People with a ghetto mentality tend to spend all of their money by wearing gold jewelry and driving expensive cars - they don't save for the future. The smarter "rappers" that come from not-so-bad to good economic backgrounds, and even some that came up from poverty, act like this in public - but have other investment plans behind the scenes. If they took off the gold and ditched the slum-orientated "glamor" their fans, including middle-class wannabe kids, wouldn't be interested anymore. That's why the whole thing is dishonest and stupid. I'm sorry to say that a lot of it started in the city that I grew up in, including Murder Inc. and other organized crime.