in the mid to late nineties, rap was extremely popular.
Now, unless most artists are lucky to go gold besides the long established artists.
They brought in their fan bases to the box office back then and even a few learned how to actually act after catching that big ass paycheck.
Besides a 2Pac, who was a trained actor, guys like Cube and LL came into their own. They brought their fanbases with them. Now you have former actors pretending to be rappers and guys who can actually hold their own in film like Common.