Jupacalypse Now

"JUPAC" that was my call-sign over the radio when I was in the Marine Corps for two deployments, because of my fondness to listening to Tupac songs right before a mission to kind of "Get me in the zone"and due to the fact my last name is Ju it was kind of nickname that a few marines in the platoon gave me that stuck through the my entire 5 years of service. But what i loved about Tupac was not his harsh lyrics and his thuggish exterior, it was quite the opposite in fact many of Tupac's songs and poems{he was an avid poet and wrote many composing a few books} were nothing that a conventional rapper or hip hop artist would ever touch in their songs and lyrics. I first heard of Tupac when i was in High School and was not terribly impressed and not really into rap music, and kind of held the same opinion in until i joined the Marines. I started listening to his music after i saw an interview that he did after he got out of jail, and was just blown away by the intelligence, charisma, and brutal honesty that Tupac obviously had and personified in the very literal sense. I didnt agree with all of Tupac's comments but I loved that he always said exactly what he was feeling that exact moment no matter how ridiculous it may sound and didnt care what people thought of him, he was just being himself. To me the TRUE definition of an artist is someone that can take their artform and personify in a way that could make you relate to it internally. I never liked rap or hip hop until i discovered Tupac and after him i was hooked, after he died i never really cared for music as much because i always felt that the artists were just tools of corporations that catered to certain images that they thought would sell. Tupac was in every sense of the word an artist. and i could hear the pain in his voice and the struggle of his lyrics; absolutely stunning individual amazing and intelligent rapper and a very insightful poet. The reason i wrote this blog is because I saw the movie "Notorious" and i am in shock that some people think Biggie was a better rapper then Tupac, how can you be the best rapper of all time and have only 3 albums? Tupac had about 15 not to mention countless mixtapes and unreleased tracks! Come on people!
Jeff Ju