This page is created as a dedication to remember the ones who have helped influence hip-hop culture in positive ways and have left the music industry shaking since their disapperance.
Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971-1996)
When speaking of a positive influence in hip-hop music, Tupac Shakur is one that definitely comes to mind. Tupac Shakur was an artist who possessed the capability of using his inspirational lyrics to make people think and take action. He spoke about real events and issues that struck a cord with millions of listeners all around the world. In many ways, he was a general who rallied his troops to fight a war (for what you believe in). He was a poet, movie star, revolutionary; Tupac Amaru Shakur was the most popular rapper in the world. People looked up to him because he did what everyone wanted to do but was too afraid to do. He was always himself and said what he wanted to say; he was real. But Tupac did not always lead the most positive lifestyle. He smoked marijuana, got into trouble with the law, and had problems with other rappers on the East Coast. Though his life was cut short at the young age of 25, he made an indelible mark on the hip-hop nation. In his short lifetime, he was able to do something that very few people are able to do, which is make a difference.
Christopher Wallace "Notorious BIG" (1972-1997)
According to Biggie Smalls' mom, Voletta Wallace, Biggie and Tupac Shakur once were friends. After Shakur's bloody demise in a hail of bullets, however, Smalls and his associates were perceived as the killers, and speculation ran rampant that deadly retribution would be visited upon them, as part of the East Coast-West Coast gangsta-rap feud. Tupac blamed Biggie, in part, for the 1994 ambush that gave Shakur five bullets ("including one to the head"). Shakur thought Smalls and Sean "Puffy" Combs had known the attack was in the offing. Later, of course, Shakur and then Smalls died in other ambushes. Christopher Wallace was a gangsta rap artist who turned his drug-dealing past on the streets of Brooklyn into a platinum-selling recording career. He blasted his way onto the hip-hop scene with his platinum-selling album Ready To Die, and entered the mainstream public's eye in much the same way when he was murdered in March of 1997. Until his death, B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, Christopher Wallace, was virtually unknown outside the world of hip-hop. But news of his death fueled intensive media coverage of an East Coast-West Coast rap war, rallied hip-hop artists from both coasts, and left two young children without a father. He was almost as popular on the East Coast as Tupac was on the West Coast. His charisma made up for his lack of sexual appeal and he didn't portray a hardcore image, which was a trait that attracted an array of people. They saw him as a real person and that's what made him so beloved by all of his fans and followers.
