As far as the hip-hop circle is concerned, the insecurity stems from the fact that hip-hop music was born in New York, which cannot be denied; and the complacency makes the whole world hate and envy New Yorkers, who never forget to remind the world that they invented hip-hop. The East-West Coast confrontation is too narrow a metaphor for this sentiment. From the beginning to the end, it is a confrontation between the looser American urban entities and New York. It is also a confrontation of aesthetic tastes - rough and tough rural blacks versus the self-centered and double-standard New Yorkers. ICE doesn't just speak for South Central California; he vividly describes how New York's hubris has a bigger appeal than rap music.
In African American history, this kind of tense confrontation permeated the entire twentieth century. Langston Hughes captured this contrast between the countryside and the city. In his series of novels with Jesse B. Semple (Note 3) as the protagonist, he describes a southerner who comes to Harlem, New York, observes everything with an innocent eye, and discovers This big city is both smart and stupid. In the 1950s, the Ad Libs' do-wop cliche "The Boy form New York City" epitomized the cool style that New York City could cite as its emblem. New York and the blues, jazz musicians are imprinted in the DNA of New York City, but blues music has never been embraced. The blues were too simple, the content was too country, the surface was too rough, in short, it was too earthy.
The same binary opposition also appeared in the 1970s, when New York was the center of the DISCO world, and the black-owned WBLS radio station strongly supported musicians such as Donna Summer and the Bee Gees. However, large-scale funk bands with a rough grassroots atmosphere, such as Bar-Kays, Maze (with Frankie Beverly as the lead singer), Cameo, Meters, and Con Funk Shun, although they have a large number of supporters in the interior of the United States, have difficulty breaking into New York. P-Funk (Parliament-Funkadelic) and Bpptsy Collins later became too popular for New York radio stations to continue to ignore, but New York's embrace of the genre was still not comparable to the frenzy set off in Washington, Detroit, and Los Angeles. New York just couldn't embrace unpolished funk like the rest of America. All these factors, coupled with New York's sense of superiority in all aspects, formed a taste and attitude that influenced hip-hop music very early on.
In the context of hip-hop music, New Yorkers’ disdain for “non-New York rap gangs” stems from Manhattanites’ disdain for New Jersey’s Sugar Hill Gang. Boogie Down Productions in the Browns and MC Hang in Queens launched a debate over the birthplace of hip-hop music over the two songs "The Bridge" and "The Bridge is Over" (Note 4). New York looks down on Philly, and Philadelphia and New York come together to look down on "non-Northeastern" rap music. This "Northeast attitude"—that music outside the Eastern Corridor was inferior—was also a common perception among first-generation hip-hop fans.
The first non-New Moon MCs to achieve national fame came from Philadelphia, with the raging "Kid D", the mild-mannered Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, and the rough-and-tumble Roxanne Shante making their way through some late-night radio shows. Promotion (especially by WHAT radio host Lady B, who is as much a figure in Philadelphia as Mr. Magie in New York) has transcended the borders of Philadelphia and gained national embrace.
In 1984, Fresh Fest and Run-D.M.C headlined national tours, pushing the boundaries of hip-hop music to the west. These large-scale concerts turned artists into hip-hop evangelists, attracting listeners across the country to rebel. Teach conversion. Whether in Washington, D.C., where go-go music is popular, Oakland, where culture is rich and diverse, or Los Angeles, where DISCO mobile dance parties are popular, these rap emperors from Queens have attracted many young people to come and watch. Not only did this audience become rap fans, they believed they could become hip-hop artists themselves.
In 1988, I wrote an article for Village Voice magazine called "South to North: The Return of American Rap." I proposed in the article that "rap music has become a national music. It has also gradually become regionalized.
