Rap's well-traveled path to prison

ATLANTA — It's a ritual that seems to play out at least once a year in the rap community: A top star faces a criminal charge, and more often than not, is locked up at the height of his or her wealth and fame.

Lil Wayne is the latest example. Next Tuesday, he is to be sentenced on a weapons charge, and will likely face one year behind bars. He is one of rap's most popular figures, a Grammy-winning, top-selling superstar whose clever rhymes permeate through rap, pop and more recently, rock.

He joins a long list of rap stars who have gotten caught up in the criminal justice system; perhaps the most prominent prison poster child was Tupac Shakur, who went to jail in 1995 as he was on the verge of superstardom. It begs the question: After all these years, why are hip-hop's top stars still finding themselves on the path to prison?

"People seem to think they are smarter than the system or that person's fate is not their fate," says Chaka Zulu, co-founder of Ludacris' Disturbing tha Peace label. "Some people say, 'Oh no, that'll never happen to me. He just got caught slippin.'"

T.I., another one of rap's top sellers, reported to a federal prison in 2009 for his conviction on weapons charges. He spent time in an Arkansas prison and is currently at a halfway house in Georgia.

Some thought rappers would learn from T.I.'s experience, which again proved that the top stars of hip-hop aren't above the law.

Apparently, the lesson has not been learned.

"Hopefully, this isn't a cycle that next year from now we're seeing our top rappers in jail," Elliott Wilson, founder of the hip-hop Web site RapRadar.com, says. "Ultimately, it is a black eye to the culture I'm passionate about. Hopefully, the artists of tomorrow won't make the same mistakes as the ones of today."

While rap is a genre born from the streets, and drugs and violence have long played a prominent role, many rap stars find themselves facing their greatest — and sometimes their first — legal hurdles after they become successes, such as Lil Wayne.

Besides his court date in New York next week, he is also scheduled for trial in Arizona on March 30 on felony drug possession and weapons charges over a January 2008 arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

"The whole rock star fantasy is to be the bad boy, to do whatever and not get caught. These artists are reaching a level of fame, but dealing with real consequences for their actions," Wilson says.