Finding unseen gems from musical history is pretty incredible – especially when it comes from the one and only Tupac Shakur. In February of 1995, the legendary emcee was charged with sexual assault, a charge he continued to refute in the courtroom. During his nine month stint in prison, he penned an in-depth essay which was addressed to young African Americans.
Sent directly to Death Row Records’ publicist and trusted friend Nina Bhadreshwar, Pac went on to say “Use it as you see fit. I am not granting this information to any other publication, not even Time & Rolling Stone”. Sadly, Death Row decided to can the story for unknown reasons, although some say it was to do with the image the label wanted to uphold for Pac.
The introspective letter titled Is Thug Life Dead ends brilliantly, promising a new record which he says, “When I touchtown it will shake the world!” If you didn’t already put two and two together, that ended up being his game-changing album All Eyez On Me. Tupac Shakur tragically died in a drive-by shooting a little more than a year after writing the essay.
The letter was estimated to receive around $50,000 but during the action ended up selling for a whopping $172,725 with just 31 bids. But you, lucky readers, can read it right here absolutely free of charge:
Header Image: Rolling Stone
Article Images: Gold In Auctions
What if Tupac was Notorious B.I.G.’s manager? Would the two legends still be alive? We could ask ourselves a thousand ‘what if’ questions about Tupac and Biggie, and we often find ourselves doing exactly that. Especially because, two decades after their deaths, we are still finding out new information about their relationship.
Ben Westhoff, author of the Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and the Birth of West Coast Rap, has spoken out in an interview on the Murder Master Music Show, that Biggie once asked Tupac if he would manage him.
“People forget that Tupac was already blowing up, already a pretty big star when Biggie was just kind of getting started,” Westhoff said. “Tupac kind of took Biggie under his wing and tried to teach him everything he knew, kind of took him to school. Biggie’s career wasn’t taking off as fast as he hoped it would. And so he actually asked Tupac if he would be his manager.”
Tupac turned Biggie down because he thought he was doing good under Puff Daddy’s management. It’s easy to forget how close Tupac and Biggie were, considering two of the greatest hip-hop songs of that decade are their foul-mouthed diss tracks to each other Hit ‘Em Up and Who Shot Ya? respectively. Westhoff even stated that it was because they were so close in the beginning that their beef become so intensely personal.
“After he got shot, Tupac believed that Biggie knew about it in advance, knew it was going to happen. That made him doubly mad because he mentored Biggie so much and helped him, and he really believed that he double-crossed him.”
You can hear the audio of Ben Westhoff’s insightful interview below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFYNa7pZ1y4
For more information we will have to wait for the release of his book Original Gangstas on September 13, which is also the 20th anniversary of Tupac’s death. You can pre-order the book benwesthoff.com.
Image: YouTube
It makes sense that there are countless hip-hop murals around the globe that depict musicians who have left us. Hip-hop and street art have always been intertwined. They riff on each other, feed off each other. What better way to commemorate an artist’s legacy than through the intrinsically anti-establishment art form?
It’s just come to light that A Tribe Called Quest are set to be honoured with a mural of their own, in memory of the incomparable Phife Dawg (RIP). We take a look at this & a few other hip hop mural memorials from NYC & our own backyard…
BIGGIE SMALLS – NYC
Image: Aymann Ismail/ANIMAL New York
Let’s start with the obvious. There are so many Biggie murals in New York that it’s almost impossible to keep track – but it’s with good reason. Biggie is such an influential, ever-present figure not only in music as a whole, but to New York specifically, that he’s become somewhat of a “patron saint” of street art, as noted by the Observer’s Ryan Steadman. Murals exist in Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene & Brooklyn – and by the time you’ve finished reading this, a few more have probably cropped up too.
THE BEASTIE BOYS – BONDI BEACH
This mural, at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, honours the late great Adam “MCA” Yauch, who passed away of cancer in 2012. It’s a fittingly vivid tribute, in an appropriately (read: INSANELY) busy thoroughfare for passers-by to enjoy. The co-founder of The Beastie Boys was a towering talent who helped give us tracks like No Sleep Till Brooklyn and Shake Your Rump – but he was also an outspoken activist and a filmmaker. Yauch was heavily involved in the Free Tibet movement, his production company released the iconic Banksy film Exit Through The Gift Shop, and he directed many of The Beastie Boys’ music videos under the pseudonym “Nathaniel Hornblower”.
