Which artist was biggest at their peak?

[Zero Cool]

pac may have had no compition in your eyes but to any hip hop head, its a fact that lyrically chino xl slayed pac, also sun tzu, pac was all over the place in 96 but bad boy was to since that was when it was at his peak

The question was which artist was biggest (in the public's eyes) at their peak not which one was the best.

 

[Silleone]

Pac, Eminem or Snoop. As I wasn't a fan of 2Pac or Snoops when they were at their peak ('94-96) I'm going to say Eminem.

finally a guy with sense, if u people wernt listening to rap back in the early/late 90s, dont vote.

 

[imported_Sun_Tzu]

i guess im just sayin he got more exposure, because he was on many of the channels includin them political channels discussin how he is threat to the youth or some shit.

 

[Pittsey]

Damn man there's some dumb posts in this thread.

To sum it up - Rap music has changed heavily in the last 10 years, it has gone from being a small part of music sales to be one of the biggest. If you group RnB and Rap together it probably accounts for the biggest sales worldwide (because Country is so huge in US), it is definately the quickest growing. Back in 1994 very few people listened to hip-hop, and it got played on select "specialist" stations. Now it is played on 80% of stations even the most commercial stations, so therefore the artists are reaching many more listeners than ever before.
Considor 2pac alive now, living his life like he did 94-95, he'd be front page news world-wide for all the shit he pulled, all the shit he didn't but he got blamed for, and then for the other little things he did - films and music. But he didn't have the influence on the music as large as Snoop and Dre did back in the DR days, although obviously this is mainly my opinion. As for Eminem he is easily the "biggest artist", due to the fact he is around and making his best (excluding encore) music at the time of rap musics peak.
If all 3 were around at the same time I'd probably say 2pac would be the biggest star, he managed to cross over and make mainstream pop songs and still be fairly well respected, and with all the media attention he got just marginally out does Eminem, for newspaper inches relative to popularity of hip-hop. As for Snoop he helped build DR but it was mainly down to Dre's vision.

 

[Silleone]

The question was which artist was biggest (in the public's eyes) at their peak not which one was the best.

thats the problem, alot of the kids here were like 8 when people like say, pac, big,nas, etc so how can they judge the popularity.

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Well, actually, he technically played a character named Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith. Even in the description of the movie B Rabbit is called a "character similar to Eminem". Granted the movie was based off his life, but he didn't play Marshall.

Don't state the obvious, not everything has to be taken so literally. He did a play a character who had deafening similarities to Marshall.

Dude, that right there is the stupidest fucking thing you've ever said. I don't know why, but you seem to be grasping at straws to strip Em of credit. He did not play himself in The Wash and to even insinuate he played himself is simply ludicrous. Oh my God, he played a disgruntled employee and because he's expressed disatisfaction about his jobs before he became a rapper, he just must have been playing himself.

Your arguments usually have logic, but you just sound like a dumbass here.

Have you ever heard Infinite?

I know you don't like the SSLP. Relevance? On both these albums he constantly laments on his situations - often one of these situation being a disgruntled worker fed up of being jerked around.

And he wasn't even that good.

Then again, in you eyes Juice is one of the most famous movies ever.....oh no, you retracted that didn't you? Still....

I'd like to know specifically what "people" you're talking about, because you seem to think you're speaking for people here.

Samuel L Jackson for one. You do know who he is....don't you?

Why not? You just seem to wanna diss Em anyway you can in this post. Quite ridiculous.

I just answered that.

Not trying to be condescending here, but...duhhhh.

It was you who did not appear to get AmerikazMost point, so he reiterated.

For a supposed rapper you reall seem to have a poor grasp of the language English, forever misconstrueing posts.

Biggie was not "strong competition" for Pac.

Yes, he was.

 

[Silleone]

Damn man there's some dumb posts in this thread.

