tupac or biggie?

[ed miliband]

this is a debate i've had many times, and indeed one i had a couple of hours ago in the pub. it always gets heated.

i used to love tupac, went over to biggie last year, but listening to stuff like 'hit 'em up' again... can't help but think pac destroyed biggie.

still tho, i don't think it's a real dichotomy; i think they were both incredible rappers, with some great producers and a lot of interesting shit to say. pac sounds more dated now i think, but there's a charm in that, plus he read bakunin.

so i dunno. i can't really make a decision. jus gonna say lil b instead.

[Ostrinski]

For me it's Biggie. I mean, 2pac was definitely better lyrically (at least imo) and his music had more.. I dunno.. feeling to it? His music is definitely more passionate and more politically charged.

But with Biggie, he was just a raw MC that displayed raw skill. Had a better flow, and plus Ready to Die is hands down in my top 5 hip hop albums of all time. More of a traditional east coast mc if you will. I also like the producers he worked with more than Pac.

So I have to say apples and oranges because I think we're dealing with different subgenres of hip hop here. However, if we're talking about the beef itself, then I have to go with 2Pac. He destroyed Biggie on the diss tracks that he wrote and Biggie just couldn't seem to reply with anything dynamic.

Just my 2 cents.

[ed miliband]

yeah, ready to die is just insanely good, and what won me over to biggie.

thing is, they had a mutual respect for each other, so i find the competition between the two a little strange. i love 'em both equally i think. i genuinely can't decide between the two.

[Ocean Seal]

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/006/759/both.png

[Ostrinski]

http://exclaim.ca/images/up-biggie_tupac.jpg

[ed miliband]

thing is, they had a mutual respect for each other, so i find the competition between the two a little strange. i love 'em both equally i think. i genuinely can't decide between the two.

:)

[Yuppie Grinder]

for sure biggie
tupac was probably as good and maybe more versatile a lyricist but he never put out an lp anywhere near as solid either of biggies first two

[Yuppie Grinder]

so i dunno. i can't really make a decision. jus gonna say lil b instead.

well it was lil b who first gave grandmaster flash two turntables and a microphone, who introduced tupacs mother to the black panthers, and who gave biggie a pen and some paper

[Ostrinski]

well it was lil b who first gave grandmaster flash two turntables and a microphone, who introduced tupacs mother to the black panthers, and who gave biggie a pen and some paperIt was Lil B that first said unto the white man, "let my people be free!"

[Zostrianos]

Biggie definitely had better quality, but 2pac has variety (and a few hundred unreleased songs still in the vaults)

[Let's Get Free]

I would say 2pac. He was a passionate social activist(both his parents were panthers) with meaningful lyrics who knew how to use his activist views to appeal to people. He never showed fear and commanded immense respect from whoever he dealt with.

I listen to Pac, but I tend to gravitate more towards his songs like Me Against The World, Changes, Pour out a Little Liquor, etc. He lived what he spoke (well, most of it) and the fact that he died at his peek only immortalized him. He wasn't necessarily the best/most skillful lyrics, but passionate nonetheless.

[Zostrianos]

The problem with 2pac is that he started out as an activist, and ended as a raving mad paranoid nutcase, making diss after diss.

[Ostrinski]

I agree that Me Against the World is Pac's magnum opus but I think All Eyez On Me gets shit on too much for lame reasons (i.e. for not being political). It's a solid hip hop record and the lack of political content on it had no negative effect on the quality of the music, I actually think it showed that aside from being an activist and a revolutionary he could make fun records that people can just enjoy listening to and do them well. He showed he could be versatile.

[DasFapital]

Makaveli 4 life!

[Zostrianos]

Instrumentally, I think All Eyez on Me tops them all.

[Ostrinski]

Instrumentally, I think All Eyez on Me tops them all.Well it did have bigger names on it, and it no doubt had more money going into its production. I don't think I would even compare it and MAtW because of how universally different the two records are.

[Prometeo liberado]

When I was a junior exec with Bad Boy we all knew that Tupac was only half the man that Biggie could have been, had he a quarter of the 10% of the will of Tupac's 30% or even half of that whole. :confused:

[Pirate Utopian]

Lil B

[Fawkes]

Hit Em Up sounds like a child with a temper tantrum. Compare that to Long Kiss Goodnight, Biggie owned Tupac. Tupac wanted everyone to know how pissed off he was at Biggie, Biggie just played it cool and slipped in really subtle attacks at Tupac.

That being said, they're both fucking dope and completely different styles. Biggie definitely worked with better producers though.



Also, when it comes to overt diss tracks, Drop a Gem on Em blows Hit Em Up out of the water

[Pirate Utopian]

Yeah I never saw what made "Hit Em Up" such a great disstrack. It's just Tupac throwing a hissy fit at Biggie.

I like both. Tupac probably a little more because he had that g-funk.

[Fawkes]

Was just listening to the Outlawz today, hearing Tupac on the same track as other mcs just shows how amazing he was.




Anyway, 3:05-3:18 is like Flow 101
P_DLD7OMUns

[l'Enfermé]

Silly Americans, thinking that rap is real music. :laugh:

[Ostrinski]

Silly Americans, thinking that rap is real music. :laugh:Hip hop is a global phenomenon asshole.

Also it isn't like there isn't British, Dutch, and Canadian people in this thread.