TUPAC SHAKUR – NYC & SUTHERLAND SHIRE, NSW
Image: Complex
How could we mention Biggie and not Tupac? This particularly iconic mural was said to have been situated on East Houston Street, on New York’s Lower East Side, but sadly it’s since been painted over. Renowned street artist, Andre ‘Baby Man’ Charles, completed this iconic piece of work in 1996, and has since said he hopes to show it on canvas someday. In the meantime, there’s no dearth of Tupac murals either – there’s even one of him & Biggie on the side of the Telstra Business Centre in Sutherland Shire NSW, of all places.
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST – NYC
Image: Vince Ballentine via TMZ
A Tribe Called Quest made the Nu-Clear Cleaner dry cleaner’s building in Queens, NYC famous in their video for Check The Rhime, and now their mark on the place is about to made even more tangible. The mural will commemorate the collective’s insanely significant body of work, as well as paying respects to Phife Dawg. The “Five Foot Assassin” died in March this year due to complications of diabetes, devastating the wider musical community. Designer/street artist Vince Ballentine has created a mock-up of the mural, which will riff visually on ATCQ’s Midnight Marauders album artwork – an album on which Phife Dawg referred to himself as being a “funky diabetic”. Fans are commissioning the mural; and are also petitioning for the street it will be painted on to be renamed A Tribe Called Quest Boulevard.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QWEPdgS3As]
Image: Karl Grant/Photoshot via Rolling Stone
Afeni Shakur, mother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, has passed away Monday night (02/05/16) after suffering what is believed to be a cardiac arrest.
Deputies from the Marin County Sheriff’s Department responded to a suspected cardiac arrest situation at Afeni’s home at 9:34 p.m before transporting her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
Afeni, who was born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina, changed her name to Afeni Shakur after moving to New York City and joining the Black Panther movement. Her most famous involvement with the political party was when her and a number of other Panthers were arrested in 1969 and charged with conspiracy to bomb multiple New York City landmarks. Afeni defended herself in the case, while being pregnant with Tupac, and was eventually acquitted of all charges in 1971, giving birth to the rapper one month later.
After the tragic shooting of her son in 1996, Afeni took over Tupac’s estate, which reportedly earned her upwards of US$900,000 each year. Afeni used that money to carry on the legacy of Tupac, founding the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia, which provides artistic opportunities for young people by encouraging them to participate in a range of programs including drama, dance, creative writing and more. Afeni also played an integral part in greenlighting the Tupac biopic, All Eyez on Me, which recently finished filming.
As an activist, a philanthropist and a mother, Afeni Shakur’s passing will undoubtedly stop the hip-hop world and beyond as they come together to mourn a woman who was not only an outspoken individual regarding issues facing African-Americans, but raised a son who went on to become one of the most important figures in hip-hop history.
Rest in peace, Afeni Shakur. We’ll let your son play you out.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1ZvUDvLDY]
Image: theshaderoom
Charlamagne Tha God weighed in on comparisons between the late Tupac Shakur and Kendrick Lamar, insisting that the comparisons should stop being made between the two prominent artists.
In an interview with Montreality, Charlamagne was asked who he believes is the biggest rapper right now. He responded predictably, listing off a possible tie between Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.
“I don’t know if there is one particular answer.” Charlamagne said. “Everybody’s got these different, cult-like followings. And their fan bases love them tremendously.”
“I don’t think it’s one supreme individual who is the most influential in the game right now”.
Charlamagne was then asked his opinion on the comparisons drawn between Kendrick and Tupac. He was quick to point out the flaws in the comparison, and how they hurt new artists instead of helping them grow. “No, they will never match up, and we need to stop doing that to the new guys,” he said. “We have to stop putting them on the same level as ghosts. And what I mean by ghosts is guys like Tupac, guys like The Notorious B.I.G., guys like Jay Z, Dr. Dre. Those are legendary figures who have already done it. They’ve been through every door that any of these new guys could possibly even think of going through.”
Charlamagne capped off his point by suggesting that instead of focusing on similarities between Tupac and Kendrick, “Kendrick should be working on being the first Kendrick.” Rightfully, he’s showing that upcoming artists should work on focusing on themselves and their own identity, rather than try to fit into a mould left by somebody else.
If you have a spare three minutes, his short interview below is worth a watch.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr8oLbEuhUI]
Read our live review and see our photos of Kendrick Lamar during his recent performance in Sydney.
