Perspective from a Hip-Hop Fan:

At the end of the day, it's all about the quality of the music. If you have ghost-writers, be honest about it. Fans will still buy your albums if the records are classic material, especially. As a fan, I don't like being lied to. Certain things just don't add up with certain hip-hop artists, whether it's their street credibility, them being an infamous gangster that faked his death, later becoming the biggest gangster of all-time, or if it was flaunting his/her jewelry to make his/her own lyricism sell. People tend to love any famous person or celebrity, no matter what that star portrays him/herself to be, simply because of that famous star's wealth. Some people greedily hunger over a celebrity's fame, while trying to receive some of the benefits at the other end. I'm just a real hip-hop fan who calls it how I see it and how certain rap artists appear to me. Truthfully, if I honestly give out my opinion no matter how harsh the sincerity may be, the controversy and gossip will still most likely benefit the hip-hop star no matter what I say. There is nothing a freelance writer or critic can say that will damage a famous hip-hop star's legacy within the legendary rap music which was created from whatever artist. What we have in the music industry are rap artists and rap record-labels that will make up any sort of gossip and controversy, in order to feed the buying public their music products. In any turn of events, they will try to make the consumer feel bad for voicing their opinions about aforementioned artists in question, when it was all a hustled marketing scheme for all the music fans to fall into this buying frenzy, for the specific music artist or artists.