let's not compare the rap game to the NBA... sports and music are very different worlds...

and talking about who's album is most anticipated this year isn't useful either...cuz that shit is already here and now...

If y'all wanna talk about the future of rap as a genre then we need to look at other types of music...
take rock for example:
started all happy and shit like buddy holly = sugar hill gang
then gained a more meaningul message like Beatles = Public Enemy
There is a division like corporate rock and alternative = gangsta and underground
Now mainstream rock is giving way to traditional and dressed down artists like Norah Jones and the White Stripes, The Strokes etc... We can guess that rap may revert to modern versions of the sparse beats and rolling flows like that of Run DMC, LLCoolJ etc

This is just a hypothesis and the reality is gangsta and club will never really die becuz the styles are just too marketable to subarban class kids...

{Peace}