Even back then though it was said that rappers made most of their money through touring.
I think the actual big difference is the 360 deals. Before the labels weren't getting paid as much when an artist toured so the tours didn't have as much money backing them. It costs a lot of money to lock down an arena or a stadium. Now since the labels are getting a cut of the tour money and companies like RocNation are in business with the artist it's in everybody's best interest now for the big tours.
They did make most of their most money off touring, which was unnecessary to elaborate on because that was the case across genres since day 1, but the 360 deal completely dried up the bit of money they was getting outside of that, and there was a time where your money wasn't necessarily in the 360 deal.
So using touring as a measurement of success became the #1 metric as it was virtually the only metric for what your work actually provided for you. 20 years ago the 5x platinum rapper could point to that metric and between that, singles, and touring, you could assume he was raking in bread outside of a substandard deal.
Whereas today the standard or even good record deal leaves you relying on tours to make a living.
Why were Rappers who had multiple big album eras in the 2000's (Young Jeezy, T.I., Ludacris, Ja Rule, & etc.) not headlining arena tours? Is it because the landscape of touring for Hip-Hop/Urban music acts were different back than?
