Tupac Shakur

What was so great about Tupac? Unfortunately, not his rap in my opinion. Lyrically, I think it unfair to put him on the level of some of the other "Greatest Rapper" nominees. What he did have was a smooth, interesting delivery and wildly charismatic on-mic persona; the latter alone could have taken him places, and together these traits were more than enough to conceal his other failings and allow him a different kind of greatness. And what kind of greatness was this?

People want artists to live their art, and for the totality of an artist's life to harmonize with their work can be mesmerizing. No one in popular music has ever done so well as Tupac. For example, many rappers diss their rivals; Tupac took the extra step of fucking his rivals wife, and he did not hesitate to tell the fans. Many rappers describe crime and gun violence; Tupac was shot, left the hospital 3 hours after surgery, went to jail for sexual assault and got out just to taunt the DA and shooter from the microphone. He seemed to be describing his life, and never before or since has it been so hard to deny the sincerity of an active gangster rap artist.

Tupac also had the benefit of rapping in an era where the court of public opinion was still out on gangster rap. Tupac seemed to embody his music to such a degree we had to look on him as an expert witness, and in some ways he was an extraordinary advocate for the genre. However scandalous his lyrics and off-mic adventures, in interviews he was hypnotically articulate and charismatic. He seemed as if he were the philosopher-king of gangster rap, and his magnetism compelled you to see him this way also.

One can regard an artist as a technician who produces specific, well-defined pieces of art; a rapper is someone who writes lyrics and records rap albums. If one thinks of an artist this way, and judges them purely by the things they have produced, then Tupac is only mediocre. However, one can also consider an artist in a broader sense; an artist is a public figure who has a status in the public imagination which can transcend their art. Considered in this way, Tupac is a unique in the history of hip-hop. His whole life was a work of art that paralleled the music he produced, ending in the sort elaborately foreshadowed tragedy one sees often in Shakespeare but rarely on CNN. He was himself an unparalleled gangster rap narrative, and for that he was a great artist.