Category: 138T- Passion

Marshall Bruce Mathers was born in 1972 in Missouri. He had a turbulent childhood as his father abandoned the family when he was an infant. As a single mother, Deborah Mathers struggled to hold down a job for too long. As a result, they moved between Missouri and Michigan frequently and resorted to public housing projects. Not only was his living situation difficult, but so was his social life. Every time he moved to a new school, he would get “beat up in bathrooms, beat up in hallways, and shoved into lockers.” His tumultuous childhood impacted his personality largely. A lot of his earlier project speak of the obstacles and struggles he had to endure.

Eminem has been very critical of the way his mother raised him. Through his song lyrics, he has publicly accused her of being addicted to prescription drugs as well as subjecting him to emotional and physical abuse.

Eminem attended Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan, where he failed the ninth grade three times and eventually dropped out at the age of 17. You’ve probably heard of Eminem studying the dictionary to expand his vocabulary. Well, despite being a poor student, Eminem always had a deep affinity for language. He loved comic books and often studied the dictionary.

As a teenage dropout, Eminem found a way to express his passion for language, as well as to release his youthful anger, through the emerging genre of hip-hop. He identified with the rage of late-1980s and early-1990s rap music, and he was especially taken with NWA, a popular and highly controversial gangster rap crew from Los Angeles.

Although at the time rap music was almost exclusively produced by the African American community, Eminem entered into the Detroit rap scene anyway as a frequent competitor in rap battles. Eminem proved highly skilled at such verbal sparring and, despite his race, quickly became one of the most respected figures in Detroit’s underground rap scene.

Mathers took on the stage name M&M, for Marshall Mathers, which he later began writing phonetically as “Eminem.” This period in Eminem’s life where he was working odd jobs to make ends meet while participating in rap battles and desperately attempting to land a record contract, was later dramatized in Eminem’s semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile. Definitely a must watch in my opinion. It was also during this period that Eminem began dating Kim Ann Scott, and in 1995 the couple had a daughter named Hailie Jade Scott.

A year later, however, Eminem released The Slim Shady EP, which was discovered by Dr. Dre, the legendary rapper and former producer of Eminem’s favorite rap group NWA. This heavily hyped record became an instant success and went on to sell over three million copies.

Although he has slowed down on his music output, Eminem continues to dabble in the music industry and is still mentioned as one of the greatest, self made, rappers of all time.

An American hip-hop group from, yet again, … wait for it, wait for it…. Staten Island, New York City (NYC forever woo). East Coast rappers RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa make up the global rap phenomenon, the Wu-Tang Clan. The rise of the West Coast shifted the hip-hop spotlight from the East coast in the early 90’s for the first time since South Bronx’s Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and 2 Pac in the 70’s. The East Coast responded with its own brand of hardcore rap. Wu-Tang started a new, unexpected movement out of Staten Island.

According to GZA, the first time he ever went into the studio was with Dirty Bastard in 1984, when they recorded True Fresh MC. Shortly after, their cousin Robert Diggs and many other aspiring rappers joins in. By 1992, RZA’s trademark was fully formed.

Protect Ya Neck was released in 1993 and this is what changed everything for this group.

This song made them the most talked about new group in New York City’s hardcore, underground rap scene. The success of “Protect Ya Neck” led to a signing with Loud Records, and the group set to work on their debut. Wu-Tang Clan would come to epitomize a rebirth of rap for New York City. Their rap reflected the Staten Island lifestyle: “Bring Da Ruckus”  was recorded in an elevator shaft, Ghostface Killah stole canned goods to feed the group during marathon recording sessions etc. The lyrics embodied events that were raw.

Enter the Wu-Tang was a debut studio album released on November 9th, 1993. The distinctive sound from this album created a blueprint by which many artists would rise to fame. Wu-Tang was the poster boy for hardcore hip hop in the 1990’s, which brought New York City back hip hop back to the spotlight. The explicit, funny and carefree lyrics encouraged more rappers to step out of their comfort zones. Nas, B.I.G., Mobb Deep and Jay-Z undeniably sought influence from Wu-Tang.

There was word on June 25, 2018, that Wu-Tang may be working on a new album for their 25th anniversary. I’m excited to see what they have in store.