It sounds contradictory, but it makes sense. Rap music spread from New York, attracting loyal listeners across the country, and now 'rap' is coming back across the United States." Let me list some statistics. For example, Houston's Rap-A-Lot Records made the Geto Boys popular; Miami's Luke Skyyawlker (later Renamed Luke Records) 2 Live Crew, the birthplace of records. In fact, in Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Miami, Los Angeles and other places, some records are selling better than those in New York City, which shows that regional tastes are gradually forming, and various places are gradually constructing The support system for rap music, such as Houston's large rap dance halls Rhinestine's and Spud's; Cleveland's radio host Lynn Tolliver is also very avant-garde and very ambitious in programming, connecting rap music with traditional rhythm and blues Mixed.
One of the most unique aspects is the ability (or lack thereof) of regional rappers to embody regional characteristics. In terms of the latter, the Boston Goes Def collection contains fifteen rappers' works, only two of which mention Beantown (Note 5), and none of which specifically mention Boston, and the overall production style is very much like that of New York. Rap music, nothing particularly Bostonian.
For example, the most famous rapper in the Los Angeles area is ICE-T (real name Tracy Morrow), who was born in Newark, New Jersey. Pays was released under Sire Records. It combines old-school rhymes with prison chants. The lyrics are reminiscent of the novelist "Skinny Ice Cube" who specializes in describing the behavior of con men. Paired with the unique story of the dark world of Los Angeles, Rhyme Pays also With gorgeous lyrics and racial undertones, it sold 300,000 copies in one day. For a debut album, this is a good result, but it is still far behind New York rappers who often sell millions of copies. . As far as I'm concerned, the reason why this piece of work failed to reach the masses of today's so-called "Los Angeles idiots" is because it is too New York-style. Rhyme Pays and ICE-T's friend - "Zulu Nation" member Afrika Islam - produced, and the recording location was in New York. Therefore, although ICE-T claims to be the first "Los Angeles" hip-hop artist released by a major record company, the credibility of regional characteristics has been compromised. His work failed to stir up the latent anti-New York sentiment among hip-hop fans across the country.
Miami's 2 Live Crew made history with the release of 2 Live Is What We Are in 1998, becoming the first non-New York rap group to sell more than half a million copies of their album. It was successful because it didn't sound like New York rap at all, and it was quite challenging and "local". Regarding this record, I once published the following observation in "Village Voice" magazine, and my argument still stands today.
To my ears, this work is crude in every aspect; the lyrics are witless (like "Throw the D"), the rhymes are sloppy, and the recording quality is terrible, but it's extremely fast. Fast (obviously derived from Miami people's undying love for DISCO music), naked and brutal lyrics, plus a hometown flavor, making it the hottest record in the South this spring. Perhaps that's the point, that Southern (or Midwestern, or West Coast) rap shouldn't be too self-conscious about its roots in New York City. Just like hip-hop music despises DISCO music and funk music, if hip-hop music in non-New Moon areas wants to have some meaning, it should have its own voice and its own thunder boy wisdom.
West Coast! West Coast!
Although New York is the birthplace of hip-hop, part of the culture's roots clearly come from Los Angeles. In the late 1960s, a Los Angeles trio named Watts Prophets attracted many local fans with their poetic "call-and-response" style. To many Love Poets, their now-hard-to-find Rappin’ Black in a While album, released in 1971, is a classic, worthy of comparison with better-known East Coast rivals such as the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron.
Unfortunately, the trio's only mainstream exposure came when they sang a love song on Quincy Jones' 1975 album Mellow Madness.
Break dance is really sophisticated and sophisticated, but it is deeply influenced by the two dance styles of locking and popping. Both dances developed in Los Angeles and gained national attention on Soul Train in the 1970s. Locking and popping is an upright dance in which the dancer uses his arms, legs and torso to make various robot-like separate movements. This requires extremely high body control. During the breakdancing craze in the early 1980s, these two dances could be seen in many low-budget films shot in California. At that time, the Ridao Ballroom in downtown Los Angeles danced with black breakboys. Locking and popping were popular dances at the time. The DJs in the dance club came from the east and west coasts, including New York's Afrika Islan, Grandmixer DST, famous for his song "Rockit", and Los Angeles' Evil E (who later became ICE-T's DJ), who later published a single on Motown Records. District’s Chris “the Grove” Taylor.
