There's an interesting story up at Village Voice that details the perils rappers, and other musicians for that matter, face when trying to be open to their fans on the Internet via Twitter and other services. The story starts with a case study of Charles Hamilton, an Interscope-signed rapper who owes his success to the Internet, and now may not break big like he had hoped, also thanks to the Internet.

Despite Hamilton's enthusiasm, missteps accumulated. He was busted for pilfering a beat from an underground producer. He came out the loser after exchanging disparaging video clips with kiddie-rapper Soulja Boy. He was punched in the face by a female spoken-word poet after insinuating that she had aborted their unborn child during a videotaped "battle." And in a climactic faux pas in June, he weirdly credited deceased beatmaker J-Dilla with "executive producing" his forthcoming LP A Perfect Life—a sin that earned self-righteous rebuttals from protectionist Detroiters and a refutation from Dilla's mother. Within a week's time, Hamilton vanished from the Internet: no blogs, no Tweets, no videos. (His last Twitter update, dated June 10: "Good morning sunshine!!!") According to industry rumormongers, Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine himself issued the gag order: Shut your pie-hole, or lose your deal. (Hamilton declined an interview request for this story.) A life and death done digitally, this was the rap version of a Tamagotchi pocket pet. 

It would be Interesting if Iovine really did tell Hamilton to shut up, but it seems like it was too late. That Soulja Boy thing made him look really bad, and at first that seemed like a way for an Interscope artist (Soulja Boy) to increase the fame of an up-and-coming Interscope artist (Charles Hamilton), but it got messy. For the rest of the story, including looking at how Joe Budden has re-launched his career thanks to the net, go here. [via Daily Swarm]