With the exception of more recent Contemporary R&B (as opposed to 50s and 60s R&B/Soul) and mainstream pop, Hip Hop seems to thrive on features in comparison with other genres, even other traditionally African American genres (which, by way of community, was my initial hypothesis on why it visibly features other artists, as opposed to just casually employing them in the more general liner note credits)
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I think it has more to do with how performers are credited than actual practice.
Duets, as well as having other more or less well known singers or musicians perform on someone’s album, has been incredibly common across lots of genres since forever.
The difference is that in hip hop those artists are billed right in the name of the song rather than just credited in the liner notes among the personnel. This is a cultural difference, I suspect due largely to the fact that rappers are also usually their own lyricists. So their contribution goes beyond simply performing in someone else’s composition. Of course there is also a savvy marketing aspect as well — by putting both names on the song it expands the audience to fans of both artists.
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