Is 2pac the best rapper ever?
 

I don't listen to rap much.but some of his songs are real quality and have a soul to them(see: hit'em up).
Unlike all the garbage that is trusted upon us. On the radio.

Nah, the best rapper ever is clearly Taylor Swift for her rap interlude in Shake It Off. Unassailable.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnCAmr569k

Best rapper ..??? has in spitting lyrics and his voice ....or his music n beats ???

Ummm.. he was pretty good he was up there but there are a bunch of people better then him like

Biggie smalls

MF doom

Wu tang members

lil wayne



but u gotta ask yourself how would his music career have gone if he never died would he be like a 10 album artist or .... move on and do something else ..???

Usually when people say it’s too bad so and so died so young I think well at least they didn’t live long enough to **** up their legacy with a ****ty record.

maybe i wonder how 2 pac would of sounded like if he had like 10+ albums

he didnt seem like the type of guy that would veer of the path death row wouldnt have lasted forever and he also seems like the type of guy that didnt even like music and would prob be a actor or something orrr..??? IDK do something else

He was on a death trip. Survival would have left him even more exposed.

I respect PAC and his legend, have all (if not most) of his released stuff but I rarely set out to listen to him specifically. But like most mcs (not crazy about the term, rapper - an old school thing) I enjoy him in a hip hop mix. And, no I don’t regard him as the best mc ever to have spit. Don’t see the point in crowning anyone. Hip Hop is far too varied to narrow an appreciation down to a few gifted individuals who might have been influential but still part of the whole wide fabric of the genre.

https://www.zonasuburbana.com.br/wp-...oggy-Dogg..jpg

Also 2Pac was a commie that killed fascist cops. That deserves something.

He was on the radio plenty during the 90s. Personally I’ve never liked his music, but he himself seemed to be kind of an interesting person.

2pac is the 2st best rapper

This is what makes him so interesting tbh

Its trendy on music forums to say tupac is overrated and he is, in the same seense that the beatles are overrated... literally no rapper can live up to the kind of hype surrounding an artist like 2pac

but he's definitely a rap legend and an interesting persona to dissect

he was sort of the tip of a spear of gang oriented west coast rap that dominated the 90's. he embodied the term thug life which he had tattood on his chest.

he wasn't an actual gangster but was flirting with it via his relationship with suge his death was literally triggered by him participating in beating down a crip in las vegas whose crew presumably retaliated.

and as OH says he was on a death trip. you can watch the trajectory of his mindstate through his music. me against the world introduced us to the tupac that was raedy to die. then all eyez on me took it further and by the time we got to the don killuminati he was already in his death spiral and died shortly afterwards..

me against the world:




all eyez on me:





The don killuminati:

Don Killuminati was released posthumously, about 2 months after his death.

2Pac, in my eyes, is a great rapper and was widely imitated (just look at labels like No Limit or the Ruff Ryders) - his influence can't really be overstated.

But coming to a conclusion on the 'best rapper' is pretty arbitrary - so much so that it's all but useless to try. Was he the best lyricist? (No, guys like Ras Kass and Chino XL are better). Did he have the best flow? (Nah, Pharoahe Monch and Jay-Z both flow better than he does, perhaps even Biggie). Did he have the most consistently good albums? (Not a chance, check out Outkast's discography or even EL-P's).

But he most certainly was great and is a legend in the world of hip-hop.

Big will always be the goat.

Big is great.

But I'd take Reasonable Doubt over Ready to Die any day of the week.

Personal choice. They’re both unassailable for similar reasons. I’m much more in the RTD camp and consider it the greatest nihilistic self-eulogy / commentary on death work of art ever.

Ready to Die any day of the week for me. Reasonable Doubt is pretty weak imo.

https://genius.com/Royce-da-59-startercoat-lyrics


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAynvkW4KOs

Nah reasonable doubt is solid but Ready to Die is definitely better. And there would be no Jay without Big.

But the problem with Big as GOAT is he didn't have time to mature and develope. he was only 2 albums in when he got merked.

