my take on him is that he was a brilliant guy, raised in the perfect environment to maximize his intelligence and gift for reading society.
Lots of things make no sense though, him acting the thug was pretty much what got him killed. Many people have said that it was a posture which he picked up after Juice. The rape situation, I don't know what happened but what I believe happened was that he was present but just did not want to stand up for the woman because his pals would ostracize him. I don't believe his story that he was asleep and he probably did not rape her or even assault her but he did not stand up for her. Just a stupid situation to put himself in.
The worst part about all of that hip hop mess is that you got every young knucklehead thinking that being an overemotional hothead is the way to be a man. It's not, that's more bitch behavior than man behavior, that's why so many boys that act like that in the first place had no daddy around growing up.
America has a lot of problems with males and masculinity that are just a waste of everyone's time and waste of lives. People shooting each other for a traffic altercation or being called a name. It's prevalent and it's just stupid. I've been around some real fighters in my life and to my knowledge, very, very few acted like that. If they can be cool and non-confrontational in public, anyone can.
I think theres plenty of finer points we are missing here or dont understand fully. For one, sure, he was educated by his mom and taught to be an avid reader and devourer of knowledge. He was also taught to be militant and weary of authority figues such as police, politicians, etc. Even though he went to a performing arts school for a moment, he was also raised up in ghetto environments without a stable father figure and a mother battling crack addiction. So even though from a young age he was taught all these great things, somehwere along the line things started to unravel and fall apart. Lot of confusion and back against the wall scenarios and he hasnt even hit adolescense yet.
Hes trying to be good but is constantly thrown into the depths of hell. The mind at this stage is not mature enough to be able to handle all these things coming at you at once.
Insert fame.
He somehow crawls out of the system most people never get out of and is now starting to come into his own. Problem is, when he begins rapping about social and politically charged issues, he becomes targeted by pliticians, cops, even feds. Seems at every turn theres problems. Even other rappers in the early to mid 90s would reference 2pac in rhymes and in film regarding his run ins and how "real" he was. Pre Deathrow.
Should he have affiliated himself with goons? Probably not, but based off who he was and a part of how he was raised, he identified with them as his people. He felt comfortable around them. Remember his age here..
Early 20s. Still naive, still impressionable and learning.
Because of his fame up to this point, there was envy and jealousy which came with it. How do you handle all of these things at that age?
What happened with the rape has been contested numerous times since. Even the lady who claimed rape had shady interviews since and has been refuted by experts.
Quad was a set up by known affiliates of sean combs, these are all facts now which can be verified. Jimmy Henchman who was also a friend of Puffs and apparently with him that day admitted to wanting to teach Pac a lesson. Admitted to setting up the robbery and shooting. Puff was also extremey jealous of pacs relationship and influence on biggie. Biggie 99.9% had nothing to do with shit. He was just a victim of circumstance and association unfortunately.
Pac was also known to be loyal as fck so when he felt his loyalty was broken and after being shot, imagine the headspin. Suge saves him and bails him out and we a know the kind of life he represented. Pac by all accounts didnt wanna join deathrow. They even offered to sign him before quad and he declined. He did it cause no one else stepped up and a guy like him would die in prison. Hes a free spirit not meant to be caged.
So he was loyal. To suge, to anything they stood for. Suges beefs were his. He worked his ass off to finish 3 albums cause that was the deal. He was loyal but simply wanted to fulfill his deal and bounce.
Unfortunately and coincidentally, he died literally days after completing what would be his 3rd album, Makaveli.
Biggie by known accounts also started a record label outside of badboy with lance un rivera and didnt have the relationship with puff that was portrayed to us by the media. He died not long after completeing his sophmore album. In LA. After being coaxed into going by Puff. Literally months after 2pac died.
What I see here is a case of young people being steered in wrong directions while facing all types of crazy that the average person would off themselves trying to navigate.
When I look at what was achieved, it was monumental. Nothing short of incredible.
You see, the lives of some of these people are way, way more complex than any of us could ever imagine. Some people dig deep and are more educated. Some simply feed off the surface and come to surface level conclusions.
When you look at the full picture and not a distorted and torn image, it makes way more sense.
