100% right. Some, maybe even most of Sigel's best and most powerful work comes from that struggle, with the drug addiction, the streets and his faith. How he expressed it through music. Die, Dear Self, Mom Praying, Tales of a Hustler II, Change, Lord Knows, This Can't Be Life, I Can't Go On This Way, Got Nowhere.
And Sigel, like every other rapper, talks that dope boy kingpin shyt, I didn't need to rap shyt. Sigel was a real street dude, no question. But before rap, he was going hand to hand, running small dope spots in Philly, in the roughest blocks. Like breaking down 4 1/2 or whatever into rocks and setting up trap spot in abandonded buildings. Like Meek. More on than Meek, but it wasn't some lavish existence. Cigarette smoke and crack rocks.
So, when he gets his rap money, he TURNS INTO the dude he wanted to be. He could buy multiple kilos, buy 5 bricks and set up shop, undercut the other corner boys, and finance his homie's drug operations, which he did. He could roll around acting like a fukking lunatic, and bail out, get caught with a pistol, bail out. Break some dudes jaw bail out.
And then you have the actual rap game, where you are being rewarded for being a street guy, the pressure of the fame, the pressure of the labels. Making music where you are glorifying the lifestyle you are leading. Sigel had more depth than that in his music, but he was partially caught up between the streets and the fame, as Jay said.