To sum it up - Rap music has changed heavily in the last 10 years, it has gone from being a small part of music sales to be one of the biggest. If you group RnB and Rap together it probably accounts for the biggest sales worldwide (because Country is so huge in US), it is definately the quickest growing. Back in 1994 very few people listened to hip-hop, and it got played on select "specialist" stations. Now it is played on 80% of stations even the most commercial stations, so therefore the artists are reaching many more listeners than ever before.
Considor 2pac alive now, living his life like he did 94-95, he'd be front page news world-wide for all the shit he pulled, all the shit he didn't but he got blamed for, and then for the other little things he did - films and music. But he didn't have the influence on the music as large as Snoop and Dre did back in the DR days, although obviously this is mainly my opinion. As for Eminem he is easily the "biggest artist", due to the fact he is around and making his best (excluding encore) music at the time of rap musics peak.
If all 3 were around at the same time I'd probably say 2pac would be the biggest star, he managed to cross over and make mainstream pop songs and still be fairly well respected, and with all the media attention he got just marginally out does Eminem, for newspaper inches relative to popularity of hip-hop. As for Snoop he helped build DR but it was mainly down to Dre's vision.

i agree with this but i still say 50 is the most popular in his peak, he is still in his peak, its bin 3 years or so and the man has basiically achived more than any rapper, some people say dre but look at it this way, it took dre a long while to build what he has now, 50 has done all of that in 3 years simply becuz rap is now pop, its everywhere, back in the day, i dont think a shoe company would want to collaborate with a criminal of the street, with so much resorces and capitalism, its easy for any rapper to achive so much.

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Even though hip hop is more mainstream now, Eminem isnt the only MC pushing 5 million+ albums.......50, Nelly, and Will Smith all made at least one album pushing similiar numbers to what Em does. As did Outkast.

'5+'??? Are you aware of the numbers The Eminem Show did?

 

[Hellrazor1978]

'5+'??? Are you aware of the numbers The Eminem Show did?

Yes, I know that the Eminem Show sold like 7-8 million.....but that is beside the point. AEOM sold almost 10 million.

But the point is, in 96', Pac was outselling all other rappers by a far larger margin then Em is today. Today, Outkast and Nelly put up similiar numbers to what Em does. In 96', NO ONE was selling the numbers Pac was, and only the Fugees and Bone even came remotely close.

 

[Hellrazor1978]

then life after death went on to go DIAMOND,which i may add was like the first hip hop album to do that, :thumb:

pac may have had no compition in your eyes but to any hip hop head, its a fact that lyrically chino xl slayed pac, also sun tzu, pac was all over the place in 96 but bad boy was to since that was when it was at his peak, the only people that say pac was the only mainstream rapper are his dickrider fans/people that started listening to rap about 4 years ago and of course idiots like Jason G who only discoverd nas 2 months ago, lmao hahahaha.

Life After Death went Diamond looooong after both Pac and Biggie were dead, plus the fact Biggie died really upped the sales of that album. AEOM didnt need death hype to sell, it simply sold on its own. As for Chino ripping Pac, how many records has Chino sold to date?? LOL.....nuff said.

And Bad Boy didnt really blow up till 97', a good year after Pac was gone. Where was Bad Boy the year before, in 96?? Thats right, Pac was running things, as was the entire west coast. Anyone who says otherwise clearly wasnt listening to hip hop back then.

 

[one mc on dj]

Life After Death went Diamond looooong after both Pac and Biggie were dead, plus the fact Biggie died really upped the sales of that album. AEOM didnt need death hype to sell, it simply sold on its own. As for Chino ripping Pac, how many records has Chino sold to date?? LOL.....nuff said.

And Bad Boy didnt really blow up till 97', a good year after Pac was gone. Where was Bad Boy the year before, in 96?? Thats right, Pac was running things, as was the entire west coast. Anyone who says otherwise clearly wasnt listening to hip hop back then.

aight well thanks for clearing the label stuff up..as for chino rippin pac...LMAO i dunno sales dont mean shit that is all Im saying...

 

[WessideThuggin]

then life after death went on to go DIAMOND,which i may add was like the first hip hop album to do that, :thumb:

Yo what's diamond?

 

[Pittsey]

i agree with this but i still say 50 is the most popular in his peak, he is still in his peak, its bin 3 years or so and the man has basiically achived more than any rapper, some people say dre but look at it this way, it took dre a long while to build what he has now, 50 has done all of that in 3 years simply becuz rap is now pop, its everywhere, back in the day, i dont think a shoe company would want to collaborate with a criminal of the street, with so much resorces and capitalism, its easy for any rapper to achive so much.

