The Shooting of Tupac Shakur
Bang! The sound of a bullet being fired from a gun. To some, a sound of protection and safety, to others sheer agony and pain, and to some unlucky few the last sound they will ever hear. One of these unlucky few happened to be Tupac Shakur on the fateful night of September 7, 1996 at approximately 1:30 a.m. Unfortunately for Tupac he had to listen to a flurry of 15 bullets, some of which buried themselves deep into his chest, while the others ended up in the side of his car. Thus, the saga had come to a tragic close, as was presumed by the media, but in actuality it was just beginning to reach its often-publicized climactic end. Initiating the story of the east coast, west coast battle, which came about through the on-going confrontations between Bad Boy Records from the east and the infamous Death Row Records, who resided in the west (Ro, 288).
Tensions had been building between these two record labels since the beginning of the decade and continued to surmount with each new award show and song recorded by any of the rappers under either label. The conflict all began with a few run-ins at parties in which some of the more notable rappers of Death Row such as Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Korupt, and Daz would confront some East coast rappers, mainly the notorious B.I.G., commonly known as Biggie. Biggie never really understood why they had conflicted with him other than that he represented the East and they swore their life to defend the West. Their relationship was mainly played out through the airways in which songs displayed the rappers emotions; these songs came to represent the violent attitude of gangster rap. A few quotes from songs performed by Tupac became famous and thus were thoroug...
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...ver more evident, but like the employee said "why was everybody trying to do something about it after two rap icons were already dead?" (Ro 366) This controversy is still unsettled and is consistently brought up year after year whenever there is an anniversary album for either rapper. Thankfully, for the rap world the whole East coast versus West coast scene has virtually disappeared, as rappers have gotten older and matured a little. But, do not be surprised to find another controversy sneaking around the corner in the ever-changing rap world where if you do not protect what you have then you might end up dead.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Ro, Ronin. Have Gun Will Travel. New York: Doubleday, March 1998.
Sexton, Adam. Rap on Rap. New York: Dell Publishing, April 1995.
Shakur, Tupac. Tupac Shakur. New York: Simon and Schuster, February 1995.
Hook--Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) were different in many ways, but there were also some major similarities between them. While they were both extremely influential rappers in their day, there was a lot of fighting between them considering the fact that Tupac was a West Coast rapper, and Biggie --The Notorious B.I.G.-- was an East Coast rapper. Tupac tended to be a lot more poetic and respectful to women he had better lyrics than Biggie, but Tupac had little flow.
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Dr. Dre (b. Andre Young, February 18, 1965) became involved in hip-hop during the early '80s, performing at house parties and clubs with the World Class Wreckin' Cru around South Central Los Angeles, and making a handful of recordings along the way. In 1986, he met Ice Cube, and the two rappers began writing songs for Ruthless Records, a label started by former drug pusher Eazy-E. Eazy tried to give one of the duo's songs, "Boyz N the Hood," to HBO, a group signed to Ruthless. When the group refused, Eazy formed N.W.A. -- an acronym for Niggaz With Attitude -- with Dre and Cube, releasing their first album in 1987. A year later, N.W.A. delivered Straight Outta Compton, a vicious hardcore record that became an underground hit with virtually no support from radio, the press or MTV. N.W.A. became notorious for their hardcore lyrics, especially those of "Fuck tha Police," which resulted in the FBI sending a warning letter to Ruthless and its parent company Priority, suggesting that the group should watch their step.
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
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"After some time Tupac released his own album "2Pacalypse Now", which was a success. His career skyrocketed; he became tight with main pawns in the rapping industry. Tupac signed to Deathrow Labels and released songs and albums with them."
These articles depict the controversies of the hip hop industry and how that makes it difficult for one to succeed. Many of these complications and disputes may be invisible to the population, but these articles take the time to reveal them.
Rap’s Controversy The most popular new music to emerge from the ‘80’s was rap music. It first developed in the mid ‘70’s in New York City, and soon in other urban areas, primarily amongst African-American teenagers. It became very popular with the urban public and soon began to spread throughout the United States and much of the world. It replaced rock music as the creative force in music of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. However, as popular as it was then and it is now, the lyrics of many rap songs have caused controversy.
Convicted for armed robbery in 1960, James Earl Ray escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary on April 22, 1967. Ray’s hatred for the black population and support for Nazism fueled his drive to assassinate pacifistic leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. During the civil rights era, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strong political and religious presence caused him to be a potential target as many denounced his promotion of equality amongst blacks and whites in America. Moreover, with the use of a Remington rifle, Ray shot King from a bathroom window of a hotel located across the street from the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had a perfect view of King standing on the motel room balcony. On the eve of April 4, 1968, King was pronounced dead. Afterwards, Ray fled to Canada where he changed his identify and created a fake passport which would later be used to flee to Brussels, Belgium from a Scottish airport. However, Ray was caught at Heathrow Airport on June 8, 1968 and was deported back to America. James Earl Ray was convicted in March 1969 for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In court, Ray voluntarily pleaded guilty before Judge W. Preston Battle which reduced his sentence to 99 years in prison instead of the death penalty . As will become evident, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. resulted in the immediate outburst of riots, Robert Kennedy eulogizing King, the high attendance of King’s funeral service, and the implementation of the Fair Housing Act; the prosecution of James Earl Ray; and in the longer term, the creation of Martin Luther King National Holiday as well as the desire to reopen the case of James Earl Ray in 1997.