There’s no way you wouldn’t at least hum under your breath when “My baby don’t mess around. Cause she loves me so. This I know fo sho!” starts playing. Well, this extremely loved and popularized song is brought to you by non other than Outkast.

Outkast? huh? Who’s that?

This is a popular response I’ve gotten when people find out who exactly made this very popular song.

Outkast was an American hiphop duo formed in 1992 in East Point, Georgia. Andre Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, were Atlanta-based rappers who rose to fame from the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s. Their seemingly lighthearted music popularized Southern hip hop while also dabbling in sounds of funk, psychedelia, jazz and techno.

I say “seemingly” because under every light hearted, poppy beat, the Outkast sang about daunting life events and struggles everyone could relate to.

“Ya’ll don’t wanna hear me, you just wanna dance.”

Andre, or Dre, and Big Boi formed this group as high school students. They released their debut album Southernplsyslisticadillacmuzik in 1994 which became popular because of the single Player Ball, which hit number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks.

One of my favorites of their 2000 release is definitely Ms. Jackson, which was one of the singles that contributed to their fame. In September 2003, the duo released the double album Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below, which is the album that featured Hey Ya and The Way You Move. This album eventually won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

The soundtrack for the 2006 musical film Idlewild would be the last project Outkast would put out together before they ventured out chose to pursue their own solo careers. Although they held a reunion at the Coachella Festival in April 2014 for their anniversary, they never got back together as a duo. They would both continue to release solo projects and albums.

Nevertheless, Outkast is one of the most successful hip-hop groups of all time. They received a total of six Grammy Awards, six studio albums, and a greatest hits release. They have also sold over 25 million records throughout their career. Additionally, they were featured on Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media for a few of their albums. Rolling Stones described their music as “idiosyncratic” and “inspired  by the Afrocentric psychedelics of George Clinton and Sly Stone.” They were praised for their unique sound.

What interests me about this duo is how, unlike other artists I’ve mentioned, they seem to have a “different story” that the others. And just a random fact, Big Boi graduated high school with a 3.68 GPA and planned on pursuing Child-Development Psychology, but chose to pursue rap instead.

With a smile contagious enough to brighten the worst days, Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, is hands down one of the most influential artists in hip hop. He combines a sort of neo-psychedelic and spacey sound with rap and creates some serious soul searching music. Honestly, Kid Cudi is the genre himself. Aside from this reason, I took an interest in his music because he spoke about things other than sex, money, and the works. He rapped about his life, his struggles, and the way the world works or seems to conspire against him. Cudi has a way of taking a deep thought that is hard to vocalize and forming it into words. I was not a hip-hop person at all, but after hearing Cudi you realize rap holds more meaning than some of the mainstream, seemingly vulgar songs.

Cudi was featured on a Ted Talk (which I highly recommend you watch at least once in your life), that truly highlights everything he stands for and everything that pushes him to become a better person.

This video is hands down a go to for anyone who needs a little pick me up. And that is exactly what Scott does through his music. He inspires and pushes his audience to try and be the best they can be because he struggled with doing that as well.

“At one point I didn’t feel like I was smart enough to pass that test, or I didn’t feel like I was smart enough to go to this college. With music it was like, nobody’s going to take that from me.”

When he was eleven years old, Cudi’s father died of cancer. This had a significant effect on Cudi’s personality and his expression of creativity through music. He had many falling outs during his life, like getting expelled from high school, dropping out of University of Toledo, and being at a loss of what he wanted to do with his life.

However, the music career he slowly ventured towards in the end of his high school career blossomed when he moved to New York. He kept consistent and created many tracks. Kanye West is one of Cudi’s most impactful mentors who he met as a BAPE employee in Clevelend, when he forgot to remove an anti-theft device from a jacket West had purchased. When Cudi began putting his music out, Kanye quickly took notice and took him under his wings. Day ‘n’ Night was one of the well known songs of his that impressed Kanye. He wrote the song after his uncle kicked him out of his house when he had no where to go.

The extremely relatable values and message Cudi sings about makes him one of the greatest artists of all time. He has a way of putting into words thoughts that are impossible to voice.

