The Shrine

Like all the best musicians of the 90's, Tupac emerged in 1991 with Brenda's Got A Baby a song which was both poetic and dark with taboo subject matter. From here he established himself as not just another rapper rapping about his ice, how awesome he is, or any of that macho bullshit that a lot of the top rappers of the time were doing. There are few singers who can convey their energy and emotion on the level which Tupac did. He transcended the genre; people who despised rap could still consider themselves Tupac fans

Tupac was often lumped in with Eazy E and the West Coast gangsta rap due to the fact that he did rap about the same subject material. Tupac explored other aspects of the life in the ghetto; he experienced it, his mother was a Black Panther who had been imprisoned while she was pregnant with him. He pays tribute to his mother in the song Dear Momma where he raps about the difficulties of a single woman on welfare raising two black kids who were exposed to gangs from a very early age, and never giving up on them. This isn't the only example of a song praising women. Tupac was very unlike the rappers before him who were often very sexist; one of the songs that he wrote (which is often considered one of the best rap songs of all time) is Keep ya head up, which is about the strong difficulties of being a black female in the United States and the negativity that they face from even their own community; Tupac singing Keep Ya Head up in a classroom.

Tupac was legitimate, he grew up exposed to the racism, the gangs, and emerged as one of the most celebrated song writers of our generation. He wasn't one of those studio gangstas like Dre, Puff Daddy, Ice T, and others who rapped about gang stuff as a gimmick. Tupac lived the life. He had been the victim of violence in the past, getting shot 5 times at one point which would be the ultimate center of his stance on the LA vs New York war that would occur later. He ended up in LA after being bailed from Prison by Suge Knight (known for a story about him holding Vanilla Ice over the edge of a building by his ankles if he didn't pay up his owed royalties). Snoop Dogg who was on trial for conspiracy resulting in murder at the time teamed up with him and they released 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted which featured a video based on the 1983 film Scarface, starting with the scene where Tony Montana killed Frank Lopez and his corrupt police officer lackey; with Tupac playing Tony, fake Biggie Smalls as Frank Lopez and Puff Daddy as the corrupt officer. It was the second single off of All Eyez on Me (after California Love) which kicked the legendary East vs West coast battle into full gear.

With Tupac out of prison, thus began the last 11 months, also the 11 months that skyrocketed Tupac into becoming a worldwide superstar. While Tupac wasn't the first to popularize battle rap (Ice Cube, Dre, and Eazy E had a huge three way feud after NWA) Tupac took it to a whole new level in Hit Em Up which was a lyrical assault on a number of West Coast artists associated with Puff Daddy's label, especially Biggie Smalls/Notorious BIG; one which has never been equaled in music.

Tupac died at the height of his career in the afternoon of September 13 1996. Biggie Smalls would also be murdered March 9th the next year. This created a huge amount of speculation on just how serious the East vs West Coast battle actually was; also a lot of fingers were pointed at Suge Knight, the last person to have spoken to Tupac. Of course, like Elvis Presley and Andy Kaufman, there are legions of fans who insist that Tupac is alive and well.

Ultimately, it was his more melodic songs on the subject of racial pressure, and the quest for a true comfort between blacks and whites in the US, also the poor and the rich, that he would be best remembered for. It's songs like Changes, which is considered by many to be the greatest rap song of all time, and Ghetto Gospel, which was the first Tupac song to hit #1 in the UK, which people associate Tupac most closely to now. Tupac changed rap forever, and left his permanent mark on the world. Eminem, whose greatest influence was Tupac (you'll notice Eminem's story telling rap is very akin to Tupac's style) has called Tupac the greatest songwriter who ever lived.



Until the End of Time
Only God can Judge Me
Me Against the World

that's the way it is....thing will never be the same....

Nobody respects Pac's legacy right these days. Everybody focuses on the thugging, nobody remembers when he used to tell little kids to become a doctor or an accountant so they don't have to become a thug. Everybody wanna be "street" or ignorant, even people who aren't ignorant, but nobody wants to look at the reasons why the ignorance exists in the first place, the way Pac and Biggie did. I can barely turn on the radio these days on the hip-hop channels, there's no lyrics, no decent beats, way too much Autotune and nobody talking about anything other than popping bottles and hooking up in da clubbbb. Hip-hop was supposed to aim higher than this shit.

A lot of comedians have taken shots at the current rap industry comparing it to how it used to be in the past; particularly Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock.

Also, there is a Tupac film in pre-production right now, it is scheduled form filming in 2010. Not a lot of details are known on it at this time, but I would guess in the next 6 months we'll see a lot more information. The strong rumour is that it will be based on a screenplay written by Shakur in 95 called Live 2 Tell. There is also the Biggie film "Notorious" coming out soon too which documents his life from childhood to death.