I think it depends on what you rap about. Hip Hop is more about authenticity and the concept of "keeping it real" than anything else, and whether rightly or wrongly, a lot of people judge authenticity by perception. For example, if you look like Slim Jesus and you're rapping about toting guns and running the hood, a lot of people are just not going to believe you, and it almost doesn't matter how good your raps are once you are held in doubt. The same thing goes with being old. If you're looking like gramps but rapping about certain things that are more of a young man's domain, it will not be accepted. But if your content was "age-appropriate" or at least believable to the masses in terms of what they think someone your age would be concerned with, if it is backed by skills, I think people will like it. Hip Hop as a genre and artform just turned 50 years old so we're not quite used to seeing people of a certain age doing it. Some of our oldest artists are just over 50, and the ones who are still somewhat relevant aren't rapping about the same things anymore, unless they're performing old songs.
I'll leave you with this quote from Rakim:
"Timeless, so age don't count in the booth/
When your flow stay submerged in the fountain of youth"
|