Song Recommendations:

Pursuit of Happiness

Soundtrack to my Life

Day ‘n’ Night

Frequency

Too Bad I Have To Destroy You Now

We’re ganna throw it back again to, yet another, old soul who influenced hip hop to become what it is today. Christopher George Latore Wallace. More commonly known as Biggie, Biggie smalls, or The Notorious B.I.G. If you’re wondering how he got his name, it’s really as simple as it sounds. His childhood friends nicknamed him “Big” for being, well..chunkier than the others. It was also the name of a gang leader character in Let’s Do It Again. Smalls was from New York and had almost single-handedly reinvented East Coast hip hop. His raps were mainly focused on the vulnerabilities and difficulties of the hustler lifestyle he was sort of born into.

He began getting involved in this lifestyle fairly early. He began selling drugs around the age of 12 near his mom’s apartment since she would be working most of the day. He would eventually quit school to pursue this lifestyle and make it permanent. However, it wouldn’t be long before he started getting in trouble with the law. He received various probationary sentences for drug dealing, weapons-possession charges and such things.

Biggie began rapping a little later, as a teenager, to entertain people in his neighborhood. Once he got out of jail for the various charges, he made his first demo tape under his new name, Biggie Smalls. Although he had no intentions of pursuing a career in music initially, once The Source magazine got a hold of his raps and was impressed by them, they profiled Biggie in the Unsigned Hype column in March 1992. From there Biggie quickly noticed the interest people took in his music and the potential a music career had. Biggie was invited to record with various other unsigned rappers. Eventually, he would join Bad Boy Records and shoot to fame. He styled himself as a gangster and rapped about that lifestyle. Although he was no angel, I think Biggie was a lot like Tupac, in that he had he was just trying to make the best out of the life he was given. He did not have much of a choice but to get involved in the dangerous lifestyle at the time in New York. Tupac and Biggie were actually good friends until they had a fall out which would turn them against each other.

Biggie was one of the OG’s that definitely lived a life way too short. He was merely 24 years old when he was gunned down in 1997 in Los Angeles. Just like the mysteries surrounding Tupacs death, the specifics of Biggie’s death are still murky.

Starting as the “easy Mac with the cheesy raps,” who was a frat boy go-to at day longs, to becoming an authentic voice that spoke of the rawness of life, Mac Miller was the epitome of a kid just trying to figure life out. He is one person I will always regret never getting to experience in real life.

I have to come clean and say that I was not always a fan. Mac’s initial persona of a peppy, frat boy from Pittsburgh, who sang about girls and parties, was just too mainstream to enjoy outside of parties. But, playing Senior Skip Day on a good sunny day makes me feel guilty that I ever criticized him for being.. well, carefree and happy.

He was just enjoying life, telling us to “ummmm… follow your dreams?.” This statement at the beginning of the track The Spins shows how he was really just a kid, unsure himself, trying to “enjoy the best things in life, cause [we] ain’t ganna get to live it twice.” He ecstatically sings about life as he graduates high school and finally gets to embark the vicarious life of college and rap. And his 2011 album Best Day Ever, highlights his rise to stardom as he has a sort of ‘rags to riches’ moment. Even if you’ve never voluntarily listened to a Mac Miller song before, you’ve definitely heard Donald Trump, a single off of Best Day Ever, that became extremely popular during Trump’s campaign five years later which was mocked by the current president himself. Just to clear things up, Mac was referring to the pre-presidential, business magnate Donald Trump in the money inspired song which highlighted Mac’s ambitions to become wealthy and successful like Trump. Despite some criticism, Mac sings “no matter where life takes me, find me with a smile. Pursuit to be happy, only laughing like a child…Life couldn’t get better. This gon’ be the best day ever.”

I wish I didn’t just brush him off during this part of his career because there was this innocence and carefree-ness that sort of just slipped away as “adulthood” settled in.  Things definitely got knotty for him as he shot to fame. Criticism and confusion on where his career was going, along with his “frat-rap” association, probed him to turn to promethazine. Although he eventually kicks this habit, that will not be his last interaction with hard drugs. Either way, he ditches Pittsburgh for glamorous Los Angeles, where he begins to hang with a few of the “big dog” collectives, such as Odd Future and Kendrick Lamar. Mac’s sophomore album in 2013, Watching Movies With the Sound Off, begins to showcase the artist’s newly found musical maturity and even a sense of pain from the bad year that passed. The song REMember, was not only a dedication to Ruben Eli Mitrani, a friend of his who passed, but it was also when Mac vocalizes his realization that he isn’t a kid anymore. He could no longer do reckless things and turn out fine at the end of the day.