Compared with Roxy, Uncle Jam's Army is more grassroots. It is a joint organization of DJs and dance organizers. It often holds dance parties in large venues, such as Los Angeles, which can accommodate 16,000 people. sports hall. But whether it’s Uncle Jam’s Army or Radio’s dance hall, New York artists are the mainstay. Even when local MCs perform, their lyrics are based on East Coast performance music. The first true Los Angeles hip-hop sound was "electro pop" influenced by the early work of Afrobombata. Dr.dre's work with his first band, World Class Wreckin' Cru, sounded like The "Planet Rock" of "Bombata Africa", such as the "Surgery" single, is based on electronic pop music, with the sound of scratching records. Even the clothes of Dr.dre, DJ Yella (real name Antonie Carraby) and the members of the group are also similar. Like a replica of the "African Bombata" - leather jacket, ankle-length coat, face makeup, but this look is also reminiscent of West Coast bands such as Earth, Wind & Fire and later Eazy-E and Dr.dre. In the 1980s, the hip-hop scene in Los Angeles was actually a little better than that in New York, and KSAY, an AM radio station, was eager to broadcast in crowded places. Often establishing its own characteristics, under the helm of the program's chief arranger Greg Mark, it adopts the hip-hop model. Of course, the hip-hop music in New York and New York accounts for the majority, but the mixes in Miami, Philadelphia, Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles include Dr.dre and him. His partner DJ Yella. Listening to KDAY's programs and absorbing hip-hop music from all over the United States influenced Dr.dre's production style. In his early years, he collaborated with World Class Wreckin' Cru on electronic pop music (they released a best-selling single in 1984). "Turn Out the Light"), turned into a dark, complex, funk-based tone.
At this time, Dr.dre and DJ Yella began to work with the smart, short, and very short Eazy-E. Eazy-E's mother had a house in Compton. He built a small recording studio in the garage and established his own music label Ruthless. There was a child named Lorenzo Patterson (later known as MC) near this base. Ren has a talent for escorting, and his brother is familiar with Eazy-E, who aspires to be a record tycoon. Eazy-E agreed to let him record records. Another kid is good at changing rap songs into obscene lyrics. I wanted to join the local band CIA, and I got to know Dr. Dre quite well, so I started writing lyrics for his works.
This child's real name was O'Shea Jackson, and later his stage name was Ice cube. In addition to this core group, familiar faces in and out of Eazy-e's base also include D.O.C (real name Tracy Curry), a lyricist from Germany with a deep and rough voice; MC Ren works as DJ for MC Tarin (he raised funds to publish the Supersonic album for J.J Fad, and later DJed for Ice Cube's Wicked album). There was also Sir Jin, who later became Ice cube’s DJ and production partner. and rapper and producer Arabian Prince, who later broke away from the group to release his own solo album.
They all gathered in Eazy-E's garage. Eazy-E is an extremely charming person with a taste for sarcastic and twisted humor who is willing to invest his drug money in the new trend of rap. He believed that New York rap was popular on the West Coast, so he brought a band called HBO from New York City and planned to record a record for them in Compton. Unexpectedly, HBO was a bit worried about the West Coast-style songs and rhymes. In the end, it was Dr.dre who persuaded Eazy-E to perform on his own.
Therefore, the 1988 venture of Ruthless Records lived up to its name, named "Boyz N the Hood" (Boyz Next Door), with Eazy-E as the lead singer. Then two more songs "Dopeman" and "8 Ball" were released, written by Ice cube and sung by Eazy-E. In that year, Eazy-E and Jerry Heller got together. Heller is a veteran in the recording industry and is considered a member of the "Eternal Career" group. He is related to many heavyweight artists of the 1970s, such as Pink Floyd, Elton John, and Journey. But the Los Angeles rap group he runs seems to be down on their luck. In 1988, Heller was about to change its fortunes.
