"Let's be real...Biggie was a great lyricist and Pac was a great entertainer" - This is what someone wrote as a comment on an article I read that sparked this blog, but it's not the first time I've heard it, in fact I've heard this said too many times by public figures and in public forums as well. That statement is so wrong that nothing can be further from the truth, in fact it's quite opposite - Big was a good entertainer (I personally can't say great, sorry, biggie fans) and Pac was a master lyricist.
Ever since they were both alive and the east coast-west coast "beef" was going on I've been in discussions on many street corners from NY to LA about who was better and why. Here is my analysis based on the fact that I listened to both (all of Pac's albums and Big's one album and a few features).
First off people shouldn't even comment on 2 Pac unless they have some understanding of his history. Biggie on the other hand has not much of a history, we related to him because he was a regular street dude like us selling a few drugs, holding a few guns and trying to make it. Pac was of a different cloth. Pac was brought up in a family of revolutionaries and people who were and are still making REAL change in the world, without some of them there wouldn't be integrated bathrooms and water fountians. SERIOUSLY.
The neutral argument people have presented to me is that Biggie had flow while Pac had lyrics and substance, this is a much more accurate assesment of who was better, even though there really is no better, it's like someone said in the beef DVD, I think Shock G said "when people say Pac is better people are really saying Pac was the better PERSON." I agree with that. I'm not saying Biggie was a bad person, I don't think he was at heart but maybe he was trying to impress people around him or felt the pressures of his environment to portray a more evil image.
Example of what I'm saying... When Pac died the Makaveli album was released, with yes, a few dis tracks towards other rappers and artists, mainly Biggie and Bad boy, but that album was a GREAT composition of songs, uplifting, revolutionary, gangster, smart, woman praising, very substantial.
When Biggie died I'm hearing songs being released where he's talking about robbing women and children, shame on whoever's choice it was to release this crap (Puff most likely) and his album Life After Death which dealt with glamourizing the ganster life, partying, pop records and senseless murder. I think it had one album's worth of very good material on it but unfortunately it was a double album and if it was a single album it probably would have only contained the more pop commercial records.
From Pac's archive we get a book of poetry (and an album performed ny socially concious artists) A Rose That Grew From Concrete, we get the songs Changes, Baby Don't Cry, Until The End Of Time, etc.
From Big we get a bullshit album that Puff puts together with the "hot" artists of the time, which are not hot now by the way, possibly the worst compilation album ever called Duets, with the single Dead Wrong. Another notable mention would be the Ron G verse (which I remember form the mixtape and loved) which I think went to Big L's album (which I liked a lot also and think he was WAAAAAYYYY better than Biggie BY FAR and gets no credit AT ALL EVER) on a cut with him and Pac and all three of them were not with us anymore. A good song but I don't know if that Biggie verse should have been put out like that after his death, the original was a classic with Raekwon on there I think Fat Joe was on it, (Jay Boogie probably remembers better than me) but it should have stayed as that and this is why I feel that way. Lyrics... Hail Mary, fuck her, I never knew her, I'll probably screw her, and dump her body in the fucking sewer... Now I'm not religious but that's some cold shit.. lol
Anyhow, the 2 can not even really be compared AT ALL, not even the same bracket, people say Biggie was the best just because he died? That's ridiculous, he only released ONE album while alive, ONE!!
Big Pun was better than Biggie.... BY FAR! Style and Lyrics... Flow, yea Big had a great flow, always on beat, rhythmic, whatever, I'm a lyrics fan... And his were just OK... I can name over 50 people probably off the top of my head that will eat Biggie alive in a battle or just comapring song for song..
I'm not trying to trash a dead man's name, I never met the guy, can't say if he was a good or bad person but judging by what he put out there, in my opinion, he never made any positive contribution to anything in my life. And don't get me wrong, I love his first album, a sick classic album, but when he died, in my opinion, he was on his way to the pop isle with Puff.
2 Pac to me was a true artist in every aspect of the word. He was an intelligent human who made decisions based on the betterment (if that's a word, lol) of mankind. Yea he went a lil crazy in the end and spun a bit out of control but I still think even during those times he was trying to do the right thing, I think his frustration came from the fact that the world wasn't changing fast enough for him. He sacrificed a lot of happiness to see other people happy and used his success to help MANY other people and show them the light but some still failed to follow and he still got shitted on by freinds and industry folk. I know the feeling Pac..
Pac will go down in history as an important figure of our society who changed the world for the better and Biggie will go down in history as someone he had beef with. That is Big's claim to fame, cause if Lil Wayne dies tommorrow the kids that came up listening to his slurred music will say he was the best to ever do it and there will be no changing their minds.
And NO, Jay Z wouldn't be as big as he is if Pac was here, Pac would've smacked him by now. And NO, Pac didn't destroy Mobb Deep's career, they did it to themselves by making half ass music for a short period of time, good to see them back on their game, and their dis to Tupac is probably the only relevant one out there, but they respectfully pulled it from the album when he passed.
This is long but I am not finished either, I will stop here for now and to it on the comments if something else comes to me. I hope they are all resting in peace.
PS I did like the Biggie movie, it was good, don't know how accurate it was but from what I know from actually being there at that time, they threw in some little things that only real Hip hop heads would know about..
