Duncan Idaho said:

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The only right answer is vanilla ice..he opened so many doors. With Ice there is no kid rock or the David Bowie revival of the 90s, which means no Zoolander. Nevermind the Cinematic triumph of TMNT 2

Name just one artist more important to the Dallas Music Scene than Vanilla Ice.

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All of them.

On the 25th anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s tragic death, we honor his incredible musical legacy by counting down his 50 best songs https://t.co/s6dqeNebX5

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) March 9, 2022

25 YEARS. RIP TO THE GREATEST RAPPER OF ALL TIME.

I vote for Harry Mack

RIP to the GOAT.

Listen to BIG.

On max volume all day, baby, baby.

This came on while I was driving into the office this morning. Naturally I had to turn it up to 11.

Notorious Thugs (feat. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony) (2007 Remaster) (youtube.com)

No love for Mickey Avalon

Snoop Dog = Lebron James of rap

MASAXET said:

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This came on while I was driving into the office this morning. Naturally I had to turn it up to 11.

Notorious Thugs (feat. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony) (2007 Remaster) (youtube.com)

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Better goat rapper with Bone Thugs?

Notorious

Thug Luv

Tupac is the best gay rapper of all time. Lil Nas X and Lil Uzi Vert don't even come close.

red river said:

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I vote for Harry Mack

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Not saying I'm the best but I'm up there

El Gallo Blanco said:

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Tupac is the best gay rapper of all time. Lil Nas X and Lil Uzi Vert don't even come close.

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This.

Tupac was playing a character. After he appeared in Juice, he never came out of that character. He was to thug life/street/gangsta what the Three Dollar Bill, is to US currency.

Easy E is easily the best rapper ever. It's not even close or a debate. I'm shocked he hasn't even been mentioned.

The absolute best was Wonder Mike.

O.G. said:

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El Gallo Blanco said:

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Tupac is the best gay rapper of all time. Lil Nas X and Lil Uzi Vert don't even come close.

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This.

Tupac was playing a character. After he appeared in Juice, he never came out of that character. He was to thug life/street/gangsta what the Three Dollar Bill, is to US currency.

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Where is this coming from? Tupac came from a fugitive mother, and had the Feds investigating his family because of his step father and aunt. He grew up a nomad. His mom had him in the arts yea, but calling him gay? Are yall like 12. He had a roster of high profile romantic relationships, that even included Madonna, Yo-Yo, and Kadadda Jones.

Some of the greatest rappers and MCs praise Pac-- Nas, Scarface, Em, 50, and the list goes on. I'll always have Tupac Amaru Shakur as my goat. Whatever little gripe yall have with him? It's bizzare.

Eminem, Lil Wayne, Tupac, and Nas.

Eminem & Kanye have the funniest things to say.

Trial of Duane "Keefe D" Davis for the murder of Tupac set the start Monday.

Scientific said:

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O.G. said:

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El Gallo Blanco said:

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Tupac is the best gay rapper of all time. Lil Nas X and Lil Uzi Vert don't even come close.

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This.

Tupac was playing a character. After he appeared in Juice, he never came out of that character. He was to thug life/street/gangsta what the Three Dollar Bill, is to US currency.

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Where is this coming from? Tupac came from a fugitive mother, and had the Feds investigating his family because of his step father and aunt. He grew up a nomad. His mom had him in the arts yea, but calling him gay? Are yall like 12. He had a roster of high profile romantic relationships, that even included Madonna, Yo-Yo, and Kadadda Jones.

Some of the greatest rappers and MCs praise Pac-- Nas, Scarface, Em, 50, and the list goes on. I'll always have Tupac Amaru Shakur as my goat. Whatever little gripe yall have with him? It's bizzare.

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Sorry to burst your bubble. Tupac was a butter soft drama nerd. Joining the Pyru street gang at 23 is like a college guy still hanging out at a High School.. That is OLD in that life. As Ice-T said, Pac hit the streets and the streets hit back. He was playing a role. Whatever his mom did back in the day, did not make Pac a gangsta.

Biggie's mother acknowledged that he was a spoiled brat who wanted to still sell drugs. Ice Cube wasn't ever a gang member and went to Arizona for college. Prodigy also studied arts as a kid. The list goes on and on, with whatever you think a lot of rappers childhood makes them "false". Guys from that era didn't suddenly stop confronting the ills that were in front of them.

I've been a fan of Pac going on 25 years. There's almost nothing you can tell me I don't already know. Whatever bubble you think you're bursting? I've met people who knew him personally like a family member of Johnny J (his favorite producer) and a friend of Scarface. They all praised him.

Pac grew up broke, poor, and moving all the time. I know all about his preforming arts. He wrote poetry acted, and danced. He was different at 16 than he was at 20. You think he changed because of what Allen Hughes said after he saw Juice.

Whatever you personally have against him, or whatever you want to think of him as someone who was pretending? It's a sure bet you probably never went through any of his struggles that were happening in the 70s and 80s. I'll take the word of the people who respect him like Nas and Face.

This thread was meant to be about Big, 15 years ago, and a rapper who I love too. But I'm not going to stand for the Pac slander. Richie Rich, Treach, and Woss Ness had their tributes. Pac's impact is what it is, and there's litte to debate around that.

I'd say 2Pac is way more thug than Drake, who is a half white, Jewish Canadian. Not sure how he has any street cred.

