Str8HipHip

What people mean by overrated is hyped. 2Pac might be one of if not the most hyped up artist in recent history. Take a huge recording artist’s life violently at the height of his fame, and that’s to be expected to some extent. However, if there was little talent there, there would be nothing to hype. Many criticize 2Pac for not using the lyrical tools that are commonly used by most MCs. People could easliy assume he didn’t use similies and metaphors due to a lack of ability or understanding of them. However, this is clearly not the case. When he used those tools alone, he was just another pretty good rapper. He didn’t use the techniques that most MCs use, because he didn’t need them. He simplified his message just short of the point of saturation to make his ideas accessable to the common man, but there was a genius in his simplicity. Put any dope MC in the booth with an emotional track and they might drop some lyrical genius. They may impress you. Usually, however, by the time a lyrically impressive verse is carefully constructed, the emotion is lost. People would get chills and shed tears while listening to 2Pac’s music while he was alive! Sure, his violent death exasperates that but it shouldn’t discount his talent. 2Pac was so quick at writing that the emotion was still fresh on his voice when he recorded. He knew this and he exploited it to the fullest at a time when exploiting emotion was not popular at all. He might have been quantity over quality, which led to some filler material. However, this is the same formula that he used to create some of the most important songs in hip hop history. He spoke up on behalf of impoverished women, not just on one obligatory song, when most rappers exclusively called all women ho’s and bitches. He’s so authentic, that you can believe everything he says. His contradictions only make him seem more human and relatable. A decent rapper can make you bob your head. A good rapper can make you think. A GREAT rapper can make you feel. 2Pac is that rapper. There’s nothing overrated about that!

-Stilez