Throwback Thursday: "Same Song" — Digital Underground ft. Tupac

Only true hip-hop fans really remember this track. It marked the introduction of one Mr. Tupac Shakur. Which, ironically, means this song is pretty unique.

Throwback Thursday: "Runnin' (Dying to Live)" -- Tupac ft. Notorious B.I.G.

When this track was released in 2002, with a remastered production by Eminem, it was already eight years-old. The sampled interviews with Big and Pac are haunting, as their words hang in the air like condemnations of the tragedies they preceded.

Throwback Thursday: "I Ain't Mad At Cha" -- 2Pac ft. Danny Boy

Everyone knows this track. While I've always loved it, the video has always been tarnished for me by its eerily prophetic premise and timing: Tupac was gunned down on Sept. 7, 1996 and died Sept. 13th; this video was released on Sept. 15th.

R.I.P. Tupac

Throwback Thursday: "Natural Born Killaz" -- Dr. Dre & Ice Cube

Yup, 20 years ago the latest Apple multi-millionaire and the guy from the Coors Light ads released one of the most maniacal, murder and mayhem-laced songs ever...pretty much just because they could. Points to them for getting John Amos to play a leading role in the cinematic video. And keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by Tupac, years before he signed to Death Row Records.

Throwback Thursday Bonus

Tupac and John Singleton once had a footrace in NYC. Pac smoked him.



TJ with the assist.

Throwback Thursday: "Thugz Mansion" -- 2Pac ft. Nas & J. Phoenix

Is this song really 11 years old already? Goddamn I hate getting old.

Beautiful, eloquent rhymes by Pac and Nas here—especially Mr. Jones, who had recently lost his mother and appeared to find some solace by putting his verse down over J. Phoenix's chords.

Throwback Thursday: "Heartless" -- Live Squad

This is arguably the most violent music video of our time. And, given Stretch's rumored involvement with Tupac's 1994 shooting and his own violent death one year later, it all seems sadly prophetic.

Gangsta Boo

There are many reasons why I love Rihanna, but this may be the least superficial one: She's just fun. And she's just the right amount of crazy.

Some Most All women are crazy—every guy knows this (some of us all too well...*cough*). There's a definitive point along the scale of crazy, though, where you're messing with a truly psycho broad; and, unless you like waking up with a gun barrel pressed to your nuts, you would be best advised to steer clear of these women. What you look for, then, is a gal who's about three steps short of that precipice. One, say, who isn't shy about rocking out at a concert with "Thug Life" written on her stomach:

Compare this to the infamous photos of Lindsay Lohan with a knife to Vanessa Minnillo's throat, and you have a vivid example of the right way and the wrong way to do a spontaneous, nonconformist-chic photograph. Right amount of crazy vs. Wrong amount of crazy. And then, just when you've gotten used to her foot-to-your-throat punk persona, Rihanna pulls a 180. The same playfulness that a moment ago was used to project the rebellious nature of a middle-fingers-up thug is called on to remind us that she is also a girly-girl expertly capable of employing her sexuality:

No human being is one-dimensional, but pop stars—or rather, the avatars that pop stars use when they feel that fans and cameras are watching—often are. They become so careful about how any one action or soundbite will be used against them that they stick to a narrow script, never daring to veer across the dotted lines. And that's my favorite thing about Rihanna: She's not afraid to change lanes as the situation dictates. She keeps it 100; she's all her, all the time. She's beautiful, rich, and famous, and certainly those are attributes that will earn the attention of a man with even the most honest of intentions; but the fact that she's actually as attractive on the inside as on the outside means a lot. She's exactly the type of woman every man wants to marry: honest, fun, sexy, and just the right amount of crazy.

Images from The Daily Mail. TJ with the assist.

2Pac in 3D

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the full performance by the Tupac hologram at Coachella.





Kind of bittersweet. Great to see him perform "live" again, but...

R.I.P. Tupac.

Throwback Thursday: "Dear Mama" -- 2pac

Those close to me know that my mother has endured some major health issues over the last few weeks. It's been a stressful time, but I'm holding onto a cautiously-optimistic outlook. I want to dedicate this week's throwback to the woman who gave me everything I have in this world, and to remind her that I love her, and that she is appreciated.

2Pac & Biggie Freestyle

Just sit back and take it in. Better days...

Up in Smoke

This is... I mean...

From The Huffington Post:

In a new video for VladTV, members of the reunited group addressed the rumors that long persisted that the rapper, who was in 1996, had rolled up his ashes and smoked it.

"Yeah, it's definitely true. I think it was the night of, we had a little memorial for him, with his mom, his family and s*it," Young Noble said. "And we hit the beach, do a lot of s*it he liked on the beach. Some weed, some chicken wings, he loved orange soda and all that kind of s*it. Pac loved that kind of s*it, so we were giving him our own farewell that night. That night, I forget which one of us came up with that s*it."

"I came up with that s*it, if you listen to 'Black Jesus' he says last wishes, n*ggas smoke my ashes, so that was a request that he had. Now whether how serious he was about it, we took the s*it serious," E.D.I. added in.

"I forgot which one of us came up with it, like we need to go and do that, but we twisted up some of that great grandaddy California kush and mixed the big homie with it," Young Noble added.

As spiritual as Pac was, I can't help but wonder how this fits in with his feelings about last rites and a "proper" burial.

Throwback Thursday: "Uptown Anthem" -- Naughty by Nature

This is how long it's been since I'd seen this video: I had completely forgotten that Tupac appeared in it.

