Rap Idol

When White Men Can’t Jump was bringing the cash money in for Woody Harrelson, sourcing Above the Rim on pirate made you the big man and campus, and this was just a twinkle in So Solid’s eye, there was East V West Coast rap.

Of course I didn’t really have a clue about what this actually meant. In fact, I’m pretty sure at the time I thought California was a city and the distance between east and west coast was only 200 miles. Yet, older, hip and dangerous kids were all listening to Puff Daddy, Notorious BIG, Bone Thugs n Harmony and Tupac. So naturally I was curious and decided to check it out. I didn’t really get into Puffy, whilst I loved Hypnotize by BIG and Crossroads by Bones, it was just those songs.

It was Tupac though which had an effect on me. Of course I didn’t empathise with the themes of his songs, but that didn’t matter. I couldn’t get over just how articulate Mr Shakur was. He had a superb talent to deliver poignant statements that triggered a debate in my mind about the state of society. Actually, he made me think about what society was. He brutally brought across to me, teenage pregnancy, drug dealing, lack of employment and of course, race. He was very vocal about this, sometimes the swearing blurred his message but certainly his sentences carried a punch. I ain’t mad at cha, Do for love, Brenda’s got a baby. They are all great songs, but these lyrics pulsate with his passion to discuss subjects which we all know are prevalent but kind of think ‘well it ain’t happening to me, so it’s ok.’

And so I became Pac fan. I began increasing my reading because he was an avid reader. I considered this the source of his power. I began reading periodicals every day, even if I was tired and had to reach for the dictionary for every other word. I didn’t care though, I knew it would help me in the long run. I started off with The Times for about two months and realised it was too right wing for me and so turned to The Guardian. After a while I wanted a completely different opinion so went to The Independent. I began asking my teachers about books that they hadn’t heard of, and thought I was taking the pee out of them. I didn’t care though. I wanted to aspire to that level of articulation and passion that Tupac seemed to deliver in his songs. Ok, so after about a year I came to realise that he had other talents such as rapping, which I’ll never posses, but it did not matter. I was hooked on knowledge, and every time I listened to one of his tracks he reminded me that I should be reading, learning and debating where possible.

Tupac was angry though. You could tell he was frustrated why things didn’t change in the urban status quo. He was vicious with his words and sometimes I think some of the passion in his rapping was generated by hate. This was something I didn’t really like. As much as I idolised him and decided I wanted to develop and learn to be like him, I also like the whimsical things in life, like The Fresh Prince of Bell Air. And so after a while I started listening to him less and less as he became more focussed on launching pernicious attacks best typified by Hit em Up.

I forgot about him.

Whilst watching Battle: Los Angeles last month the opening sequence contained California Love, which evoked some great memories. It also reminded me of Tupac. Out of interest I decided to run a search for him on iTunes and started listening to all the thirty second samples that iTunes offered on each of his songs. I remembered why I loved his music so much, how he made me think, how much he was filled with energy and also hate. One thing reverberated in my mind though, just like the lil’ Paddington way back then, is that you need to present your thoughts to people. Debate with them and make them notice you. That’s what he did. His rap in the mid-nineties introduced me to this and started me thinking in ways which some of my teachers never did, I ran with it (I could have run harder and further, for sure) by reading my pants off, talking to different types of people and trying to learn as much as possible. Listening to him again, the messages are still the same today as they were back then in the mid-nineties.