These dudes barely meet the threshold for being considered "rappers". I have a new rule, if you aren't really known outside your city, state, or area code, I can't really consider you a "rapper". Technology has made it so that we have cameras and recording equipment on the cheap and you can easily record something, hit send and upload, and boom! You're online...
I think we have to change what we are giving celebrity to, because "rapper" denotes a certain amount of celebrity, and I'm sure that even at home in The X, Sha EK is more known for being a street guy than a rapper. Dollars to dimes, people in The Bronx hear his name, do more people think "rapper" or "goon"?
So this isn't even specific to NY, it's every city and every region. If I have a certain niche, I can log on and find no-name rappers from anywhere------>brothers familiar with my post history will note I have plugged guys on here who weren't known outside they city for years. I believe I was the first guy here who ever posted about DaBaby (Charlotte). I know I was the first guy who ever posted about Duckman (Alaska/Las Vegas) and IamNortheast (DC). And I plugged a bunch of Sacramento rappers, I was definitely the first nigha to plug Bris and other Sac artists...
But I would also say that before those guys achieved notoriety outside of their city, they were all known as something else, they weren't simply "rappers", if even known as that at all (Northeast Trap ain't even really referred to as rapper to this day and he's got some light buzz outside DC)...
Rapping is a profession, it's either a full time job and hustle, or it's your primary job and hustle. If neither of those descriptions apply, you aren't really a "rapper"........you're just a local nikka known for something else who also raps on the side sometimes.
As it applies to Sha EK, knowing nothing else about him (this thread is my first time hearing about dude), its clear that he doesnt live his life as a "rapper" by any of those descriptions. He's 21 with these kinda charges, boy been full time something else. Good luck to him, and he gonna need it with the shyt they got him locked up for...