In both cases, an image of wealth, strength, power, and success is projected in order to appeal to groups of people for whom these things are either lacking or absent. The image is -through marketing- made dependant on the consumer goods endorsed by the athlete or artist rather than his or her skill. Also in both cases the physical image created is as derivative and crude as possible so as to make it obviously accessible to the broadest consumer base. Rap and MMA don't seem to share a common cultural background as far as I can tell, but they have both been processed through the same marketing machine for the same purpose; making them appealing to males between the ages of 16 and 26 (give or take). It's a sad statement about the lack of imagination that grips our culture that two things that are culturally and historically unrelated can be so badly mutilated as to make them nearly indistinguishable from one another. It's sadder still that it's done for the express purpose of deluding our once brave and adventurous young men into believing that t-shirts, tattoos and attitude are interchangeable with moral fortitude and personal achievement.
Iain Richardson, compulsive post-having cake eater-wanter.
"He shoots first who laughs last."
- Alexsandr Lebed,