HEY: It's September 13.

[Ristol]

I get why people are still all about Tupac. If someone asked me to define charisma, I'd probably direct them to one of his better interviews. The enthusiasm in those early years! But...greatness? I don't know. Sometimes, for sure. Moments of brilliance, e.g. MATW and 7 Day Theory. (The tragedy is that he was getting better.) On the whole, though, his music was uneven and undeniably repetitive. I think if he'd been a bit less prolific, he'd have had higher standards for his releases. At the same time I can't argue with his attitude: rapid-fire studio sessions, work out the song, do another one. That's very cool. But the results were sometimes of the "whatever" variety.

Anyway, as a human being, you guys are right. It's impossible to judge someone you never met. We're basing our opinions on a very specific public persona that he crafted intentionally. I mean, cmon, is Hit Em Up a sincerely hateful track, or is he playing things up to make it interesting? He was a salesman, moving door to door. We don't know the first thing about the dude.

 

[Ristol]

The truth is, you can't attain the level of success and fame that Tupac did without offending a person or two on the way. Nice people don't get anywhere in life.

What a silly generalization. I can see being cynical about money, or nepotism, or pretty much anything, but to say that nice people never accomplish anything? Um, it's impossible to even know that. I'm pretty sure there aren't stat sheets that say "Gandhi was a great guy" or "MLK treated taxi drivers like shit", so I'm not sure what we're talking about. We don't even know the parameters of nice and not nice (is this not subjective?) so what's the point of talking about it?

 

[S O F I]

^you better stop drinking and posting before I slap the queer out yo mouth.

 

[Kobe]

The influence factor fades with time I guess. Over the years, I've been deleting 2pac tracks that give me a bored feeling whenever I listen to them. Now, I guess I could make a max of 6 LPs if I was to combine all the songs I have. Eventually they'll get less and less but some of his music still sounds competitive when compared to what's being put out today.

As for repetitiveness, I think that element comes up after hearing tracks which I believe were never meant to be released in the first place. If you listen to his first LP all the way to AEOM, the themes vary. After that, yeah, its all repetitive. Doesn't help that we now have all all these unreleased tracks in our possession either.

I still think the Outlawz ruined plenty of his songs

 

[masta247]

Nice people don't get anywhere in life.

I disagree. It depends on what you consider as "nice". If you're able to take a stance where you have to and act accordingly being a nice person helps a lot. Unless you're not really nice, but you are just all-around passive. That's when you usually don't get anywhere in life. People often act "nice" because they are passive and aren't able to get other peoples' attention with personality or skills, so they are doing that to win attention by doing things for them. That's not really being a genuinely nice person and that's a huge misconception that I often see. Deeply religious people often act nice because they want to go to heaven but if you do something that's against their code you will see that they are not nice at all, they are fake.
There are professionals having happy families and friends and being genuinely nice despite not needing much from other people - that's what being truly nice means to me. More so- I believe that by being nice they were able to maintain that.

See, you can do things and take a stance in certain moments, and keep things to yourself from time to time and stand up for yourself when you have to yet you can be a nice person. You just can't be passive and have to be smart. I believe that being nice will only help you in the process, if only because other people will pay you back for being nice. That's how the society works.

About Tupac I still fail to really see how he was an asshole. Of course the thug image was immature and just silly but an asshole, how? Maybe sometimes, but that was usually the result of him being paranoid. I think he was a nice person, and experiences made him confused so he became a bit too aggressive.

I mean,if you shoot a labrador in his balls he'll want to bite you too.

 

[Da_Funk]

The influence factor fades with time I guess. Over the years, I've been deleting 2pac tracks that give me a bored feeling whenever I listen to them. Now, I guess I could make a max of 6 LPs if I was to combine all the songs I have. Eventually they'll get less and less but some of his music still sounds competitive when compared to what's being put out today.

As for repetitiveness, I think that element comes up after hearing tracks which I believe were never meant to be released in the first place. If you listen to his first LP all the way to AEOM, the themes vary. After that, yeah, its all repetitive. Doesn't help that we now have all all these unreleased tracks in our possession either.

I still think the Outlawz ruined plenty of his songs

The main thing for Tupac and I is the lack of fresh music. Its not that his music became bad over time. There are just only so many times you can listen to a song before you are sick of it. It doesn't matter how good that song is. I've heard all of Tupac's music so many times that it has nothing left to give me. It happens. He'll always hold a special place in my heart but I never listen to him anymore. I've never been as obsessed with someones music like I was his and I probably never will be ever again.

