Why? Because the scene became too dominated by violence and hatred. There were early hits like 'Parent's Just Don't Understand' and 'Boom, Shake The Room', then he gave up. However, there was a large period of time when Will Smith withdrew himself from the rap industry.
Summertime is as good an example as any of this side of hip-hop. As much of a joke as many people see him as, Will Smith was part of hip-hop chill-out-and-party tradition when dueting with DJ Jazzy Jeff under the Fresh Prince alias. Later, NWA, Public Enemy, and Wu-Tang Clan dropped bombs on the scene, and introduced heavier music and heavier themes, and were accused of glorifying violence, but they didn't go around shooting each other (well, rarely, anyway). Grandmaster Flash gave us a social conscience in The Message and White Line (Don't Do It), and that was about as heavy as hip-hop got. Sugarhill Gang gave us Rapper's Delight, the party classic. Dre, and Warren G, or you liked Puff Daddy, Lil' Kim, and Mobb Deep. It filtered down through the other rappers at the time, too. There was no middle ground, and while people might have respected the skills of both coast's most talented and famous rappers, everybody had a favourite. 2Pac and Notorious BIG were engulfed in a massive feud that cast a shadow over the whole genre, and polarized it - suddenly, you were either West, or East. #477 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums Of All Time.
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