I'm referring to the fact he grew up constantly moving around because of Mutulu and Assatta. His mother was a Panther, that the Feds had under surveillance. If you can understand how that could affect a young man. Then see his mother turn to drugs and become an addict, after representing herself as a strong woman? I can't put myself in that world. If his outlet was was the preforming arts school? That was his phase. Oakland changed him. Not Juice.

As far as his Death Row days? I personally hated them. You're leaving out the context that he never claimed bloods, he was running with Suges crew. Neckbone has touched on it, and plenty of others have stated as much. Pac, true to his NY roots was a live wire. He was too energetic for his own good. He was at odds with Puff, Haitian Jack, and Jimmy Henchman. Street stuff I doubt any of us will ever get close enough to truly understand. But the Death Row time, isn't even why I got into Pac. It was all the music outside of that.

If you hate on Pac for anything but his music? That's a personal thing I just find bizzare. His music and his impact is cemented.

O.G. said:

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One of the saddest moments I ever witnessed was when a convict came to my Unit, we were searching all of them/their belongings etc and I saw that he had the same "Thug Life" tattoo that Tupac had, on his abdomen.

He'd been locked up most of his life and now had grey hair in his temples. I asked him how thug life worked out for him. He looked down and said, "not so well".

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Dumb criminals latched onto a tatoo, and that's Pac's fault? If someone said they wanted to be a drug kingpin because they idolized Biggie for it, you'd blame him for it too? Again, Cube wasn't a gang member. Do you blame him and NWA for what they presented almost a decade before. Scarface wrote a song about this. "Hand of the Dead Body" with Ice Cube. It's false cause.

Nas ended up putting God's Son across his abdomen either as an homage or replicating Pac, so why should anyone care how criminal morons took it. There's that.

I was there, you were not.

Keep being a fanboy if you want to.

O.G. said:

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I was there, you were not.

Keep being a fanboy if you want to.

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I'm also a HUGE fan boy of Nas and Scarface. I'll never be able to decide who really is the greatest between these three.

I was around a lot, and I know exactly what you're referring to. The idiots could've put an alter to Bone Thugs N Harmony or Eazy-E and you would've blamed them for making their "Thug" life decisions. This has way more to do about what was going on during that era. Its ironic you post the video of Ice T when he made Colors and Cop Killer. The movie is always blamed for the spread of gang culture, and he was the Soundtrack.

We can have an entire debate about what rap was in the 90s, and you can point a finger to just about everyone. I'm not defending every decision he made. He made plenty of bone headed mistakes. But, to call him gay when it's 2026, and a notorious ladies man? Or discredit his music, when his peers respected him?

I understand where you're coming from, if that's your prespective, but you're centered around something that was bigger than just one artist.

I'll end it with this. My mistake was thinking your definition of "real" was coming from a place of genuine struggle, which he obviously had. You're fixated on the street and "gangster" stuff. I think 90% of most rappers wouldn't hit your criteria. He first charted with Brenda's Got A Baby, Holler if Ya Hear Me and Trapped. None of that was gangsta rap records. His antics were more recognized than the early music he was releasing.

When I say peers, I'm referring to rappers who had nothing to do with him, but respect his music. Styles P, Fabolous, T.I., Crooked I....these are from the top of my head. They weren't friends with him. If you think they're just praising him because he's dead? That's your opinion. Recently Mase said he was a fan og Pac before he was paired with Big. He didn't have to say that.

I completely understand why you don't like him as a person. It reminds me of why a lot of people get turned off by Kanye, they both knew better. His three or four years at the top were marred with controversey and mistakes he made. His death was a result of a string of wreckless decisions. That's true. But his discography is some of the most diverse. His subject matter is wide, and you choose what you want to listen from him. Like I already said, I'm not even huge on his Death Row material.

What I'll push back on, is that he was a plant. All of rap music can be scrutinized at that time, and you can argue Jay-Z was a plant. Future is a plant. Even Biggie. And so on and so on. I'm not young anymore, and I'm not blaming what these guys rapped about for what was going on. Accountability starts with people, not the music they want to use as justification.

"Real" criminals or however you want to define them? were committing crimes listening to Sinatra or Curtis Mayfield decades before. Its a silly debate to even have imo. Next month will be 30 years since he was killed. Who is still clinging on to this persona of his? I think most now have a more sincere prespective.

I never wanted a hijack this thread about Biggie. Next year it'll be 30 years since he passed.

red river said:

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I vote for Harry Mack

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Harry Mack has to be one of the best freestyle artists alive right now, maybe even ever, eclipsing JuiceWRLD, historically.

His livestream with Marc Rebillet was awesome.

The weirdest thing about Tupac's family dynamic is that, per his own admission, mama told him to never stop until he bust a nut. What mom gives that direction to her kid?

RooAg said:

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Easy E is easily the best rapper ever. It's not even close or a debate. I'm shocked he hasn't even been mentioned.

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Haha, I LOVE Eazy, but it's his personality, style and appearance that made him great. And the fact that he was a real gangster, which is very rare in rap.

He is a rookie level rapper, but it works. Not sure he ever wrote a single verse of his own. Pretty sure Dresta even wrote his portion of the "Real MF G's" diss.

I'd really like to see what some of yall have to say about K-Rino's stuff from the 90's. He may be one of the greatest southern MC's to ever live...possibly nationwide...

Most slept on rapper in the world. No offense to Biggie or Pac, but they wish they were this cold...