I disagree with the blanket statement that imprisonment can only harm a rap career
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I feel ya bruh but your argument aint that strong though
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all i need is one counter-example to refute a blanket-statement, right? so, wayne. i think it’s accurate. between the celebrity visits, the fan-letters, the grainy phone verses, this guy’s prison stint has definitely added to his mystique. not in a way that boosts his street cred necessarily (does anyone actually care about that anymore?), but in an anticipatory way. lots of people are expecting (or maybe just hoping for) some deeper, more focused material once he gets out.
whether he’ll actually come through with such material remains to be seen. but i don’t think the eventual outcome changes the fact that prison did not hurt, and may have even helped, his career. consider the alternative. had wayne been free for the past year, he would have had his usual level of exposure–one that some people were certainly getting tired of, and one that definitely would not be as interesting/discussion-worthy as seeing his prison i.d. card (wayne’s a catholic?) and hearing about how he got thrown in the hole.
basically, jail prevented (or at least delayed) wayne’s career from quickly becoming same old same old.
but that’s really an exception to a rule. t.i.p. and gucci are in a bad place, and boosie’s pretty much fucked.