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In the eyes of many in today's Hip Hop community, Tupac was a heavyweight in the streets. But this perception wasn't always common. When it comes to society's greats, we tend to have selective memories. Even though many people were tuned in to Tupac's rising star relatively early on in his career, they still tend to get carried away by his romantic portrayal as the ultimate prototype gangster rapper.
In reality, Tupac was a rebel and an educated black revolutionary; not a seasoned or even an upcoming street veteran. This portrayal is mainly a creation that followed his involvement with real-life crime figures like Haitian Jack, Jimmy Henchmen, Suge Knight, Freddie "Nichols" Moore, and E Money Bags. This perception was also fed by repeated coverage of Tupac's 'war stories'—as he called them—by the media. Not to mention, what seemed to be a tendency of the Universe, God, Fate, Lady Luck, or whatever you want to call it, to cut him slack during these incidents, up until his untimely death in 1996.
By invoking Tupac's blessings and serendipity, I'm not suggesting that he hadn't experienced plenty of adversity. I'm saying that, what religious people call "divine guidance" was clearly a part of his story. In 1993, for instance, Tupac got into a shootout with two rogue cops and not only walked away without a scratch, but he was also never sentenced (which is almost unheard of). In 1994, Tupac walked into a music recording studio and had to be carried out on a bloody stretcher minutes later, with 5 bullet wounds, including two to the head (both went in and out of the skin of his skull). Tupac survived the shooting, and, to top it all off, he checked himself out of his hospital within 24 hours of getting shot. The next day he attended his hearing in a courtroom, seemingly never missing a beat. While he didn't beat the case, he got something that's arguably even better. Prison time can have a devastating effect on the career of a celebrity; in Tupac's case, though, it only gave him more momentum and star power.
I don't buy into the notion that these incidents justify a gangster image. I'm convinced that the authentic account of how Tupac was perceived lies in how he was treated by his peers in the hip hop community while he was alive. From the moment he released his debut album, Tupac got dragged into a series of incidents that were instigated by people, including former associates, who kept testing him. These events allow us to understand how much his image changed over time.
They include slanderous and unsubstantiated rumors that he was raped in prison; an alleged robbery attempt by associates during a performance in Detroit; an intense altercation with an angry mob in Marin City; several incidents at his Oakland home (including a burglary) that compelled him to relocate to LA; threats by the Zulu Nation that they were going to "beat him up"; claims by some (e.g. Lil Shawn) that he failed to stand up to new friends from Brooklyn's underworld when they "spoke to him in certain ways", etc. This treatment is hardly consistent with Tupac's modern day portrayal as the ultimate prototype gangster rapper.
So, why am I rehashing all of this? I can see that some Tupac fans would suspect me of "hating on 'Pac" and of trying to discredit him. Actually, no. I'm listening to his music as I'm writing this. I bring up these incidents because I know that, once you get past the romantic betrayals, you can start to see Tupac for what he really was and stood for. And I think that the sentiment in some quarters that, once you strip away his image, you'll find a 'punk' underneath who was just acting ***was plain wrong***. Tupac was all about the truth, and the truth is that it's the people who think in extremes (e.g. "he was the ultimate bad boy", or "he was a 'wanksta' and always acting out the movie role he played in 'Juice'") who are distorting the picture.
The way I see it, Tupac's bad boy image and the 'bad boyish' predicaments he found himself in were an inevitable consequence of his fearlessness and unrelenting commitment to his strategy. See, Tupac had a strategy to become successful in rap. His idea was to approach it from the angle of being an ambassador of the disenfranchised—or the 'thugs' as he called them—who had to resort to crime because they had no other means to put bread on the table. The problem was that Tupac would never get these youths to follow him if they couldn't relate to him and if they didn't respect him. That was the hidden bane of Tupac's strategy, and what saddens me is that I'm not sure that Tupac ever understood that his strategy was the real source of his legal problems.
Yes, Tupac's strategy was well-intentioned and highly effective; crime lords and kingpins all over the nation who wanted to better themselves and their communities signed up for his 'Thug Life' community program. His strategy gave him a highly flexible and profitable niche in hip hop that not many rappers could tap into, making him stand out tremendously. His commitment to this strategy gave him the breathing room to alternate between songs uplifting women and minorities and songs detailing life on the streets from the perspective of the disenfranchised youths he wanted to reach. What seemed to be the best part of it all was that his strategy was cut out for him. The fact that his family members consisted of black panthers gave his strategy extra credibility, momentum and legitimacy.
The way I see it, there were two primary problems with his strategy. Firstly, criminals have their own agendas and aren't always known for their loyalty or gratefulness. In my view, Tupac should have narrowed down his focus to people who wanted his help. He should have kept a distance from the (ex-)criminals who were too far gone to help. Secondly, Tupac didn't have the street credibility to protect him from some of the more dangerous people he was trying to help. Tupac was widely respected for his fearlessness. But people on the streets will never equate a person who is known to be capable of fearlessness when situations call for it, with career criminals with lengthy rap sheets and reputations for initiating violence whenever it suits them. At best, the Brooklynites he befriended were going to see Tupac as a 'kid' with potential.
Maybe this explains why Tupac wasn't as successful at pacifying, uniting and re purposing (ex-)criminals as some of the OGs in L.A. and elsewhere who have managed to pull it off in their own communities.
