No, most hiphop labels are owned by the artists these days. Everyone saw how Master P made 400 million dollars in about a 4 year span. What MTV plays is another ball game, but most artists are on smaller labels that are owned by another rapper or a small rap label like Koch that allows them to have total control over their project.
Ice Cube owns his own label, its called Lynch Mob records. He has complete control over what he releases.
Aside from that, he helped release F the Police back in 1988 and Black Korea in 91. Both on Ruthless Records, a company owned by Eric Eazy E Wright. He had sole control over some of the most controversial songs in music history.
Some rappers have left various labels which they were under control of various A and R executives that wanted a more commerical friendly and less controversial release. In the end though, these guys are making millions of dollars and the AR's need them alot more than they need the record labels. Thats why most rappers have their own labels or work for someone like themselves. Example, Eminem, 50 Cent, Xzibit, Mobb Deep, Snoop Dogg, etc are all under the Shady/Aftermath umbrella that Dr Dre started. Interscope is a distributor but they dont have too much say so in what goes out.
Its all a moot issue anyway because the majority of hiphop artists are making alot more money off of their mixtapes than they are their albums these days. They can put out mixtapes weekly without having to worry about clearing samples, mastering the albums, and not having to deal with maticulous credits and cover art. Those mixtaps are released on cd-r and have publishing rights to protect themselves from major piracy as a result of heavy bootlegging.



Bookmarks