The Beatles in Gang Nation
When we formed the NWA, we thought New York would be the top of the high-level rap scene with so many great groups. My thought at the time was—and I’m not going to lie, no matter what the other members said—we also wanted to go to Los Angeles. Compton's name is on the rap map. KRS-One sings "South Bronx," "Enemy of the People" sings about their hometown of Long Island, Run-D.M.C. describes Queens, and ICE-T sings about Los Angeles. We were like, "Holy shit, we're from Compton." --- MC Ren, Source Magazine, 1994
1988 Jorge Hinojosa walks me through the Sire Records offices. He is an eloquent concert organizer and the first manager of ICE-T. I once did an interview with ICE-T that was published in Billboard magazine, but what he is talking about now is a new group, which I guess is his new customer. He put "Straigh Outta Compton" on the turntable and played it twice. Once so I could get used to his speed, and once so I could actually listen.
But I listened to it more than twice before I really understood what NWA was singing. At first, I didn't think these idiots could actually "rap". Maybe the kid with the stage name Ice Cube rhymes a little smoothly, and MC Ren is also okay, but his high-pitched singing voice seems to be the epitome of something weird, not smooth nor rhythmic, just harsh and annoying. The song itself is okay, a bit dramatic. But it sounds like a watered-down "enemy of the people." And, what on earth is Compton?
My ears belong to the old school New York hip-hop, I think "Enemy of the People" is God, and I couldn't really appreciate NWA at the time. It's too profane, too radical, and if that's what "Compton" is about, then NWA is a little too Compton (who knows which continent Compton is on). But it didn't take long for me and fans all over the United States (and even the world) to realize that these curly-haired idiots really deserve respect. If Eazy-E's early singles were the garage label's entrepreneurial triumph, then "Straight Outta Compton" is a full-fledged sonic revolution.
They stripped off the "positive" lyrics of East Coast rap songs and replaced them with stories of underworld robbery written by ICE-T, outlining the evil power of crack drugs sweeping through dark Los Angeles. NWA's works made The New World fell into convulsion and continued to reject it for five years. After years of moral condemnation, Hollywood gangster movies, and many poor imitations, it's hard to remember how fresh NWA's work was back then. It has a strong stance and a lively rhyme (written by two of the best lyricists, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre), and Dr.dre's production skills are improving each time.
Buyers across the United States - Join Run-D.M.C's large-scale concerts, racially mixed audiences; urban children whose communities were increasingly invaded by crack; suburban teenagers who regarded rap as a rock and roll rebellion - all embraced NWA. His success opened up the dark imagination of young black singers. Freeing them to freely choose rough language to outline things that the previous generation of African Americans did not dare to express publicly.
From the fall of 1988, when NWA released their debut album Straight Outta Compton to the end of 1990, major records were released. Companies have launched "realistic" rap groups in the West Coast, including Above the Law, Boo Yaa Tribe, Too Short, Mob Style, Compton's Most Wanted, King Tee, etc. As independent record companies in the Southwest and Midwest of the United States become more and more powerful, Their hostility to New York (and New York's attitude toward them as well) grew as they discovered that New York's artists, radio stations, and live concert audiences seemed to look down on them.
New York's unease was on full display. Tim Dog's 1991 single "Fuck Compton." Tim Dog is a member of the Brown District underground rap group Ultramagnttic MCs. He thinks he has released the most powerful "complaint" song in history, but in fact it reveals the impact of the birthplace of hip-hop on other places. Entrants are full of jealousy and fear.
NWA teamed up with Miami's Luther Campbell, Houston's Geto Boys, and Oakland's Too Short to rewrite the definition of "good" rap records. New York is no longer the arbiter. is the only standard. Now, the rap songs flowing out of jeeps and portable speakers no longer only have the rough nasal voice of New York singers, but also have the southern twang of Texas, Louisiana, and other places. The cheerleading of the Long Beach and the rare syncopation of Cleveland and Seattle. These black city musicians sing their own stories of the streets and cities in the peak era of soul music, regional business and place. Musicians have always enriched the musical tradition with their "authentic" taste. Now, rap music has also begun to taste the "side effects" of nationalization.
