“It was all a dream!” are just a few words to describe Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls) becoming the king of East coast rap music when he released his first album “Ready to Die”. The lyrics “It was all a dream!” are from the albums number one hit single called “Juicy” in which Biggie depicted life growing up in the rough streets of Brooklyn, New York. Biggie smalls rose to fame as a rapper in the 90’s causing an increase in rap popularity, division (rivalry) between East and West coast rap music, and the style of gangsta rap on the East coast. Biggie Smalls caused an increase in the popularity of rap music in the 1990’s and beyond. Biggie’s debut album “Ready to Die” was released on september 13th, 1994. Ready to Die reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 Chart and was the best selling rap album of the year. Ready to Die was eventually certified 4x Platinum (4 Million Albums were sold) and Biggie was named the “Rap King of New York” as he went on to win New Artist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year, Lyricist of the Year, and Album of the Year at Source Magazine's 2nd annual hip hop awards ceremony (Marcovitz, 2007, Pg 26). Biggie’s second album “Life After Death” was released on March 25th, 1997, and just 16 days after, Biggie smalls was shot and killed after an award ceremony in Los Angeles, California. Life After Death is currently the 3rd best selling rap music album of all time according to The Source Magazine (Centeno, 2013) . Life After Death later went on to sell 10x platinum or “Diamond” status (Marcovitz, 2007). Only a handful of rappers have a Diamond status album including Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, and Outkast. Not only were Biggies record sales amazing, but he also influenced a generatio... ... middle of paper ... ...e style of Gangsta rap on the East coast. Works Cited 1. Centeno, Anthony. “ 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time” Thesource.com. 3 December 2013 2. Kelley, Frannie.”Biggie Smalls: The voice that influenced a generation.”NPR.web. 02 August 2010. 3. Kj4sb.”Rap music, How would the rap industry be different if Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. were still alive?” Dr. Nielson’s Fys 100 blog. 03 December 2012. 4. Lang, Holly.”The Notorious B.I.G. A Biography.”Greenwood Biographies,2007. 5. Marcovitz, Hal.”Hip-Hop Notorious B.I.G.”Mason Crest Publishers Inc, 2007. 6. Ross, Erik.”The 50 Best Selling Rap Albums of All Time” Complexmusic.com. 18 May 2013. 7. Weinstein, Max. “Why the Notorious B.I.G. is the Most Influential Rapper of All Time” theboombox.com. 9 March 2014 8. “Biggie and Tupac [Documentary] 2002 *Full length*” youtube.com. 2002.
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.
Chuck D, and Yusuf Jah. 1997. Fight the power: rap, race, and reality. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press.
Tupac Shakur was one of the most influential music artist of the 20th Century. “Murda, Murda, Murda, and Kill, Kill, Kill…” these are they lyrics to one of the songs written by Tupac Shakur. Amidst all the controversy surrounding his personal life, this artist has managed to overcome all obstacles and spread his hope/hate message to a surprisingly receptive audience. Tupac’s music is borrowed from the styles of early rap and hip-hop yet its appeal rested in Tupac himself. His persona of “Thug Poet” opened up a portal into the new genre of “Gangsta Rap.” This new style of music revolutionized the music industry and allowed several new artists to break through in Tupac’s creation, Gangsta Rap, such as; G-unit, Eminem, and many others.
Recently, rap has surpassed many genres of music. In the year 2017, eight of the 10 most listened to artists were rap artists. Artists like Lil Uzi Vert, Future, and Cardi B have many songs listed as the top 10 best selling tracks. What do all these rap artists have in common? They have the the three keys that make up the structure of a great rap album.
Tupac’s first big break came when he joined the group Digital Underground as a dancer and roadie. During that time, Tupac spent a lot of the time composing his own poetry and lyrics to launch his own career. In 1991 he signed with Interscope records and a year later he released his first album 2Pacalypse Now, which immediately landed him
Johnson, Freddie Lee, and Tayannah Lee McQuillar. Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an
"The 10 Best Songs Produced By Kanye West." Rap Dose RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
George covers much familiar ground: how B-beats became hip hop; how technology changed popular music, which helped to create new technologies; how professional basketball was influenced by hip hop styles; how gangsta rap emerged out of the crack epidemic of the 1980s; how many elements of hip hop culture managed to celebrate, and/or condemn black-on-black violence; how that black-on-black violence was somewhat encouraged by white people scheming on black males to show their foolishness, which often created a huge mess; and finally, how hip hop used and continues to use its art to express black frustration and ambition to blacks while, at the same time, refering that frustration and ambition to millions of whites.
With N.W.A. he melded the noise collages of the Bomb Squad with funky rhythms. On his own, he reworked George Clinton's elastic funk into the self-styled G-Funk, a slow-rolling variation that relied more on sound than content. When he left N.W.A. in 1992, he founded Death Row Records with Suge Knight, and the label quickly became the dominant force in mid-'90s hip-hop thanks to his debut, The Chronic. Soon, most rap records imitated its sound, and his productions for Snoop Doggy Dogg, Warren G and Blackstreet were massive hits. For nearly four years, G-funk dominated hip-hop, and Dre had enough sense to abandon it and Death Row just before the whole empire collapsed in late 1996. Dre retaliated by forming a new company, Aftermath, and while it was initially slow getting started, his bold moves forward earned critical respect.
Tupac has brought his fans together with his music, poetry and acting. But this dead or alive dilemma has split these fans into two groups. Those who believe he is still alive and believe he has faked his death. The others are the ones who believe he has lived, and has lived well but is now at peace.
Negus, Keith. "The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 525-540. Print.
Rap is about giving voice to a black community otherwise underrepresented, if not silent, in the mass media. It has always been and remains … directly connected to the streets from which it came. (144)
12. Hip Hop Nation Is Exhibit A For America?s Latest Cultural Revolution, (2004), Time, 201.
Rap Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 01 May 2014.
Feminist.com 15 March 2014.Feminist.com Hicks, Jeffrey National Center.org December 2013.national center.org 15 March 2014 National Center.org Idolator.com/ hip-hop master rankers 15 March 2014. Idolator.com. Meara, Paul.Complex.com. June 2012 Complex.com 15 March 2014 Complex.com Dave, Miranda. Springer:‘’ Rap and Hip-Hop Genres Today’’ April 2004.