Tupac Shakur, is the legendary example of the ultimate hip hop artists portrayed negatively in the mainstream media. He was in fact, the definition of drama throughout his career. Evidently Tupac in many ways did impact the hip hop community with a forceful negative approach. It is my personal opinion that Tupac identified with the potential celebrity the press and media could produce with any form of coverage, let alone negative coverage. It is not very difficult to understand that American culture thirsts and obsesses for news, particularly bad news. I believe it was Tupac’s strategy that lead him to success in a short amount of time. Tupac created the East Coast versus West Coast War which plagued the music industry for years to come, even after his murder. It was a very smart move, to some degree, to use the media outlet at his own disposal. His fallout though, was obviously, his brutal and early death. When the media harassed him, he harassed them back. If he was targeted then he used it as an opportunity to be on the nine o’ clock news. He initiated controversy in his lyrics. Tupac called out specific artists, provoking them to respond. One huge example of the extent Tupac Shakur went to, was when he used the Notorious BIG’s wife, Faith as a part of a plot. She was pretty much naïve to the conflict at the time but she met Tupac Shakur one night and I believe there was a photo taken or she sang some lyrics for one of his songs. Tupac orchestrated the entire experience as an affair and plotted it out to the media and in his music in order to humiliate the Notorious Big. His was very successful of this account. Tupac Shakur was a very troubled individual but is a prime example of how the media played a huge role in his negative exposure. He was a great artist and now that he has passed he is legendary. The only downside of Tupac Shakur’s career is that he is not really recognized for the positive influence he had or the genius music he created. He had tracks like “Dear Momma”, and “Brenda”, that were iconic. He also had some very fun and energetic creations that were masterpieces in the hip hop community. I even remember Tupac rapping about politics and the community. He did not always degrade women, he lifted them up and idolized them too. Tupac Shakur was a beautiful artist but in this specific situation it was not only the media but it was the artist himself that created the negative vibe in which to categorize him in. We all seem to forget where this man came from. He was a drama student in high school. He never even was involved in gangs growing up until he surfaced in the music industry. Tupac Shakur was a very sensitive, passionate, and intelligent young man. He ultimately used the media at his discretion but unfortunately he lost control and the overwhelming intensity of the responsibility that came about led to his destruction.
I remember Tupac as a rapper that was very positive,his music had meaning and purpose. every song he wrote told a story. In the beggining he was a happy up beat person. he turned to be someone eles or something eles when he was shot in front of the studio BIG was in and the media blew it up after that he became paranoid and started destruction everyone around him I believe this is what lead to his destruction, and yes the media had a part in it, and yes he did use them to get his point across. because the public is so noisy and need to know every thing that going on in the celebes life allows for rap artits to use them to make public the thing that they want out there. I don't believe he wanted to be know this way, it as just a chain of unfortunate events that caused him to be this way.
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