Yeah it's a close call.
I was basically just addressing the most popular votes in my post. Snoop, EM and Pac.
But 50 is huge, I don't think he has as many news programmes or newspaper columns about him though as Eminem did in 2000. However his business empire is massive.

 

[Rayza]

Yo what's diamond?

10 times platinum ( a rarity in hip hop).

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Yes, I know that the Eminem Show sold like 7-8 million.....but that is beside the point. AEOM sold almost 10 million.

You just checked Silleone for using Life After Death's numbers & yet you're using the numbers of an album which, while released during 2Pac's lifetime, did not go diamond until after he was dead either.

I understand your point, but Eminem constantly does big numbers & is known by almost everyone virtually everywhere on the planet - something which 2Pac was not then, & is not now.

 

[Hellrazor1978]

You just checked Silleone for using Life After Death's numbers & yet you're using the numbers of an album which, while released during 2Pac's lifetime, did not go diamond until after he was dead either.

I understand your point, but Eminem constantly does big numbers & is known by almost everyone virtually everywhere on the planet - something which 2Pac was not then, & is not now.

The fact AEOM didnt go Diamond until after Pac's death is beside the point. Before Pac's death, it was already approaching the 7 million mark, and the album was already a MASSIVE success....regardless if it sold an extra 2-3 mill after Pac died.

Life After Death was released after Biggie died. He didnt get to see the success of the album as Pac did with AEOM. Not saying Life After wouldnt have been a success, it most definatly would have.....but it wouldnt have gone Diamond either, and in fact, I doubt it would have even sold 7 mill as Pac did with Eyez.

And Pac is just as known as Eminem is, you crazy if you think otherwise.......Pac is the biggest selling hip hop artist worldwide (with over 75 million albums sold worldwide, 40 mill+ in the US alone) and the biggest icon hip hop has seen. Remember, it was Pac who MADE IT acceptable to sell Vanilla Ice type numbers and not be called a sellout.....long before Eminem was around. They got friggin Tupac college courses now. I dont see any Eminem college courses anywhere.....Em himself will admit he could never reach Pac's level.

And last but not least, Pac's back catalog sells more consistantly than Em's does.

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

I wasn't completely sure so I double checked.

The Eminem Show is almost double diamond.

And Pac is just as known as Eminem is, you crazy if you think otherwise

You're absolutely wrong here. Every last person in America knows who Eminem is but I bet you'd get quite a few rednceks & that that don't know who 2Pac is.

In Britain, 2Pac is known, but not to the level of Eminem.

I'm pretty sure a similar standard can be applied around the world as almost everyone knows who Eminem is. Little children know who he is but wouldn't know 2Pac, old people know he is but wouldn't know 2Pac.

Em himself will admit he could never reach Pac's level.

This is completely irrelavant as we are not debating talent here.

 

[Hellrazor1978]

I wasn't completely sure so I double checked.

The Eminem Show is almost double diamond.




You're absolutely wrong here. Every last person in America knows who Eminem is but I bet you'd get quite a few rednceks & that that don't know who 2Pac is.

In Britain, 2Pac is known, but not to the level of Eminem.

I'm pretty sure a similar standard can be applied around the world as almost everyone knows who Eminem is. Little children know who he is but wouldn't know 2Pac, old people know he is but wouldn't know 2Pac.



This is completely irrelavant as we are not debating talent here.

Ill believe it when Em sells 75 million albums worldwide, has college courses on him, and when I see people putting murals of him, getting tattoos of him, etc...

Eminem is merely a popular rap star, whereareas Pac is cultural/immortal icon. There is a BIG difference.

 

[imported_Sun_Tzu]

are u kiddin about old people not knowin who pac is?? you jokin right? many of em know exactly who is but they most of em have bad opinions about him. My fuckin 96 year old grandma knows who Pac is but unfortunatley she thinks he was a nuisance.

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Ill believe it when Em sells 75 million albums worldwide, has college courses on him, and when I see people putting murals of him, getting tattoos of him, etc

None of this happened while Tupac was alive. It is therefore not relevant to the question.

Eminem is merely a popular rap star, whereareas Pac is cultural/immortal icon. There is a BIG difference.

This has fuck all to do with the question at hand!!

are u kiddin about old people not knowin who pac is??

Where do you live & what is the colour of your skin?