Because hip-hop is the only genre of music where realism crosses over with art, and many times in violent fashion. Thats the persona it embodies and with so many rap artists claiming to be street cats first and rap artists second, credibility gets put on the line. This isnt like pop music, where an artist is....an artists. They do music all the time, thats their job, their life, their love. Many of these rap artists say they are gangsters, drug dealers, etc FIRST....and rap to just rap. So its a very different dynamic. You VERY rarely see "beef" in country music or whatever...but its CONSTANT in hip-hop and sometimes it turns ugly.
Not that hard to figure out.
It's not hard to figure out some artist are just plain idiots. If an aspiring artist is rapping and makes good enough music to live off of legit why would anybody in their right mind jeopardize that?
Robert Downey Jr. was a drunk and a drug addict. He also played one in the movies. And also did time in the pen. I respect that man for overcoming his demons and staying strong. And the reason I say this is because he's good friends with a relative of mine. He'd be an idiot to be out in the street trying to be Iron-Man or any character he's played in a movie (Like he did in the past in the movie, "Less Than Zero.")
At the end of it all, it's entertainment no matter which way it's flipped. This is why a lot of rappers convert to movies because being a rapper requires acting skills. Your delivery has to be convincing to the listener. You build character in your delivery / song. A lot of rappers would make great voice over actors.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with your statement, but it was valid in the 90's. Very few and far in between are still trying to keep it real and ending up dead or doing life in prison. The laws changed since then and they ain't playing no more. A lot of these fools got the Austin Powers syndrome thinking it's still the mid 90's LOL!
We as fans can look up to that & glorify it, but I'll bet every last dollar that the person doing life in prison feels stupid knowing he could of had it all. Or at least have his freedom and not be locked up and nobody writing him. It's easy for anybody who's not doing the time to hype it all up and make sound good.
A lot of people today get locked up and you got their homies posting "Free so and so" on social media pages like it's really going to make a difference. At the end of the day, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.