If I actually have evidence of them working hard. As an example, I'll bring up Oddisee and Black Milk. I think they work hard because of the amount of music they release at any given time - a couple years ago, these dudes were dropping several full albums within a year's time - and the high quality that comes with those. I think hard work can also be determined by the amount of detail found in the music, whether it's nuances in production or detail in lyrics. Big Sean comes across as a hard worker to me too - a couple years ago, not only was this dude dropping his mixtapes tough, but this dude was touring like crazy, and he was dropping guest verses on *everybody's* shit. Just seemed like he was never content. Same with Curren$y, dude drops a prolific amount of material that, IMO, stays at a certain level of quality.

This isn't to say that being prolific or having intricacy ultimately defines working hard, because I already know there are holes in that reasoning if those are rigid rules. Just saying that these are things that can sometimes signify the hard work to me.

Hard work does get points though, because super formulaic music often seems like it wasn't worked hard on. Again, not a catch-all for anything that's formulaic, because some people are formulaic and wack no matter how hard they work, but it's an occasional barometer. But if I can't see the effort at all, I'm less likely to support - because if you don't take your own work seriously, why should I as a consumer?

On the other hand, when I actually do believe that an artist worked hard, I'm likely to identify with that concept of dedication, and I give my support as much as I can - be it through buying the album, ticket sales, spreading the word, etc.

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