Image: HipHopWired
Throughout his short but extremely influential career, Tupac Shakur dealt a lot with love in his lyrics, from maternal to romantic to brotherly love. So it really should come as no surprise that he was sharpening his skills as a serenading swoon from his younger days, with a love letter written by West Coast’s finest when he was in high school being sold at auction for a ridiculously large amount of money.
The love letter, dated November 22, 1988 is up for sale at auction site Moments In Time for $35,000 USD (approximately $45,000 Australian Dollarydoos). It’s handwritten, which is scientifically proven to increase the romantic factor twentyfold, and was given to a girl nicknamed ‘Beethoven’ on account of her playing the piano.
The letter’s got all the hallmarks of a sweet ode to love, adorable drawings of birds, eyes (it makes sense, trust me), hearts, and telephones, accompanied of course with a phone number. Tupac writes ‘I feel really good vibes from you’ and ‘I want u 2 know that u can tell me anything’.
The more he writes, the more he opens up: ‘I was beginning 2 feel alone & out of the blue, I meet u & it’s almost like I’ve known u 4 years.’ Aww, Tupac.
But high school love can burn too brightly too quickly, and the woman of his affections said in the same article, “I didn’t know the man who tattooed ‘Thug Life’ on his chest and who was gunned down on a Las Vegas street. I never really cared for the music he recorded – it was nothing like those freestyles in front of our school. I knew the kid who loved Prince, and candles and had a broken heart.”
As per NME, the letter isn’t the first to go under the hammer, with a letter written by the rapper whilst incarcerated selling in October for $255,000.
An MC Hammer song has surfaced which was written by the late Tupac Shakur. The song, titled Too Tight, was meant to feature on MC Hammer’s album by the same name during his brief tenure at Death Row Records.
Never does a year go by without Tupac making the news one way or another. If it isn’t some previously unheard track, it’s someone talking about how the rapper influenced their own music or at the very least a sighting of the man himself. It’s perhaps not that surprising, since what we know about the last few months of the late rapper’s life paints a portrait of an artist who had locked himself in the studio, hell-bent on making as much music as humanly possible.
During his brief stint at Death Row Records, MC Hammer was hard at work attempting to pull together an album (Too Tight). Although we now know that the death of his friend and collaborator, Tupac Shakur, ultimately lead to him leaving the record label and forsaking the album. It’s been rumoured for several years, that Tupac had a hand in crafting at least one of the songs on MC Hammer’s album that never was. Evidence of this surfaced in 2008 with a video being released of Tupac working at the studio on a version of the song, although the version we see in the 2008 video had Tupac rapping the verses instead of MC Hammer.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47c93_2UNmg]
Too Tight is a fairly standard bragging song, with that 90’s G-funk seeping through its melodic keyboard and bravado filled lyrics.
“I caught some playa-hatin’ punks talkin’ about my style
I’m gettin’ money doing this for a while
But immature square using bad grammar
I hit the city and they screamin’ ‘You da man Hammer!’
Holla if you understand me,”
It’s a good thing that this unreleased track came with the disclaimer that it was ghost written by Tupac Shakur, since for anyone who’s familiar with his lyrics would most likely accuse MC Hammer of biting his style. In saying that, MC Hammer totally holds his own rapping to the beat and the song in itself, although presumably almost 20 years old, holds up entirely.
Listen to the song below and don’t even try to tell me if you wouldn’t cop the full album if it dropped tomorrow.
Image: A Journal Of Musical Things
With Straight Outta Compton earning a whopping $160 million at the box office, it’s fair to say producers have finally been alerted to the commercial potential of the rap biopic. Enter the Chinese: a nation famous for business savvy, extremely low overheads, and merciless disdain for international copyright law. Until the End of Time is the completely unauthorised Tupac biopic from the pen of visionary Chinese director Stephen Sheng. No one does knock-offs better than the Chinese, and it’s now become clear Until the End of Time is the Gucco or even the Calvin Klaim of rap biopics.