I disagree. It depends on what you consider as "nice". If you're able to take a stance where you have to and act accordingly being a nice person helps a lot. Unless you're not really nice, but you are just all-around passive. That's when you usually don't get anywhere in life. People often act "nice" because they are passive and aren't able to get other peoples' attention with personality or skills, so they are doing that to win attention by doing things for them. That's not really being a genuinely nice person and that's a huge misconception that I often see. Deeply religious people often act nice because they want to go to heaven but if you do something that's against their code you will see that they are not nice at all, they are fake.
There are professionals having happy families and friends and being genuinely nice despite not needing much from other people - that's what being truly nice means to me. More so- I believe that by being nice they were able to maintain that.

See, you can do things and take a stance in certain moments, and keep things to yourself from time to time and stand up for yourself when you have to yet you can be a nice person. You just can't be passive and have to be smart. I believe that being nice will only help you in the process, if only because other people will pay you back for being nice. That's how the society works.

About Tupac I still fail to really see how he was an asshole. Of course the thug image was immature and just silly but an asshole, how? Maybe sometimes, but that was usually the result of him being paranoid. I think he was a nice person, and experiences made him confused so he became a bit too aggressive.

I mean,if you shoot a labrador in his balls he'll want to bite you too.

The way I see it, to get anywhere in life, there are points where you have to be selfish. That doesn't mean not being nice, it means looking out for number one. Its just unfourtanate that sometimes when you look out for number one, others might get screwed over in the process. I think thats what sofi was getting at?

 

[masta247]

Well, I don't think that if you're a nice guy you should be like "hey, I don't want to be the CEO of that company, I think someone else should because I'm so humble" if you clearly know that you deserve that and could handle that. But I understand what you mean. It might be perceived as a kind of selfishness but I don't think it is. I think it's standing up for yourself and not taking anything else than what's rightfully yours and it's not selfish at all.

 

[S O F I]

I'm not going to read that. But let me clarify. Basically, there are times where you have to be ruthless. You have to be OK with doing things that will hurt people. Steve Jobs was ruthless. Bill Gates is ruthless, regardless of his philanthropic efforts. That's what I meant. Carry on.

 

[Ristol]

^you better stop drinking and posting before I slap the queer out yo mouth.

Lies! Calumny!

 

[Kobe]

Just thought I'd throw it in: 2pac's live act when he had a concert or musical performance was weak.

 

[tHuG $TyLe]

That's rappers in general tbh. Only a handful can actually perform without running around the stage shouting half the lyrics with their 1000000 member entourage throw up gang signs.

 

[ManiacDego]

Just thought I'd throw it in: 2pac's live act when he had a concert or musical performance was weak.

i liked it, becuz he was so fucked up sometimes, and did loose some words, but thats what i like...to see such a great rapper, fail sometimes....becuz when i listen a hour to some of my pacs fav studiotracks, i beginn to think "damn, thats perfect rappin" not like biggi or these other slow slummy rappers, pac was fast paced, wit emotions like "the world is mine nobody can touch me".

pac is the only rapper, and i dont say this just becuz ima fan, where i start to think on some tracks woho, when he rapped that,
ppls around him must went crazy, in case of "ballad" and some other hard tracks, thats not just skill at rappin and words were rhymin
thats alot more, he screamed and made alot more styles wit his voice. my 2 cents.

btw...when i listen to us rap, english rap i just listen pac, otherwise i listen to german rap
becuz since ten years they got some hard good tracks too...but us rap since 2004 is dead for me,
even dmx does make just shit, nd dmx and 2pac are my fav rappers, they got emotions, i need that.

 

[Kobe]

^^There are moments when I listen to his studio tracks intently, and there are some extremely good things going on the production aspect. I just wish it could have been translated onto his show to justify how good the music actually was.

 

[Kobe]

I'll throw in this article as I think it gives closure to the Tupac/Biggie murders.

“[Suge’s girlfriend "Theresa Swann"]—she’s in hiding. She knows that her kids, the community at large, and everybody in the hip-hop community knows that she and Suge conspired to kill Biggie. The shooter’s dead. That’s as close to justice as these cases will ever see.