Naughty had a lot of underappreciated gems, and this is definitely one of them. [Some may argue that it got enough play to disqualify it from the realm of "underappreciated"; my response is that, although it got some play, it never got enough. This should probably be their career-defining track, like what "Elevators" was to OutKast.]

Throwback Thursday: "Holler If Ya Hear Me" -- 2Pac

Happy 40th, Pac. Here's to the fight still being alive in all of us.

A Thug Poet Turns 40

June 16, 1971. To the idle fan of hip-hop and rap, that date means very little. Especially to a generation of fans who were merely a twinkle in their parents' teenage eyes at that point in time. For those of us who loved Tupac Amaru Shakur as though he was a member of our very own family, though, it means much more.

That was the appeal of Pac. He wasn't just a musician or a personality, but a kindred soul of every man, woman, and child. His passion for life and social justice spilled out of every song he sang and every antagonized sound bite he gave with a greedy reporter’s microphone pressed to his face. And it was this passion that captivated us. His raw emotion flowed through every word that he put forth, whether over a drum beat or a hushed courtroom. He got angry like us. He spoke like us. He made mistakes like us. He felt downtrodden like us. He loved like us. He fought like us.

…He bled like us.

Today would have been Tupac’s 40th birthday, a milestone so many take for granted. It’s a day when a man stands roughly at the midway point of his timeline in the yet-to-be-written history book. A moment that often causes him to look at all the time he’s lost, while simultaneously ruing the thought that he has so much yet to accomplish.

If only Pac had been lucky enough to experience it.

R.I.P.

Man Confesses to Shooting Tupac in 1994

AllHipHop.com has obtained the written confession of Dexter Isaac, who claims to have been paid $2500 by James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond to rob and shoot Pac at the Quad City Studios in '94. It was this shooting, which took place while Biggie and Diddy (nee Puff Daddy) were upstairs, that forever fractured the friendship between Pac and Big, and eventually led to East Coast/West Coast beef that dominated the hip-hop landscape until Biggie's death in 1997.

Isaac came forward Wednesday (June 15th) with the information on the eve of what would be Tupac's 40th birthday.

He confessed to his involvement in the November 30th, 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur to AllHipHop.com, after Jimmy Henchman identified him in a statement, relating to Henchman's indictment for dealing numerous kilos of cocaine.

"I want to apologize to his family [Tupac Shakur] and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman]," Dexter Isaac told AllHipHop.com from prison. "I am trying to clean it up to give [Tupac and Biggie's] mothers some closure."

AllHipHop.com also posted a scanned copy of the confession letter, seen below. However, there is an interesting piece of this letter that doesn't seem to have been given much notice in the coverage of this news so far: Isaac indicates that Diddy may have had a hand in the incident as well.

Jimmy, you and Puffy like to come off all innocent-like, but as the saying goes: You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Mr. Rosemond, I ask you: Are you going to flip on Puffy when the feds get you? To save yourself like you have done in the past? Because that's what a rat does. So in closing, we shall see who the rat is, in the near future.

Dexter Isaac's letter (click to enlarge)

If Isaac is telling the truth—and it's certainly hard to imagine why he wouldn't be at this point—then this news could only grow bigger in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Throwback Thursday: "Smile" -- Scarface ft. Tupac

Classic words of wisdom from two of the brightest the game has ever known (R.I.P., Pac.)

"The greatest emcee of all-time died on March 9th..."

March 9, 1997 was a gutshot to the world of hip-hop. Less than six months removed from the slaying of our patron saint, Tupac Shakur, and still trying to extract some kind of lesson from that tragedy, we were leveled by the senseless murder of our Big Poppa. Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace was gunned down by an unknown assailant in Los Angeles, amid rumors and reckless speculation that he had been behind Tupac’s homicide. The realization that Big—a good guy who “went from negative to positive,” and from “ashy to classy”—had been killed paralyzed us with shock and grief.

Biggie lit the way for a generation of emcees on the East Coast, while bringing a charismatic and authentic charm to hip-hop music nationwide; Pac infused raw emotion—be it anger, pain, joy, remorse, or even love—into songs that captivated the minds and hearts of fans. There was a sad poetry to the idea of two artists, who lived and breathed the frustration and danger of street life into every bar of their music, coming to such tragic ends. With their lyrics, Pac and Biggie each painted graphic murals of a world fraught with hardships, shortsighted reactions, and death. And in the end, they fell victim to the very same suffocating reality that they had tried to both illuminate and ultimately escape through hip-hop.

The clouds of anger and resentment that had lingered in the air after Pac’s death, and that had hindered our ability to see the foolishness of resolving petty beefs with violent acts, quickly lifted following Biggie’s shooting. Fourteen years later, we continue to mourn both men and search for answers. Police have made no arrests in connection with either case, and hardly seem interested in changing that. The media has moved onto other individuals in the entertainment world to overexpose and under-appreciate. Hip-hop’s fans have grown fractured and disillusioned; for the younger members of the community, too far removed from the East Coast vs. West Coast “feud” that erased our sense of invincibility, Pac and Biggie are more historical figures than lost idols. They know each artist’s music and story, but they simply can’t grasp the magnitude of the impact that their deaths had on older fans like me, who remember exactly where we were when the news broke the morning of March 9th.

R.I.P. Biggie. And R.I.P. Tupac. We miss you now, and will continue to until the day we join you.

Throwback Thursday: "Keep Ya Head Up" -- 2Pac

Classic 1993 food-for-thought track from Tupac.

Happy Birthday Tupac

Born June 16, 1971 — Died...way too soon. R.I.P.