Throughout rap culture in many classrooms, dorm rooms, and even outside of your local convenient store are perennial contentious debates on who the greatest MC of all time might be. Don't act like you haven't participated in one of these discussions either. While many disagree on who that individual might be, the overwhelming majority have situated it between two pioneers of 90's Rap/Hip Hop. The Notorious B.I.G and 2Pac.

Juxtaposing these two engineers of rap genius can be troublesome, mainly because the premise of the question we are asking is ostensible; we really mean to ask something more counterintuitive. The question should be "who had more talent/skill at rapping?" or "which rapper was more influential and/or culturally relevant?". It is my personal belief that there has never been a rapper in the past or in our contemporary day in age that has been more culturally influential or vital to the state of hip hop than Tupac Shakur. As a direct descendant of two Black Panther Party members, Tupac was imbued with a spirit of resistance to unfair authority that metastasized all throughout his art. Pac was fervently poignant and political. He was poetic; he aimed for the heart and never missed. Tupac wrote music that could be heartfelt and in many ways vicariously lived through all of us who have endured the struggle of poverty. Pac was a revolutionary intellect who left indelible marks in our hearts and minds. Hip Hop will never forget his contributions.

While Tupac may be the most culturally influential in Hip-Hop, he is a highly overrated MC. He pales in comparison to Biggie Smalls when it comes rapping. We enjoyed Biggie for his flow and play on words. In fact, Biggie doesn't need a beat at all. That's what makes him Notorious. Biggie was a novelist, he could paint a picture, render you the story, develop the characters while simultaneously immersing you with metaphors and figurative language just to add color. Tupac was more of a journalist; he reported on life in his world. He would write, editorialize and question on life and how it should be, then he would publish it on the beat. Tupac was a bit more vulnerable than Biggie and this is why we always assert that we "feel" him. This doesn't go to say Biggie wasn't vulnerable, to be a rapper in itself is valiant and brave. Telling your story and allowing others to critique, challenge and above all else include themselves in your life is gallant. Biggie's "Suicidal Thoughts" shows a lot of vulnerability while Pac just showed more emotion, fervor, and incandescence. In Tupac's Song "Me and against the World" he writes:

"The question is will I live? No one in the world loves me
I'm headed for danger, don't trust strangers
Put one in the chamber whenever I'm feelin' this anger
Don't wanna make excuses, cause this is how it is
What's the use unless we're shootin'' no one notices the youth "

Biggie had more cadence and technical savvy. In his song " Gimmie the loot" he says:

"Motherf*cking right, my pockets looking kinda tight
And I'm stressed, Yo Biggie let me get the vest.

No need for that, just grab the f*cking gat
The first pocket that's fat, the Tec is to his back
Word is bond, I'mma smoke him, yo, don't fake no moves
Treat it like boxing: stick and move, stick and move "

Next, comes the debate on classic albums. In my experience, Biggie's Ready to Die and Life After Death albums are ubiquitously well known in the Hip Hop community as irrefutable classics, and I would be very much well inclined to agree. 2pac's albums, however, are up for debate. Many fans would say if Pac has a classic album it would most likely be All Eyez On Me. I would wholeheartedly disagree and retort that while it's a solid album that we have to enshrine, we must be cautious with what we attribute to being a classic album. The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory is much more approximate to being deemed a classic album in my opinion than any of his previous albums.

Now, let's talk beef.

The rendition of rap beef is galvanizing and riveting for the culture of Hip Hop just as long as the beef stays on the beat. I want to focus on the content of Tupac's and Biggie's lyrics in their rap beef. Anything that happened outside of the lyrics is out of our purview for this discussion. "Hit em Up" is one of the most legendary diss songs of all time. It's disrespectful to perfection and I while personally laugh throughout the entire song, the video adds insult to the injury. This is Tupac squared, the entrance to what we would learn to call Makaveli. Biggie's "Who shot ya" however, could make a crowd jump yet doesn't compare to "Hit em up".

" …..First off, fuck your bitch and the clique you claim
Westside when we ride, come equipped with game
You claim to be a player, but I fucked your wife
We bust on Bad Boys, niggas fucked for life
Plus Puffy trying to see me, weak hearts I rip
Biggie Smalls and Junior M.A.F.I.A. some mark-ass bitches"

We could go on all day long and debate about this but those lines right there are ineffably indelible.

I aspire to bridge the gap between these two engineers of Hip-Hop by offering a solution to our conundrum. Maybe we can love and enjoy them both. The two shouldn't be mutually exclusive. In some realms of Hip-Hop to love Biggie means to not love Pac as much, and vice versa. This doesn't mean you can't have a preference but dividing in most cases precipitates discord. Moreover, we need both of these legends to even have this discussion. For many 2pac and Biggie will always stand as the paragon of hip-hop excellence. Many will debate who is better for eons to come, some are debating it right now. For me, I just hope to encourage more love, honesty, and vigilance in these dialogues.

Greatest MC of All Time

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