Now, whether it is Compton star DJ Quick or Too. Short, or the "sex expert" rapper from Oakland, don't need to sell in New York or hold concerts in New York to still create platinum records. Artists such as Poor Righteous, who are regarded by New Yorkers as the saviors of rap. Teachers, Brand Nubian was unable to cross the Mason-Dixon line, making the New York rap scene even more narrow-minded and defensive. As Monica Lyuch, the president of Tommy Boy Records, commented in Break Beat (now defunct) magazine in 1991, the title read "Has New York sunk?"
But New York rap has not. Not entirely weak. Native Tongues records are full of bohemian and colorful break boys such as De La Soul, A Tribe Call Quest, Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah, who combine ghetto style with Greenwich Village style to create rap. Music takes on a new look. They are like Tracy Chapman in the pop world and Living Colors in the rock world, showing that young black people with high education levels have very diverse tastes.
In addition, De La Soul's gags and the jazz coolness of A Tribe Called Quest all injected new ideas into rap music at the time, which was full of gun imagery.
In 1988, NWA began to split. First, Ice Cube asked to leave, and then Dr.dre quit the following year. Division pervades their resentful lyrics. NWA criticized Ice Cube on their 100 Miles and Runnin’ mini-album, and the latter responded with “No Vaseline” on their Death Certificate album. Eazy-E scolded Dr.dre with a single of the same name on the album It’s On (De.dre) 187 umKilla, and the latter responded with an entire album, The Chronic. The NWA split is the most interesting series in the rap world, and these mutual insults would like to be serialized.
From a commercial perspective, the biggest impact NWA has brought to the rap industry is not that it is divided and its talents are scattered, but that its influence has spread even more. The NWA was not the pinnacle of Compton's achievements, just the beginning. From Ice Cube’s 1990 classic album AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted to Dr.dre’s 1996 release of The Aftermath, these former NWA members have achieved unprecedented sales success in the history of hip-hop, and no disbanded black band in history can match it. Dr.dre's The Chronic album sold 3 million copies; Eazy-E's three albums 5150 Home 4 Tha Sick, Its On (Dr.dre) 187 unKilla, Eazy-Duz-It*** sold 5 million copies Ice cube's six albums AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Kill at Will, Death Certificate, The Predator, Bootleg & B-Sides, Lethal Weapon*** sold six million copies; MC Ren's Kizz My Black Azz album sold A million copies were issued. If you include artists who have made records with NWA but are not members of NWA, the results are even more amazing. For example, D.O.C.'s 1989 album No One Do It Better sold half a million copies. In addition, the Guerillas in the Mist album by Da Lench Mob, a former disciple of Ice Cube, became a gold record; Doggystyle by Dr.dre's lyricist partner Snoopy Doggy Dog sold four million copies; Bone Thugs-n-Harmony discovered by Eazy-E Creepin' on ah Come Up, produced by his mentor, also sold three million copies. Beneath the illusion of division and confusion, this is an astonishing achievement.
Riley created "upstart rock", while Dr. Dre dominated black street rap. Even if he didn't produce the record, his computer sampling direction, emphasis on the funk music, and the background sound of high-pitched keyboard instruments are all prevalent in West Coast hip-hop. Although he has also made some "non-black street raps" (for example, Michel'le's 1989 self-titled album is full of soul music), styles such as Straight Outta Compton, his own album Chronic and Snoopy doggy's Doggystyle are the most popular. His registered trademark. The latter two works are recorded cleanly and neatly, using bass and keyboard instruments played live by real people, coupled with Dr.dre's excellent arrangement touch, telling the story of black brothers fighting each other on the street
Dr .dre's excellent sense of music and the dark and ugly charm supported by his music are the real statement of rap, full of genius, pain and contradictory values. He is also a music tape director, showing off his keen talent.