[bricolage]

biggie all day long.

[L.A.P.]

Yeah, I was about to say. Even though 2Pac was an integral part of my childhood (definetly includes the formation of my politics), I thought looking back at it Hit Em' Up wasn't all that great, it was just a bunch of low blows about fucking B.I.G.'s mom and shit.

I still think 2Pac was better but B.I.G. is fucking dope too, look at this sick freetsyle with them both

XGpxscefrDg

also, don't just compare biggie and tupac based on their two best albums. there's a lot more to tupac than just Me Against the World and All Eyez On Me, Makaveli was definetely one of his best besides the previous two. His first album was pretty good too, but a lot of it just won't sound appealing if you particularly don't like the way old hip-hop tracks sound.

uSkfkLAOuMI

Brenda's Got a Baby is definetely one of tupac's best singles

NRWUs0KtB-I

Plus, you can find a lot of gems in his huge posthumous discography cranked out of the vault by the record labels. He says "hook up with Castro" in this song, I thought that was cool.

mopHLF348Lc

[Ostrinski]

Yeah his first two albums had some solid and memorable cuts (Brenda's Got a Baby, Keep Ya Head Up, et al.) but the whole albums themselves lacked a consistency and continuity that Me Against the World and All Eyez On Me had.

[Total]

really we're still talking about this..? i hate to bring it but there are plenty more rappers out there, even back then..

i think you can't compare one to an other, what makes a mc memorable is the way he or she makes hiphop his or her own, the way they stand out. Its what they do different that makes them stand out.

Rappers are known for flowstyles, lyrrical skills, topics, battles, freestyle, wordplay, image etc etc
you don't have to shine in every single thing, all round mc's are actually quit rare..
But you can't compare different skill sets to each other.

Its like when two people make furniture, can you compare the table of the first to the closet of the other..?

imo the only way you can judge mc's is if they take one each other in a battle, and even then the only thing you can judge is who's the best battle mc, according to your taste.

and yeah, rap is music, thats the way we see it in holland at least..;)

[maskerade]

different styles and different subject matters. my personal favourite is tupac, but he was the first rapper i really listened to. he was dedicated to social justice and social change, which is always a plus. biggie had a much cooler flow though.

[Os Cangaceiros]

2Pac put out a lot more material, but I think that Biggie had better individual tracks.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Silly Americans, thinking that rap is real music. :laugh:
You better be joking.

[the last donut of the night]

i think you should all be ashamed for not paying your due respects to the based god

[Pirate Utopian]

i think you should all be ashamed for not paying your due respects to the based god

Scroll up, based brah.

[The Douche]

I've never really been a fan of pac, I've tried, but for some reason it just doesn't appeal to me. I can seriously listen to big any time though.

[ed miliband]

still, pac rapped "and since a man can't make one, he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one" -- on a mainstream hip hop track, without all the pious "revolutionary hip hop" shit. that makes him pretty cool in my books.

[Manic Impressive]

hmm a rapist or a crack dealer tough choice...........I go neither. They're both overrated. But Pac all the way

[The Douche]

hmm a rapist or a crack dealer tough choice...........I go neither. They're both overrated. But Pac all the way

Moralist.

















:cool:

[Will Scarlet]

hmm a rapist or a crack dealer tough choice...........I go neither. They're both overrated. But Pac all the way
selling drugs is worse than rape now?
Though on the plus side Tupac did for real shoot cops. :lol:
I prefer Biggie, but Illmatic is better than Ready To Die anyways so.

[Ostrinski]

selling drugs is worse than rape now?
Though on the plus side Tupac did for real shoot cops. :lol:
I prefer Biggie, but Illmatic is better than Ready To Die anyways so.And 36 Chambers and Low End Theory are better than Illmatic but none are part of the discussion.

[Will Scarlet]

And 36 Chambers and Low End Theory are better than Illmatic but none are part of the discussion.
No but Biggie-Tupac is a false dichotomy, I claim

[blake 3:17]

Biggie.

[enlightened_ape2112]

To me its like the Metallica Megadeth debate. They're both great artists.

[the last donut of the night]

Scroll up, based brah.

oh i gotcha boi

[Vanguard1917]

Pac when you're 15, Big when you're 16.

[Pirate Utopian]

I'm 12.

[Vanguard1917]

I'm 12.

Mobb Deep.

[Doflamingo]

I prefer Biggie myself. No exact reason why.

[∞]

For me it's Biggie. I mean, 2pac was definitely better lyrically (at least imo)

I don't see that. Bigger had tighter rhyme schemes and puns. Pac had emotion and meaning.


But with Biggie, he was just a raw MC that displayed raw skill. Had a better flow, and plus Ready to Die is hands down in my top 5 hip hop albums of all time. More of a traditional east coast mc if you will. I also like the producers he worked with more than Pac.



Production quality was at least equal to Big when he worked with Dre though.
He destroyed Biggie on the diss tracks that he wrote and Biggie just couldn't seem to reply with anything dynamic.

"Who shot ya?" went 20x harder than "Hit 'em up," BIG was cool and collected and just ripped the mic a new asshole with the "Sasquatch feet". Hit em up was just generic disses though the music video was funny.

I'm a go with Biggie because I like cold and relaxed rappers better. I still bump Pac when in the mood. Two phenomenal MCs.

[the last donut of the night]

nas