“I know I’ve been the shit. All this people full of me..It’s a dark science when your friends start dying. Like how could he go? He was part lion.” He comes to the realization that he is no longer invincible, which every teen comes to at some point.

Mac debuts his creaky, wailing singing voice in this album, which sits deep with me. His self-awareness and open honesty about his struggles began attracting a new fanbase. As a dark world of depression and addiction settled on Mac, he began producing smooth, intimate, jazzy sounds. A large part of his current fanbase, including me, really began appreciating him during The Third Act, with The Devine Feminine, and Swimming. These recent albums spoke about love (Devine Feminine) and self care (Swimming). The Third act really signified the growth of an angsty teen into a functional adult who is somewhat lost.

Listening to Come Back to Earth on Swimming is somber because it is one of the best examples of how lost he had become. He lays himself out by saying, “I just need a way out of my head,” Although the song features some aspects of the peppy Mac, he returns to “I was drowning, but now I’m swimming.” Even at some of his desperate times, he had hope. This showed in the jazzy, melodies of his somber songs. And that is what infatuated me. It was almost as if he entered the jazzy section of a record shop, collects chaotic samples out of the music, records bass, piano and drums, and in the end, pulls these disparate elements together to create a masterpiece of turmoil yet peace.

Unfortunately, these would be some of the final albums he’d release. Mac’s struggle with addiction and depression would take over his life. He passed away on September 7th, 2018, due to an accidental Fentanyl, Cocaine overdose.

There are many lessons, good and bad, that I take from the life Mac lived. It’s sad to see how as the innocence he was criticized for disappeared, he slipped into a somber and helpless world. He reminds me to never forget who I am at heart.

Keep smiling Mac, just as you continue to make us smile.

Last blog, I delved into the influential life and ideals of Tupac Shakur, who also dealt with internal conflicts between belief and actions. Now that I was able to preface his ideals and inspirations a bit, I can talk about one of modern music’s most enduring myths. Is Tupac still alive?

The did-he, didn’t he mystery that surrounds the death of Tupac Shakur began since he disappeared from the public eye on September 13th, 1996 at the mere age of 25. That’s only about 6 years older than I am now. He was fatally shot on September 7th in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fans have speculated his death ever since his passing was announced just six days later. These fans, however, have never been able to settle on a go-to story for Tupac’s disappearance.  Whether it’s an FBI cover-up, or a self-made attempt by Tupac to leave the limelight, there’s a myriad of rumors and theories surrounding where the rap icon really is.

Prior to his death, Tupac attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight, the head of Death Row Records. After leaving the match, one of Suge Knight’s associates spotted Orlando Anderson in the MGM Grand lobby. Now, earlier that year Anderson and a group of his gang known as the Crips had robbed Lane in a Foot Locker store. When this came to Shakur’s attention, who is mind you part of the Blood gang, he attacked Orlando Anderson. It was later this night when a white Cadillac pulled up to Knight’s car, stopped at a red light, with Shakur in it and opened fire. At the hospital, Shakur was heavily sedated and essentially put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of bed. Shakur would eventually pass away due to respiratory failure and cardiac failure.

With this information, it is really up to you to decide what really happened to Tupac after his apparent death.

Here are some popular rumors of his where abouts now and recent speculations:

He’s living in Malaysia.

Suge Knight himself actually came out saying that he hung out with him after Tupac’s supposed death.

Tupac, who is usually very adamant about his safety, did not wear a bulletproof vest the night of his death. (Maybe he anticipated this to happen to him?)

When the cremator stated the wrong measurements of Tupacs body, there was controversy. However, the cremator quickly retired, vanished and has never been heard from again.

So could this all have been a publicity stunt? Was Tupac just tired of the having to live the fast life while he just wanted to bring about positive change?

Tupac Shakur.