...suicidal thoughts definitely feels that way but the album as a whole... not so sure

i think prodigy of mobb deep and DMX both do just as good a job painting a nihilistic and bleak death ridden picture as big does. and pac does so too in his own way. "i'm ready to die right here tonight so mother**** your life." really pac was more ready to die than Big ever was. Big was collateral damage of pac's death spiral. I actually feel way worse for Big than I do pac.

They lived though.

That and Gimme the Loot

Also RTD really ends with Suicidal Thoughts not Just Playing (Dreams) which makes a huge difference on how the album comes across plus even on the dirty version the verse quoted above is censored except on early pressings.

I get what you’re saying about their personalities though. I think in part that full suicidal **** is more suburban than street and pac may have had more Kurt in him than Big because of it but Big is scarier and comes off way more aggressive imo.

I also think it’s insane to say Big’s sound didn’t mature. **** the Beastie Boys would’ve been better if they’d all been shot after Licensed to Ill. Maturity sucks in hip hop. KRS-ONE is the worst example of that but the Beasties going all Dalai Lama was close.

I don’t blame people for changing because that’s life unless you’re emotionally stunted like I am but it ruins their legacy. I really can’t think of any musician who died too early except John Lennon and was 40.

I totally respect where you’re coming from though

The Beastie Boys would've been better if they'd been shot before releasing Paul's Boutique? Come on now. I'd concede every other album, but not that one.

Personal preference, but the mood that Reasonable Doubt sets pushes it over the edge for me. That said, I think both albums are better than Illmatic. Reasonable Doubt is like the Godfather while Ready to Die is like Scarface.

In terms of legacy. LTI is just unmatched unbridled joy.

Interesting.

What’s Godfather 2 and does The Sopranos get an album equivalent?

Eh, I think if Paul's Boutique was the last one, their legacy would be even better. It showed so much growth and creativity compared to LTI plus, no Rick Rubin. It would've left people wondering what could've been moreso than if LTI was their last one.

Not sure about the Sopranos but Godfather 2 could be Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.

I like all their stuff but there’s LTI and after LTI

That’s a good pick. But I associate it so much with Liquid Swords I can’t have one take a unique role over the other like that lol

I don’t have a better answer though

Maybe the Wu-everything could be The Sopranos

And maybe Life After Death and Killuminati could be Godfather Two and Three

Three being Killuminati

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I think Big had a few more classics in him. He might've had a slump or fell off completely but that's the risk you run. If nas died after It was written his legacy might've been great but we still wouldn't have gotten God's Son, the Nas/Jay beef etc. If Pac died after his second album he wouldn't even be talked about as such a legend. His last 3 albums were his peak imo. I get what you're saying about KRS etc but Big is on the other end of that extreme imo. Died right in his prime and before we got the chance to see what he was really made of long term. I don't think he's a bad choice for GOAT though.


Also, I definitely see what you're saying about Pac maybe having more of that stereotypical white boy angst. He started out as a theater kid. I think the main difference between Pac and Big was Pac made no distinction between his art and real life. He started preaching that gang **** as he literally came under the fold of death row and Suge, and ultimately he played with fire one too many times. I think Big had a more clear conception of the risks involved and that's why he wasn't trying to fan the flames as much as Pac was, especially after Pac died. Should've stayed the **** outta Cali though.

Honestly I disagree with the RTD / Scarface comparison. Scarface really doesn't age well as a movie where as RTD is a timeless classic. If anything RTD is The Godfather and Reasonable Doubt is Godfather II. Plenty of people prefer pt 2 but the original set the template for the whole genre. That's RTD in a nutshell. Jay's whole drug king pin persona and flow are largely derivative of the template Biggie laid out. That's why he gets accused of biting Big's style so much.

Church

Honestly hating on Pac/saying he's overrated is an online/white hipster trait. Hood niggas respect pac like catholics respect the pope. RIP to a legend. It might sound stupid but presenting yourself as Jesus on the cross is probably the biggest taboo a rapper ever broke.

Hood niggas like Lil Wayne. **** em.

Lil wayne was good at his peak. Stick to metal.

He was okay with an annoying voice.

That’s lil boosie

He's in my Top 5 of all time, started listening to his albums around age 13 and him, Nas, Biggie, Eminem, but the goat is Jay-Z