People like to criticize rap music for glamorizing illegal and immoral behavior, and honestly it has a long history stretching back to its earliest days of doing exactly that, especially since the concurrent rise of gangsta rap and the crack trade. But despite the rags-to-riches fantasies that Rick Ross and Young Jeezy enjoy weaving, most people who live off selling drugs or other illegal activities will tell you that for most part street-level hustling is a shitty job, where you’re on call around the clock and paid far less than any sane person would consider fair for the amount of risk—either from the cops or other criminals—that you’re put in. And every once in a while a rapper will step away from his fantastical portrayal of criminal life and give it a verite portrait that makes it look the exact opposite of glamorous.
Six examples after the jump.