RIP to the GOAT
black lives matter
Amen
Not the goat put top 10 easily and possibly top 5 best MC's.
Personal top 10:
1. Holla If You Hear Me (obvious choice tbh)
2. California Love
3. To Live and Die In L.A. (Severely underrated track)
4. Dear Mama
5. It Aint Easy (Also severely underrated track)
6. Changes
7. Keep Your Head Up
8. Me Against The World
9. Only God Can Judge Me
10. Unconditional Love
RIP to my personal GOAT
Classic XXL article: The Making of Makaveli The Don Killuminati 7 Day Theory album<------must read
King of Pain: 20 Years Later, Tupac Shakur’s Problematic Genius Still Haunts Us
Some excerpts:
The aphorism goes, “Stars are born, not made.” I understood this twice in childhood: the first time I saw Magic Johnson on television, and the moment in Digital Underground’s “Same Song” video when a resplendent Tupac Shakur burst into the public consciousness on a chariot, wearing a dashiki and kufi, and holding a scepter that looked like it was fashioned out of black cool itself:
Now I clown around when I hang around with the Underground
Girls who used to frown, say I’m down when I come around
Gas me and when they passed me they used to dis me
Harass me but now they ask me if they can kiss me …
When I rewatched the video last week, it struck me that the men carrying the chariot looked like pallbearers. Even in his figurative birth as a star, his inevitably early demise winked at us. The two always moved hand in hand.
Scientific American says a star is born when atoms of light elements are pressured significantly enough to undergo fusion. The same article notes all stars are the result of a balance of forces; that once fusion is achieved, stars exert an outward pressure. As long as the inward and outward forces are of equal intensity, the star remains stable.
Tupac epitomized fusion—cultural fusion—and maybe because of that, his star was never a stable one. The intensity of society he absorbed at every stop and the intensity he projected back at it were rarely in step.
He spent the first decade of his life in Harlem, the next four years in Baltimore, and came of age in Oakland, Calif., before his celebrity put him in a state of constant transience, living on the road, in Los Angeles, and in a jail cell. He was at once everyone and no one; as rich in spirit as he was, he was also spiritually homeless. That made him quintessentially black in America.
He was and remains a Jesus figure for so many black men not because of his Makaveli album-cover art, but because he let himself belong to us. His love, his pain, his anger, his intensity, his generosity, his recklessness, his paranoia, his vulnerability … He put it all on display.
He was as naked an artist as I have ever known. No one had offered such access to his life, and the more illating episodes made us wonder if he hadn’t entered a self-perpetuating cycle—it was tough to tell whether the music was being driven by his life experiences or was driving them. To some, he was hip-hop’s great method actor; to many others, he was the realest.
His energy was frenetic, his enthusiasm infectious. I could never figure out if he was running from or running toward something, but I knew I was willing to follow him wherever the journey took him, and me. The journey, in Taoist fashion, turned out to be the destination. In retrospect, I wish he would have kept more of himself for himself. It’s not coincidental that he hasn’t even been allowed his own death.
Everything about Tupac belonged to us in the end. In a very figurative sense, he died for the sins of our society and our culture of celebrity worship, violence, crass materialism and black death.
All these years later, Tupac is whoever we decide he is. He still functions as a funhouse mirror, and whatever we project onto him comes back to us in a larger, stranger reflection. He was a prophet, a player, a thug, a poet, a Panther, a prince. He navigated Nate Parker’s path of sexual assault, but came out largely unscathed in terms of public perception. Most of us were always willing to give Tupac the benefit of the doubt, partially because he was handsome, irrepressible and charismatic, but mostly because he was a black man who loved himself because of his blackness rather than in spite of it.
King of Pain: 20 Years Later, Tupac Shakur’s Problematic Genius Still Haunts Us
If I had to pick a top 10 2Pac joints I'd go with
1. Str8 Ballin
2. Brenda's Got a Baby
3. Holler if Ya Hear Me
4. So Many Tears
5. Souljas Story
6. Hail Mary
7. I Get Around
8. Cradle to the Grave
9. Papa'z Song
10. California Love
His verse closing out Digital Underground's Same Song was killer too
Last edited by baseline bum; 09-13-2016 at 11:37 AM.
Rakim and Big L are the co-GOATs. Pac isn't even in the conversation. He was one of the biggest Scarface biters in an industry full of them at the time.
Looking back, the whole East Coast vs. West Coast thing back then was ridiculous. Tupac was born in New York and raised in Baltimore. Biggie's flow and delivery were plagiarized from a West Coast rapper, King Tee. The fact that they both got killed over that stupid feud is absurd.
Nobody loves music anymore than I do and my home library would rival anyones, I have everything from African tribal music to that rap . What is with the stupid lyrics in these dumb rap songs? Talk about classless, sheesh~~~
Right here is why we see all the problems we do with cops and blacks. Young kids looking up to this...
Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground, eventually branching off as a solo artist.[7][8][9] The themes of most of Shakur's songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social problems. Both of his parents and several other people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. During the latter part of his career, Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry, becoming involved in conflicts with other rappers, producers, and record-label staff members, most notably The Notorious B.I.G. and the label Bad Boy Records.[10]
^ Avante ging up yet another thread per par
just die already old
Now think, what happens when young black kids hear this stupid ?
How about some reality and cool the hero worship. Then we hear people...."why do blacks get treated like they do by the cops".....it should be obvious.
Nobody here is as into black music like I am, I do start at the beginnings of it all. But the we see from some of these idiot rappers is ridiculous and just bad.
Last edited by Avante; 09-13-2016 at 12:17 PM.
I prefer 10000 times that my kids listen to 2pac rather than meeting you in a bar tbh fwiw
Well if they are in a bar then they are not kids at 21. And if younger then what dad is taking his young kids to bars?
I would never tell kids to........ the police, how damn stupid is that?
Kids look up to these guys, so ya send the message.... THE POLICE...??? Talk about a ing re , there it is.
As a rapper, he was good, but not great IMO..however, he's the biggest and most influential cultural icon in rap history, tbh..despite becoming a mainstream celebrity, he remained outspoken about issues that plagued the Black community, and did it in an intelligent way, unlike a clown like Kanye..
I wish he was still alive today so we could get him on a track with Drake..would be like Jordan vs. Lebron, Ali vs. Tyson type ..
Favorite Pac track:
What is this ?
Kids hear this and what do they think?
translation
Come on Avante, what's wrong with young blacks singing about pussy and THE POLICE....well? That will help the situation, you don't see this?
How about some real talent?
Show some class, don't come off as some dumb street thug.
Garbage has been going on for ages in music, nothing new about it. But, it takes little talent to do this.
Last edited by Avante; 09-13-2016 at 12:44 PM.
The cops are out there in that world. They see that thuggery, they see these young black kids hanging on streets because mom can't handle him and dad is long gone. They hear this music singing about pussy, drugs... THE POLICE.
Oh yes nothing helps this sad situation better than songs by dumb ass rappers. Most of them having never read a book.
r kelly is your hero, right?
Scarface, big l and e1 plus 2pac... Thes best!
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