With party girls in bikinis, hometown big shots driving Cadillacs, and a happy atmosphere that masks violent lyrics, it seems that the Beach Boys (Note 6) song is about California, not the "marijuana gang." (Crips) (Note 7) California is domineering. Many blondes and college boys danced to Dr. Dre's music without understanding the meaning of the lyrics.
Equally full of contradictory charm is Ice cube’s free-roaming career path. His best album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, was recorded in New York, but a few years later, he railed against New York in an interview with Source magazine. He shaved off his permed curly hair and pledged allegiance to the "Islamic State's" beliefs of self-help and self-respect, but he made a fortune by promoting St. Ides malt liquor in the slums. He is developing smoothly in Hollywood, but in his heart he longs for a tough rap image. In short, "consistency" is not Ice cube's style.
But Ice Cube’s analytical skills, narrative skills as delicate as a novelist’s, and his extremely smooth rhyming ability have made him one of the most interesting rappers in history. His creative abilities are diverse and unqualified. Ice cube is an action man. For example, he doesn't like acting in movies, but he does film directing, script writing and film production. 1995's "Friday" was the first time his script was made into a movie, and it was full of fun but hardcore style. It solidified the self-discipline style of his subsequent film works. He then directed the film "Players Club", which was set in a strip club. As for discovering new talents, Ice Cube's vision is not as sharp as Dr.dre or Eazy-E {although he is quite cool when he praises female rapper Yo-Yo}, but he invited music tape director F. Gary Gary to direct "Friday" , but made this young black director famous.
Among the three big names in NWA, Eazy-E is the most loyal to his original intention. He said he got into hip-hop to satisfy his ego, make money and pick up girls. And he did. Greed saw him go downhill. If he hadn't distanced himself from Ice Cube and Dr.dre, and fought against the former two together with his manager Heller, his company Ruthless might have become popular all the way. But does he still need to prove his vision to the world? With celebrities such as Dr.dre, Ice Cube, D.O.C, MC Ren, and Bone Thygs-n-Harmony, he has proven that he is the most discerning person in the hip-hop circle. Perhaps because he is well versed in the laws of the underworld, he knows that soon his partners will exploit him, so why share everything?
Eazy-E's kingdom collapsed at the hands of a hateful character who was more like a gangster than him. According to legend, Denth Row Records owner Knight and seven burly men armed with baseballs threatened Eazy-E with an offer he couldn't refuse. After the meeting, Eazy-e voluntarily gave up his contract with Dr.dre. After this horror story was exposed, it is still difficult for people to sympathize with Eazy-E or Heller. After all, their company is called Ruthless, and he also offended a lot of brothers in the record, making people mistakenly think that he is covering up. Live in all cruel situations. In the end, a more ruthless character disintegrated his kingdom through threats. On March 26, 1995, Eazy-E died of AIDS, but the world's love for his memory is far less than that of 2PAC. To many, Eazy-E is a cautionary tale, not a martyr.
Step down and take a bow
In 1992, Knight, lawyer (and drug dealer) David Kenner and Interscope Records’ wealthy owner Ted Fields Fields, struck a deal to align Death Row Records with Interscope. This was another big move that forever changed the landscape of hip-hop music, following Def Jam's alliance with Columbia Records in 1986. The Def Jam Records deal has linked up the ambitious hip-hop music promoter Simmons and top producer Rubin's consortium.
Similarly, the marriage of Death Row and Interscope also brought together the tough Knight, the outstanding creator Dr.dre, and the wealthy record company, creating a Los Angeles black scene that celebrated the spirit of nihilism created by Eazy-E and NWA. Street music becomes pure pop music.
Knight and Felderz invested heavily in high-budget music videos and large-scale marketing and advertising campaigns. Regardless of whether Interscope's distribution company was a large conglomerate/Warner Company at the time, or later switched to MCA-Universal, their strategy was consistent - the arrogance of gang members, glamorous stars, and "against the world" in line with the ethical code of hip-hop. manner. The difference is that Eazy-E made enough money and snickered in his arms; the proud Knight was content to build a kingdom through violence.
