it's hard to keep a fan base as a rapper for over 3 years (in most situations it's hard to keep them until song 2) without having some sort of substance to you that makes them feel you and where you're coming from. Mos Def and Talib and them are living a lot better than "Racks on Racks" and "OG Bobby Johnson" and "Gold Everything" and "Laffy Taffy" and "Hot nikka", etc... fans are fickle in general, but when you aint really got no substance or nothing giving them a connection with you at all then they're really fickle. a lot of ignant, dumb ass rappers that have careers are only surviving because they are considered "legends", living off the name basically, nigs like that are exceptions, juicy j ass nikkas. most of the conscious rappers eat good, believe it or not, and they eat longer