Are most rappers nerds?

I noticed an interesting pattern in the reading and class material for the unit on hyper-masculinity and hip-hop culture.  Namely that many of the rappers we talked about who came from a difficult life on the streets tended to be outsiders within their own culture.

Tupac Shakur talked about getting picked on and made fun of during school for his looks.  Multiple artists from the video we saw discussed being on the outside growing up.  Mos Def, for example, said "I was a nerd, I was a bookworm..."  When I thought about it, it made a lot of sense.  Hip-hop got started as a way for young, urban men to try to escape the street life.  Those who couldn't or didn't want to cope with that life the way most within that culture do (through, for example, selling drugs) turned to rap as their way out.  So it would follow that many rappers felt like outsiders growing up and most of their lives.

This gives a new perspective on the hyper-masculine front and the "cool pose" in hip-hop.  In many cases, it may not be simply a defense mechanism brought on by racist stereotypes or their place within the broader American culture.  For many rappers, the exaggerated masculinity, violence, and sexism may be a coping mechanism that they learned while growing up to accommodate their peers.