Don't forget about Ice-T when he used to put out big songs like "Cop Killer" and "Colors", yes I agree that Hollywood is to blame for the reason why some of the best rap artists don't put out music anymore
Co-sign, but thats just Will Smith...The others dont get a payment like that or aren't that successful. The more important thing is that there has been some kind of musically quality drop of these artists. Even Mos Def who started as rapper/actor follows this trend to be just good on one thing...
That's the bottom line. That movie money is way longer than music money, especially nowadays. But you also have to look at it this way, with the exception of maybe Ice Cube, would we still be talking about Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Will Smith, or Ice T if they had just stuck to music? Doubt it. I don't think Will Smith could retire off of "Gettin Jiggy Wit It" royalties. But it seems like some rappers start doin movies and slack off on their rhyming like Xzibit, Ja Rule, and maybe The Game. Ludacris and 3 Stax seem to balance both though, for now anyway.
