There is a lot of pressure on artists to have and sustain an entourage, from both consumers (and in turn the record label) and the artist's peers themselves. Consumers need to see artists roll with a crew to establish that they have street credibility. Typically, the "harder", tougher, and more "hood" the group is, the more street credibility the artist gets. On the flip side, the peers of the artists, typically people that the artist grew up with, expect to have their needs met by the artist and get "put on" by the artist because that's simply what you do when you "keep it real." Somehow, hip hop has adopted this false perception of being faithful as making sure that close friends are now afforded all the rights that the artist carries, without the same responsibility. While I think that it is great that there is this sense of loyalty that hip hop attempts to preserve, the extreme to which some artists attempt to take care of all of their friends and family should not be done or expected. It's great when artists give their peers and opportunity to work for them and make a decent living, but tagging along and reaping benefits of somebody else's hard work is shameful. The artist's friends become just as bad if not worse than the "gold-digging b*tches" they choose to rap about. 

On top of artists being used, the other issue is that, as Joe Budden said, the people that make up these crews act as if they aren't in different environments and don't conduct themselves in the manner they should. Whether it's because of instinct, trying to prove loyalty to the artist, or pure ignorance, the members of these groups tend to act in ways they shouldn't. Of course the artist, who wants to maintain a level of respect within this group of peers, has to not only display this type of bravado in music, but also in life. Even though they have been exposed to much greater things and have had much broader experiences than those in the entourage and may understand what is and isn't appropriate, they still need to keep their reputation among their "team" intact. So, this peer pressure now leads to not only the artist looking bad, but hip hop as a whole. 

Think about the stories you've heard about the beef between Murder Inc. and G-Unit (not just the group but everybody that rolls with them) and how many people from the entourages of each were involved, or even the beef between G-Unit and Black Wall Street when people ended up getting shot. Dipset has had a number of altercations with people. There is a laundry list of incidents where the artists themselves aren't even the ones to start the problem, but because people from the camps don't know how to conduct themselves when in certain situations, they are forced to resort back to a lifestyle they are trying to leave.

What are your thoughts on the entourages? Are they a necessary part of hip hop? Should artists be responsible for their peers to the extent we've seen? Let me hear all of your thoughts. Comment here on the blog or e-mail at straightouttahiphop@gmail.com. 

Peace.