“A lot of people black, white, Mexican, young or old, fat or skinny. They have a problem being true to themselves, they have a problem looking in the mirror and looking directly into their own souls.
The reason I sell six million records, the reason I could go to jail and come out without a scratch, the reason I can walk around, the reason I am who I am today is that I can look directly into my face and find myself.” – EXCERPT FROM TUPAC’S INTERVIEW
Tupac Amaru Shakur, a revolutionary legend in the music industry, one of the best rappers of all times, the person who brought a massive 360-degree change to the music industry by taking the meaning of music to another level and introduced the concept of being vocal about social issues through music which other rappers were unfortunately afraid of doing.
Well for us, Tupac can be introduced as a man with rawness, soul, impact, originality, passion, and a sense of being vocal about what he felt was too uncut and uncensored. And that’s what made Tupac famous.
Let’s just read about the journey, the ups and downs, all the struggle, dedication, passion Tupac went through and resulted in being the famous rapper of all time.
Tupac got some uniqueness
Unfortunately, the new generation is forgetting about the legend 2Pac. He was the one who got some courage to be vocal about issues like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, minorities getting oppressed in society, the injustice ongoing and what not through his music as well as interviews.
This way people found him interesting, got inspired. There was a soul in his music, it had that spice of rawness that made him different from others and led him to sell the highest number of records.
Tupac, a master in storytelling, in his song ‘Brenda’s Got a Baby,‘ beautifully poured a story of a 12-year-old molested girl, left by a family who struggled. Some lines are like:
Now the baby's in the trash heep balling
Momma can't help her, but it hurts to hear her calling
Brenda wants to run away
Momma say, you makin' me lose pay
The social workers here everyday
Now Brenda's gotta make her own way
Can't go to her family, they won't let her stay
No money no babysitter, she couldn't keep a job
Songs like ‘Trapped‘ talked about poverty, Keep your head up’ addressed the empowerment of black women, ‘White Man’z World‘ on racism, etc. are heated topics which no one other than Tupac raised their voice for, and maybe that’s what answers “How Tupac got famous.”
Lyrics that everyone could relate to!
Though the lyrics of his raps were complicated, the poet advocated for free thinkers and self-preservation but one thing that the lyrics always succeeded in was inspiring everyone to keep a never-give-up attitude. His lyrics were about life, challenging men to respect their sisters, make changes and be grateful and never settle.
Even today, Tupac Shakur is an inspiration for most people. After so many years of his death, he is still felt through his legacy and lyrics which everyone could relate to and connect, which is really a major aspect for a star to have with his audience.
And in the case of 2Pac, his lyrics made his audience empathize with him and that was one reason how he got famous and achieved success in much less time.
2pac brought freshness to the hip hop industry
Tupac – the man, the legend, the legend, the messiah, the myth brought something new and fresh to the music industry that is the concept of a ‘double-disc album.’
He forever changed hip hop and released the first-ever original hip hop double-disc album named ‘All Eyes On Me’ on 13th February 1996 which broke all record sales which sold over 10 million copies, and was certified diamond. He was a risk-taker and after he released the double-disc album later, this was adopted by many other rappers and followed the trend of double-disc albums like Biggie dropped his ‘Life after Death’, Wu-Tang dropped ‘Wu-Tang Forever’, and many more.
He was passionate!!
“Reality is wrong, dreams are for real.” - Tupac
Believing in what he said, Tupac was extremely passionate about his work. Who would believe that even after his death almost 6 albums of his were dropped? This is insane and proved that he was quite dedicated and passionate.
Well, it could be said that he had a work ethic that made him stand at the top. Maybe he believed like wait! Let me record some more, you know who knows when will life end. Basically, he believed in changing the world not just by his words but by his deeds also.
He Feared Nothing!!
The unstoppable Tupac literally feared nothing. In November 1993, when he was sentenced to jail for sexually harassing a woman for 4 years 6 months. Although Tupac apologized to the victim but was still in his words that he didn’t commit any crime.
He was quite confident about himself and rather than regretting he chose to release his latest album named ‘Me Against The World,’ which included 10 tracks and which that time topped charts of Billboard 200 and was a hit with certification of double platinum. Tupac never gives up behavior and his belief in himself was also one answer to the question “How he became famous.”
Life Full of Controversies – 2Pac And Biggie’s Beef
One of the biggest beef of the music industry – 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. Beef. Well, this beef could be titled as ‘Friends turn Enemies’ – how, when, why, let’s just read further. But before that how is this controversy a reason for Tupac becoming famous?
This is because we all are aware of the fact that controversies also play a key role in the stardom of an artist which really gives hype to the career.
Initially, 2Pac and B.I.G were quite close friends, a pair that gave interviews together, chilled together, learned from each other but then what just happened that there started a rift and resulted in a war between the East coast based rapper the Notorious B.I.G. and his New York-based label, Bad Boy Records, and West Coast-based rapper Tupac Shakur and his LA-based label Death Row Records.
Well, this beef started from the day when Tupac got shot at the Record studio in New York. While this happened Biggie along with Pete didi were present there which led Tupac to suspect that Biggie was behind him being shot.
At this point, the relationship got feud between the two. Also, that time was when Tupac and Biggie were some of the best rappers of the time, so that also painted this idea in Tupac’s mind that Biggie wanted to eliminate his competition and therefore planned Tupac’s death.
Now the beef got more highlighted when 2Pac came up with the diss track ‘hit ‘em up’. He was so much involved in deteriorating biggie’s career that he tried all his strategies, from bragging about him and biggie’s wife sleeping together to demeaning all the allies of biggie and what not. all this led to a massive loss to biggie’s reputation but this beef seemed one-sided.
On one hand, Tupac was burning in rage against Biggie, while on the other side Biggie didn’t even bother to release a reply to the diss track… No counter attacks, nothing. While some say that after Tupac was shot dead the track released by Biggie named ‘Who Shot Ya‘ was considered to be a diss track for 2Pac but mostly Biggie was found denying this fact.
But this beef or more of a cold war left people questioning the silence kept by Biggie and led people to assume that Biggie had something to do with Tupac’s death, or was he worried about his falling career due to Tupac.
Well, we don’t have the answers to it but yes, after all this we must answer who won the beef?
During the beef where on one side Tupac rises in his career, on the opposite end biggie seemed to fall. but this is the answer that was logical enough till both were alive but after Tupac’s death Biggie’s career again fueled and for the next one year he remained the top rapper till his death exactly after one year of Tupac’s death.
But all over, Tupac Shakur could be declared the winner as Tupac is well known today also after two decades of his death. Well if we read about Tupac’s opinion he once said: “It was never a beef, it was just a difference of opinion.”
So this was all about the reasons behind how Tupac became famous and yes do tell us in the comment section below what you think about the beef that resided, was it a beef or a difference in opinions.