Glitz, glamour, BEEF.
Let’s assume that we all know who the fuck Notorious B.I.G and 2pac were. If not, stop reading this article and go do some research, you bum!
Back to it; West Coast vs East Coast is the first bell that rings off inside anyone’s head when discussing the topic of Tupac & Biggie. Getting past the conversation of beef and negativity is critical because we can talk about beef all day. It’s always a great dead-end discussion because it leads to opinion based conclusions as to who was better. Brooklyn cats will always hold it down for Biggie so don’t even bother asking New York and Cali is Cali so their ego will always be in the way of their perspective. Both artists were great, and both artists heavily impacted HIP-HOP.
Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur
The conversation that should be focused on is: a) How would these rap gods hold up in today’s music climate and b) How did Biggie and 2pac help shape hip-hop?
Looking at other legendary artists that are still alive, the musical climate for them isn’t doing to hot because we’re (society) into mumble rap that is repetitive and contains minimal content. Our number one hitter right now is Lil Pump (shit’s sad). Bone Thugs N’ Harmony are legends but aren’t respected the way they should, same goes for Cypress Hill and Nas. These are probably the most legendary yet relevant legends around right now and we can’t say that they are hot at the moment, but they still have a massive following.
Lets play numbers based off of Spotify’s data:
2Pac
Monthly Listeners: 10,284,595
Followers: 5,749,357
250TH IN THE WORLD
The Notorious B.I.G
Monthly Listeners: 10,531,862
Followers: 3,605,802
235TH IN THE WORLD
Looking at the stats Biggie outweighs 2Pac in monthly listeners, but 2Pac has 2million more followers than Biggie. The fact that Biggie is ahead by 200,000 listeners doesn’t say much compared to 2Pac’s womping following number. If we want to play numbers 2Pac takes the crown in followers. As for Biggie being 235th in the world compared to 250th also says a lot. It’s hard to choose a winner due to factors that contradict themselves. One has more followers, the other has more monthly listeners, and one has a higher ranking. We could go back and look at hard numbers from back in the day but the focus is on the NOW.
Bottom line: Gangster rap is dead to the majority of people, so we can assume that Biggie’s career would’ve come to a demise in the late 00’s. I don’t think Biggie could keep rapping about the same shit and expect to thrive in his career. Being a gangster is tiresome. Notorious B.I.G is strictly for the streets, hustlers, and gangsters. His beats and lyrics prove this. The thing that made Biggie, Biggie, was the streets. If we took that away from him he would’t have shit to talk about (not trying to diss).
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The way Biggie helped shaped hip-hop is simple; his gangster ass lyrics are always sampled as well as his beats. One thing that is noticeable is that we don’t hear as many 2Pac samples, which is weird.
2Pac would still have a fighting chance because his style contained a variety of approaches and emotions. Not only did 2Pac talk about thug-shit and fuckin’ your bitch, he also mentions love for his mom, his political insights, as well as talking about doing the right thing on many levels. For that I think 2Pac would still be killing shit, his diverse music criteria would make it possible for him to flourish in this day and age. 2Pac was more than just a musician which is why people think that he was better than Biggie. 2Pac’s controversy helped fuel his career, he was involved with well-known people which made him standout.
It’s not about who was better, it’s about who was most influential and who would sink or swim in the music industry today. Legends never die.