those same people would bump the shit out of M.O.P. and Nore.....and if you're really familiar with those artists, you see my point.
I don't mind the ratchet shit as long as it's clever and sounds like it's well thought out, but I heard these golden era wannabes sound like complete trash on tracks.