Born Day: Tupac Amaru Shakur

Today should just outright be a holiday in Hip-Hop....

Maybe ya'll think that's a lil' over the top, but I wholeheartedly believe that Pac, along with a few other names, is one of the most important people this culture has ever been blessed enough to know.

His life was a whirlwind of struggle, pain, chaos and creative outbursts that stretched from his youth in New York and Baltimore to his 2nd home's in Cali's bay area and Los Angeles. His calling card was that uncontrollable charisma and authentic realness that brimmed when he recited rhymes like poetry. He was a man who was raised by and around the Black Panther party and who started his own movement called T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E. (The hate you gave lil' infants fucks everyone). He had aspirations far beyond rap (whether he admitted it or not) and was often seen as an un-asssuming yet brilliant social commentator unlike any the Hip-Hop world ever knew prior or since.

Tupac doubled as perhaps Hip-Hop's finest thespian of all-time as well, captivating audiences with his natural on-screen demeanor and his always beaming talent.

Cut down before his time on the Las Vegas strip on September 13th, 1996, Pac would never personally get to witness the momentous growth of his legacy...his impact remains to this day, revered and missed as much as ever...

His assassins still are unidentified and un-prosecuted.

-BIG D O