In a plot line too confusing to be offensive, two lives separated by time and space are miraculously connected. One is a rebellious Chinese teenager. The other is slain hip hop legend Tupac Shakur. When the surly teenager (artfully played by newcomer Dean Xue) has to do a presentation on a famous activist in history, he is naturally despondent. Coming from the mean streets of Huangdhongpingphang, Xue can’t relate to ancient figures like Ghandi or Mandela. But his heavily moustached Caucasian teacher offers a more urbane activist: Tupac Shakur. In investigating the life of Shakur, Xue has a chance encounter with a stranger: a former friend of the late rapper, and the only black woman to live in China. Thus the two lives are intertwined, with the memory of Pac brought to life through stunning re-enactments. Tupac is played by doppleganger Tsalta Baptiste, in a performance that knocks Anthony Mackie from his frontrunner position. Baptiste captures Pac’s voice, appearance, and absurd hand gestures perfectly. “This is for anyone who started at the bottom,” says Pac in flashback. “Young black kid, young Korean, young Mexican… Whatever.” This seems like a real missed opportunity to say “young Chinese kid,” given our protagonist is most both certainly and inexplicably, Chinese. But Sheng favours a subtler approach.
The poetic words of Tupac recorded in the form and characters he would have wanted.
Until the End of Time still manages to thrill, even despite the fact that its most interesting character is established as long deceased. “I think what your doing is dangerous,” Says a saucy coed to our hero. In one of the films more realistic scenes, Xue is shot at by the Chinese army – presumably for sharing the gospel of Tupac to his brainwashed students and thereby planting the seed for a hip-hop revolution that will topple the Communist government.
That face you make when you publicly announce that you’ve chosen ‘Tupac’ for your history project and the whole class laughs at you.
The film still makes for more compelling viewing than Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B – which failed to secure the license to play even a single one of Aaliyah’s original songs. Until the End of Time saves the raw power of Tupac’s music for the final moments of the trailer. Sheng selects that most iconic of Pac’s tracks as the clip crescendos – Until the End of Time, track 13 on Pac’s fourth posthumous studio album, released 5 years after his death.
Sadly, the movie does not seem to contain any karate. Again, this seems like a missed opportunity. Audiences have already been thoroughly warmed to the idea of the hip-hop/Kung Fu cross over – both with years of Wu Tang cover art, and DMX literally karate chopping Triads in Cradle 2 The Grave.
Until the End of Time is due Summer 2016 and still promises to be the most sophisticated hip hop biopic yet made.
Watch the remarkable trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=S_eoZMbhi4A
Kendrick Lamar is a true student of the game. He grew up in Compton in the glory days of the West Coast gangsta rap and G-funk movements. He famously perched on his father’s shoulders watching Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur while they filmed the music video for California Love at the Compton Swap Meet.
Both rappers represented their city of Los Angeles with pride, both became a voice for the people, both are considered in the upper echelon of talent in their generations. Today marks 19 years since Pac’s untimely death, murdered in a hail of gunfire, an act that robbed the world of a once-in-a-lifetime talent. To commemorate his life on this day, Kendrick wrote a heartfelt and touching tribute, specifically referencing that famous childhood memory, and posted it on Tupac’s official website.
“I was 8 yrs old when I first saw you. I couldn’t describe how I felt at that moment. So many emotions. Full of excitement. Full of joy and eagerness. 20 yrs later I understand exactly what that feeling was. INSPIRED”
“The people that you touched on that small intersection changed lives forever. I told myself I wanted to be a voice for man one day. Whoever knew I was speaking out loud for u to listen. Thank you, K.L.”
A touching tribute from one generation to another. If you need us, we’ll be going to put on All Eyez On Me and trying not to cry. Thank you, K.L.
Gwyneth Paltrow must be either broke or desperate for a headline, because no human being in their right mind would think this is a good idea. Paltrow’s lifestyle website Goop is selling purses inspired by the collaborations of famous rappers including Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls AKA Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z and Eminem.
The thing is, they’re awful.
Designed by Edie Parker, the purses are basically just your standard acrylic clutch with a rapper’s name on the front. No cool design, no imagination. The only sort of impressive feature is the mirror on the inside. They say less is more, but this is ridiculous. Check them out.
Oh, and by the way, they cost US$1,695 each. That’s AU$2308.64.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
As a fashion writer, I have seen some ugly designs. At least, they have a bit of creativity behind them. These are just effortlessly bad. I don’t mind some of Parker’s designs, so I’m very disappointed that this is how I’ve found out about her. I don’t think her team knows anything about rap and the aesthetic of the genre. The use of glitter and the colours picked are so wrong. They lack in attitude and an iconic edgy look.
Also, the duos picked make zero sense. Tupac and Bigge never got along, while Jay-Z and Eminem only collaborated briefly. Seriously, a bit of research never hurt anyone.
We recommend that you don’t waste your money, but if you want to buy them click here.