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This last week has a bit of a confusing one for hip-hop fans. On one hand, after Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg unleashed a super-relaistic hologram of the late Tupac Shakur during their Coachella set last Sunday, it’d be normal to bemoan this act as nothing short of sacrilegious — the ultimate insult to arguably the greatest rapper of all time. Then again, the hologram stunt has ignited a wealth of 2Pac chatter across the Internet, which, if nothing else, has put this incredible MC back in the forefront of hip-hop conversation. But whatever your feelings, seeing as Shakur has been on everyone’s minds this week, we’ve decided to dedicate this week’s edition of Flashback Friday to 2Pac. Because seriously, who wants to watch a hologram perform iconic tunes? Not us. We prefer to see the real thing!
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“Brenda’s Got A Baby” (1991)
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Those who merely skim the surface of Tupac Shakur’s career might be apt to believe the man was nothing more than a violent gangster (listen to “Hit Em Up” and it’s easy to see where this misconception comes from). But as was evidenced from the outset of his career, particularly on “Brenda’s Got A Baby”, Shakur’s debut single, the rapper was a deep thinker and a socially-conscious rapper eager to confront the plights of the impoverished. This track, which sheds light on teenage pregnancy and the role poverty can play in both causing and destroying children’s futures, has long been viewed as one of Shakur’s most intimate and poetic works. In fact, rapper Bizzy Bone has said it was the first track he heard from Tupac and cites it as his favorite Tupac song of all time.
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Dear Mama (1995)
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Released as the first single from 2Pac’s third album, Me Against The World, “Dear Mama” is a loving ode to the rapper’s mother, Afeni. Not only did this song generate commercial success — it topped the Billboard rap charts — and draw the rapper legions of new fans in the process, it also achieved something that few MC had, had been able to do prior: express their inner feelings. And the beauty of Shakur, and “Dear Mama” in particular, is that no matter how much raw emotion the rapper was able to convey via his poignant lyrics, he never lost his edge.

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“Changes” (1998)
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There’s understandably some controversy that surrounds any posthumous release by Shakur. But “Changes”, which ironically would go on to become the rapper’s most commerically-successful track, which was released less than two years after his passing, summarized everything the rapper stood for. Sampling Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s “The Way It Is”, “Changes” was a sermon from on high about the social injustices and arduous plights that faced African-Americans in Shakur’s time. And while verse borrowed lines from his earlier classic, “Heaven’s Got A Ghetto” the song it was very much its own beast.

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“Thugz Mansion” (2002)
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Much like “Changes”, this 2002 release faced some objection from Shakur’s diehard fans upon its release; after all, they felt a track this mellow would never have been approved by Shakur. But we think otherwise. Shakur’s verse, particularly near the song’s closing, in which he describes his vision of heaven as a place where he would at last be reunited with his heroes, paints a picture of a man who saw beyond the limitations this Earth provided. The brilliance of an artist like Tupac Shakur is that he’s able to touch us from beyond the grave. And in that way, hologram or not, Shakur will always be present and a indestructible force in the hip-hop world.

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