Even those who are not heavily invested in hiphop have heard of this name. Probably because he is considered to be one of the greatest hip hop artists of all time who left this world all too soon. But I’d say he was more than just a great hip hop artist. In my mind, he is an icon because of the morals he valued and what he fought for. However, just like everybody in this world, he faced conflicts and sometimes made poor decisions which would eventually lead to his demise. To get a sense of his motivations and ambitions, we have to understand his upbringing and familial background.

Afeni Shakur was Tupac’s birth mother who was an active member of the Black Panther Party. If you are unaware, the Black Panther Party was an African American revolutionary party who fought for a classless society and fought against injustices, such as, police brutality. Shakur was pregnant with Tupac while she was serving time in jail for conspiring with other Black Panther members to carry out bombings in New York. Eventually, members of the Black Panthers bailed her out, so that she could bail out the other 20 members who were also imprisoned. She chose to represent herself while she faced a 300 year prison sentence. She argued in court and interviewed witnesses and managed to get herself and the other 20 Panthers acquitted in May 1971. Shortly after, Lesane Parish, or as we know him today, Tupac Shakur, was born. In an interview he says that he was “cultivated in prison. My embryo was in prison.”

As it is evident, Tupac grew up in a challenging community. The 1970’s was a prominent time in which African Americans were fighting for equality and justice in America. This was especially prevalent in Harlem, New York, where Tupac originally lived. So, it is easy to see why Pac had this urge to “break free.” He often found himself in a sort of tug of war in his life. One side was pulling for street credibility, while the other pulled for a moral and just lifestyle. It was necessary for him to do things against his beliefs in order to earn respect in the community. But he strongly believed that concept needed to change. He saw how the new generation of African Americans were “growing up to be angry” because of all the injustice. So, not only was there violence from another race, but there was also violence within the African American race. Tupac’s ideals correlated with a quote by Malcolm X: “There can be no black white unity until there is first some black unity.”

Tupac saw a new generation that yearned for freedom. They were tired of being the underdog, being sentenced to jail, and being controlled by the violence. Tupac represented a rebellion from these predictable outcomes. Pac was seen as a man who did what he wanted to do. He was a man who believed that he had a mission in life and pursued to complete this mission. He learned from the mistakes that former Black Panthers had made and articulated a new generation of Panthers. He believed in re-articulating blackness.

In his earlier songs, he conveyed the revolutionary impulse of black liberation along with the typical praise of material wealth. However, what made Tupac stand out was the revolutionary messages in his songs.

Some lyrics:

“I see no justice”

“Words are my weapon”

“Jobs were givin’, better livin’, but we were kept out”

“I refuse to be silent”

He conveyed powerful messages through his artistic poetry which people grew to love.

In contrast to this, was the other side of the rope. He began identifying with the hustler lifestyle, a thug who had to rely on nobody but themselves to survive on the streets. The thug life mentality acknowledged his upbringing, but it also continued to imprison his life. Hip hop culture forces many artists into this negative thug persona because the worse it got, the better you were liked. The media had a huge influence on the way Tupac was portrayed. They began focusing on this bad image which hurt him. According to Tupac, he “didn’t create thug life, [he] diagnosed it. Just as, like if a doctor says ‘This is the AID’s virus,’ he didn’t make AID’s, he diagnosed it.” He believes that he brought out the thug life. In 1994, Tupac said “I’m a thug, and my definition of thug comes from half of the street element and half of the Panther element, half of the independence movement.” He also said that THUG LIFE was an acronym for “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everyone.” As the media slammed the rapper for glorifying violence, he was actually sending a message. He didn’t want children to be brought up in a negative environment, surrounded by racism, violence, and oppression because that just creates another generation with the same problems.

As the Black Panthers began to unravel due to internal and external forces, the message of equality began to get lost. Tupac saw this conflict between ideals and actions, and identified with it. The message of the revolution was halted by the need to survive. A narcissistic idea of “I will make a living at the expense of yours,” became more prevalent. As addictive drugs were forced into lower income communities, Tupac had to see the consequences of his mother living through the contradiction of black revolution ideals and addiction. Many believed that the government turned a deaf ear to the enormous influx of crack in “ghetto communities,” which created hostility in these families.

A lot of Tupacs songs were inspired by these events in his life. I think Tupac deserves another blog post next week as well because his life ideals and motives are one that is worth analyzing further. I certainly find it inspirational how he was able to take both of the contradicting parts of his life and make success out of it.