2pac

All eyes on me (20 years later)

            While N.W.A was saying "Fuck tha police", he was killing cops for the injustice that he was suffering through as a Black man. As more Hip-Hop of the nineties were talking about the revolution of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, his blood line was a part of the black panthers and knew how the government came in and broke them apart destroying them from city to city and pushing more drugs into the community. His words, his message, his name rings out heavily more than just music but into the society of America. His tattoo on his chest is symbolic to James Dean, red jacket from Rebel without Cause, speaking to a generation that was coming up but really misjudged by the system. 2pac is not one of kind but someone who comes along once and making everlasting impression.

            By the early 90's, it was clear to see that the West coast was taking over the game of hip- hop and most of that domination was coming from one record label, Death Row. Dr.Dre and co- founder Suge Knight created a new empire that came out of the gate with hits, the first one being "The Chronic". The Chronic which became a game changer the same way "Straight outta Compton" was but this time around Dr.Dre brought a whole new style to the game called G-funk the same as P-funk (The P standing for pure and the G standing for Gangsta). And that didn't stop with Death Row the next person to come out swinging was Snopp Dogg with his debut album "Doggystyle" the following year in 1993. By the mid-nineties, from every corner of the United States was making their mark on the game with their own style and flavor (which made this era of hip-hop the golden era). But in the end it was the west who took the game to another level. 2pac who is original from Brooklyn, NY but moved around a lot from city to city but in the end living Oakland and Marine city in California. In California is where 2pac was able to come alive and get his voice heard and start his remarkable career which only had a five year span. But in that five years he made an everlasting impact on the game of rap. I'm not here to focus on his whole career but the last year and half of his life when he was going against the whole world by himself.

            In 1994, 2pac's career and life was going every directions you could think of from up and down and side to side. By this time in his life, controversy played a heavy part on him, with all the trouble he was in and had been in things were about to get even worse. After being accused of sexual misconduct in a New York City hotel, it was hard to do any business with him for the trouble that was around him. And on top of that, the storm was not going to let up. On November 29, 1994 is where the final straw was drown. Two giants of rap who were once friends became twisted up in a game that will make the enemies. He went into a New York studio where Bad Boys the record company was in as well. The night of the situation were 2pac got shot five times is hard to explain; but what came afterwards is a war story that has never been touched in the world of hip-hop. After the shooting 2pac believed that Biggie had put a hit out on him and Suge Knight did everything he could to make that believable. And on August 4 1995, is where the East and West really collided starting with Suge Knight making a comment towards Puff Daddy and Snoop Dogg to egg it on. With 2pac he really couldn't say anything with him being in jail the only thing that represented him was his album "Me against the world" which became number one on the billiard charts.  2pac once said while in jail he couldn't write music at all but what he did was read a lot of books and the book that played the most pivotal part of his thinking was Niccolo' Machiavelli "The Prince". Niccolo Machiavelli was part of the the Italian Renaissance in the 1500's, his book "The Prince" was banned from the country for its evil tactics on war and manipulated your opponent when they are weak. This book has inspired some of the most dangerous minds of mankind from Hitler, Nicky Barnes and now Tupac Shakur. This is what drove him to come back stronger than ever against anyone who had done him wrong. From being shot five times to being accused of misconduct and everyone who turned their back on him. Well it was his time for payback and on October 1995, a new Machiavelli was born. Once 2pac was released from jail he wasted no time from getting back in the studio and letting all his feelings show from his anger, sadness, hatred, fun loving, being a player, and love making sides all into one album with a title that fit him well "All Eyez On Me". And all eyes were definitely on him after his diss towards Biggie Small and the whole Bad Boy crew with "Hit Em Up"; showcasing an angry 2pac who wants to kill any and everybody who was associated with Bad Boy Records. As the West Coast got stronger and stronger so did this beef, all of a sudden East Coast rappers could not go to the West and West Coast rappers could not go to the East all the while the press ate it up all the way. "All Eyez On Me" was released in February 13 1996 and right away it went to number one on the billboard charts. What is truly impressive is that he spend eight months in prison, was shot five times, and didn't miss a beat at all. No rapper today has gone through that and still been sucessful. It took him two weeks to make "All Eyez On Me" and was gearing up for his next album and his final masterpiece The Don Killuminati Theory.

            No one can really tell where 2pac's head was at at this point and time in regards to the beef he had with certain artists in the East Coast. His mind was always in different places; some bad, some good, but what he did know he was not going to be around much longer. Death Row Records has always been associated with illegal activities; questionable ways of how they took care of business. Even in the beginning how Death Row came about and how did they get the money to get everything published? By this time, Dr.Dre had left the company. More and more artists didn't like the way Suge was handling business, but as long as 2pac was there everything was going to be alright. But at this point, 2pac was lost in the world and didn't know where to go. At one hand, he was getting back into his roots of the Black Panthers and being a Black leader. On the other hand, people such as Suge Knight kept feeding him the Biggie Smalls and the East Coast situation for media height and for record sales. 2pac always talked about death in most of his songs and started to put that concept in his video's as well. By the time The Don Killuminati Theory came out, 2pac had studied and mastered the Prince and was ready to show the world how dangerous he was. First, he was back to acting in movies and doing others things before he released the album. It seem as if 2pac was a slave to writing, always in the studio, making movies with two more under production (Gridlock and Gang related) but it would all make sense.The last video from All Eyez On Me was "I ain't mad cha" which shows him being killed and going to heaven where he is seen with black superstars who came before. On September 1,3 it would all come to reality out in Las Vegas for the Mike Tyson fight. Things got out of control after the fight with 2pac and the rest of the Death Row crew jumped a Southside Crip. Once again, it's hard to go into details about the whole situation and maybe it's good for me to found out more this November in his upcoming biopic.

            2pac has always been my favorite rapper, but now that I am older and a little bit more wiser, he is just like a great novel with so many stories to be told and not just him alone. Since this only about 2pac I won't talk about the other rappers' names that I love. The stories that he told over twenty years ago resonate so highly into today's society from the cops, the system of America, and countless others. I am glad there are so many more stories on hip hop that are getting their recognition from "Straight Outta Compton", "The Get Down" on Netflix and now all eyes are on him, 2pac Shakur.