THE SURVEY
WHO WOULD TUPAC MENTOR?
The evolution in hip hop leads me to wonder:
who from the new era of hip hop, would Tupac be down
with?
Would he have spent time on The Game?
Would he have helped develop T.D.E (Top Dawg Ent.)?
Would he have left the west to work with the New York
based rap groups ProEra and A$AP Mob?
In my opinion, there aren’t many artists in this new generation of rap I could see Pac working with, but friends
and social networks say otherwise. I asked over 15 people, followers from both tumblr and Instagram, and even
Facebook friends, about this thought-provoking question.
Unfortunately, the answers were pretty repetitive and also
included the occasional “ME.” responses.
Just to name a few responses I got: J.cole of Roc Nation
(Jay-z’s label), Drake of YMCB (Lil Wayne’s Label), and
Andre 3000 Of the 90’s group Outkast. The majority of
respondents said that Kendrick Lamar of T.D.E would
make an obvious student for Tupac, but why? Is it because they’re both lyrical, socially conscious and hail from
the west coast? Is it because he’s the best out right now? If you know about Kendrick Lamar, you would know that
he and Pac would have already been working together regardless of if he was the best out right now or not. According to the story told by Kendrick, he found himself on the set of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac’s “California
Love” as a youngster. By looking at his relationship with Dr. Dre now, he was destined to work with Tupac.
One response I got mentioned Nipsey Hu$$le. I like this answer best of all. Though not much is said about Nipsey
and his career, he has a relationship with Snoop Dogg that would likely have drawn Tupac’s attention. But let’s
step away from the west coast for a moment. Would Pac have ever gone back to his birthplace in NY to possibly
work with the heavily Biggie-influenced generation of rappers? Setting aside Pac’s very public beef with the east
coast, some say Joey Bada$$ from the teen rap group, ProEra, would have been Pac’s “go to kid,” no doubt.
Honestly, if I were to think seriously about Tupac and the path he was taking his career, I think he would
have opened up a performing arts school in one of his adopted hometowns (San Francisco, Baltimore, Oakland,
L.A.) to cater to the kids that were like him in his younger years. Yes of course he would have continued on with
his music, but I think he would have delved more into his interest in the arts than working with some of today’s
money-hungry rappers. Somehow I think that rather than frustrating himself with some of today’s up-and-comings or trying to latch on to a rapper with a certain style or zip code, he would have wanted to share his love of
the arts with the next generation of true artists like himself.
- Kahdria Davidson
| RESPECT THE REAL RAP FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN |
- From the “Gospel of Hip Hop,” July 1, p. 414 5.