Thinking a lot of violent hip-hop gangster stuff was meant to shine a light and put you in the shoes of a criminal, even if the rapper themselves has little/no gang involvement.
But a lot of it is bravado and posturing. Some rappers surely do it for the art and to tell a story (and others actually are involved in that life, and many more are adjacent to it), but lots are just doing it like "yeah I'm tough, and this is what I WOULD do... trust me."
I think a lot of it is that pioneers of rap that talked about life on the street, gangs, drugs, etc. before it was mainstream were doing it from a place of genuine artistry. But then it became sort of the default mode of rap. And the bravado aspect of the genre was always there, so it went from "I'm a better rapper than you" to "I could and would fucking kill you."
But a lot of it is bravado and posturing. Some rappers surely do it for the art and to tell a story (and others actually are involved in that life, and many more are adjacent to it), but lots are just doing it like "yeah I'm tough, and this is what I WOULD do... trust me."
I think a lot of it is that pioneers of rap that talked about life on the street, gangs, drugs, etc. before it was mainstream were doing it from a place of genuine artistry. But then it became sort of the default mode of rap. And the bravado aspect of the genre was always there, so it went from "I'm a better rapper than you" to "I could and would fucking kill you."
