Do you remember rap in the 90’s?  The well crafted lyrics that made dis-songs chart toppers . The battle of larger than life personas with flashy bling, and designer gear.  The conflict of loyalties, lines drawn in the dirt and you had to choose.  The allure of Hip-hop was that it was more of an all encompassing lifestyle, than a genre of music. And it made you feel ever so cool.

2Pac VS Biggie

Its not like 2pac and Biggie had the first dispute that unfolded publicly through their music. What about Ice Cube vs NWA? (Personally my favorite dis-song battle) or look back into the 80’s; Boogie Down Productions vs Juice Crew.  However, what made the ongoing argument between 2pac and Biggie so, for lack of a better word, notorious, was the fact that they were on top of the hip-hop world. Coming out of the gates with a well stacked crew of king pins behind them.  (Shug Night, Puff Daddy/P Diddy, Snoop, Mobb Depp)  2pac’s dis (‘Hit em Up’) to  Notorious was  gritty, in your face, and overt in its lack of subtlety. A blatant lyrical attack such as this, had been unheard of in the rap community. Not to mention that it was a pretty good song as well.  But typically when a comparison is made between these 2 men, that song goes seemingly unnoticed, and rather the focus is on their styles.  Notorious was more about the beats, his flow was unmatched. Where as 2pac was more poetic, his lyrics were powerful, honest and real.

In this battle I am going to have to go with 2pac, he was in Digital Underground, Humpty Hump forever!

The Calgarian Polls (Survey from 35 Cow-townsians)

Tupac – 43%

Biggie – 57%

Christopher Hillcoff (Camera Store) - Tupac Shakur. I don’t think Biggies name should even come up when it’s asked who are among the greatest rappers.  Here’s why, and it’s been said by so many people so many times before, but I will say it again.  “How can he have been the greatest rapper of all time and only have two albums?”.  I could not agree more with that statement,  how can someone who died before his second album be credited for being one of the greatest rappers of not just the 90’s, but of all time?  Come on, you gotta put down more then that to be named best rapper ever in my book.  Tupac sold millions of records before he died, and we are not talking 1 or 2, we are talking millions and millions of records.   Unfortunally for B.I.G. and a number of other famous deceased artists, only in death did he become hugely popular and influencial to music.  It is interesting to wonder what his third album would have been like or what it would have done for his career, what if it flopped?  even if he lived, would he have been overlooked, duly noted or would his career have fizzled out?.  We don’t know? but I guess the point I am trying to make is, there is not enough contribution to music or enough of a career to earn or support a (best of:) title or award.  I am not trying to discredit any of the work done at Bad Boy records during that time period but we need a little more then two albums (double disc or not) to place such honerable titles, and a record lable needs more then one dead artist to carry it. It almost kills me to write it and, no pun intended but too many people have said that dying could have potentially been the best career move for Biggie Smalls.

Michael ‘MDZ’ Dudus (Hip/Hop artist) - Tupac was not as lyrical as Notorious but he spoke to raw emotion. He often had songs that contradicted themselves but with his upbringing, contradiction in life was commonplace. Biggie embodied the flashy lifestyle but it came with wit and story telling that was based off of his reality. I myself find Pac to be overrated. He had an undeniable work ethic only replicated by an artist like Lil Wayne but like Wayne, the quality of the music was not consistent. With Biggie, most cannot justify him as being the greatest as his music catalog was restricted to his debut LP and his double disc. Artists all over still try to emulate both these artists so maybe their legacies are not based on the music they did but the popularity and attention they brought to the genre.