Hip hop radio is an incredibly conservative, staid, and boring format. You have to remember that for almost a decade and a half (basically until The Chronic for

Hip hop radio is an incredibly conservative, staid, and boring format. You have to remember that for almost a decade and a half (basically until The Chronic forced the issue) they wouldn't even really play rap music that wasn't also dance music. It was mostly C&C Music Factory, MC Hammer, etc. No Public Enemy, no Tribe Called Quest... Those things were supported by college radio first. Think of everything that's popular and critically acclaimed they won't play today from all the Odd Future stuff to Killer Mike to Lupe Fiasco... Radio in general serves mostly as background music for ads. A song that rejects consumption in very specific terms is the last thing they want to see.