When did it become normal for rappers to go platinum and multi-platinum?

Mike the Executioner

What went on up there? Poppers and weird sex!
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I was thinking about how rap was getting more popular in the late 80s and you had all these well-known acts, but very few of them sold records like that. Run-D.M.C. selling 1.5 million copies with Tougher Than Leather was insane because nobody else was selling that much, and they considered that album a failure because it sold half of what Raising Hell sold.

At some point, probably the mid 90s, rappers became a lot more likely to go platinum and multi-platinum since the genre was becoming more lucrative. Almost like you couldn't be taken seriously on a commercial level if you didn't have a platinum album.

When did the shift happen? Was it Dre with The Chronic, or earlier with Hammer/Vanilla Ice? And was that shift the reason rappers became more focused on getting paid?
 
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