One of the advantages of American capitalism is its "forgetfulness". A family can rise from criminal activities to the White House in just one generation (Joe Gancidy is a bootlegger and John Gancidy is president). Another advantage of American capitalism is that large companies invest through subsidiaries or partnerships. , you can distance yourself from a business that the public "dislikes", which is also a favorite denial tactic of presidents. Therefore, Death Row can engage in black street rap as they please, and Interscope can escape severe criticism from the outside world. Feldez is a major donor to the Democratic Party and also funded the establishment of Death Row Records. When President Clinton criticized Sister Souljah for stirring up racism in 1992 (Note 8), his sponsor had close ties with the largest black street record company in the hip-hop circle, and the latter's products were sold for peso The sister said that any hot words can have a more evil influence on young people.
East Bank versus West Bank Confrontation
Imagine a scene. In the boxing ring, Death Row Records, Knight, and 2PAC represented the West Coast wearing red sports shorts; Bad Boy Records, "Diddy" and "The Notorious" represented the East Coast and wore Verses brand shorts. According to the picture outlined by the editors of Vibe and Source magazines, the outcome of this great East-West confrontation in the mid-1990s was as absurd as the Tyson/Holyfield boxing championship match. According to my judgment, the championship belt should belong to "Puff Daddy" Combs. He not only survived, but also grew to an incredible scale, but this East-West Coast showdown was indeed bloody. Looking back now, the dispute was not a real feud at all, but a fiction created by the paranoid mentality of the Death Row camp. But for a while, it brought as much destructive power to the hip-hop scene as crack did to black society.
On November 30, 1994, 2PAC was shot in the lobby of Quad Recording Studio in Times Square. This news made it to all media. This is the critical time of the "so-called" East-West Coast confrontation, or at least it can be said to be the most symbolic. At that time, 2PAC was on trial for allegedly raping a female fan in 1993. Since his rise from Digital Underground in 1991 and becoming a superstar under Interscope, he has faced numerous criminal lawsuits in the past few years. When he was shot, he was heading to the recording studio to sing a guest vocal for Uptown singer Littke Shawn, who could have easily earned $7,000. That day, those gathered in the three recording studios above the Quad were Heller, "The Notorious" and "Diddy". Waiting at the elevator downstairs were two big men with guns. One shot 2PAC five times. gun, stole $40,000 worth of jewelry, and left 2PAC in a pool of blood to die.
But 2PAC is not dead. The next day he was wheeled into a Manhattan courthouse in a wheelchair to hear the verdict. He was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to one and a half to four and a half years. Because many people thought the rape report was suspicious, and because he was shot at close range and survived, 2PAC quickly climbed from a charismatic singer to idol status.
In between being sentenced and serving time in prison, 2PAC somehow believed that Diddy, Notorious, and other New York rap figures such as Heller, Little Shwan, and M.A.F.I.A.’s Little Caescar ) and *** set up a trap to find someone to shoot him. This baseless fantasy would have been suitable for the tabloids, but Knight and Kanner visited prisons and raised $1.4 million to secure his bail and file an appeal.
They then arranged for 2PAC to move from Interscope to subsidiary Death Row. Just like the Dr.dre incident happened again, Knight also extended a helping hand to 2PAC at a critical moment, winning the other party's allegiance and portraying himself as the one who saved the "misguided black celebrities".
Just like the "Unknown Man" (Note 9) character played by Clint Eastwood, Knight also positions himself as a "security team member", determined to suppress the bad guys who threaten the security of the town. The problem is that after this "nameless man" removes your threat, you find out what he wants. With 2PAC eager to retaliate through song, Knight fanning the flames, and their overheated West Coast jingoistic mentality, the results were staggering.
2PAC was already a star before joining Death Row. His previous album, Me Against the World, started with two woman-friendly singles "Dear Mama" and "Keep Ypur Head Up", and sold two million copies in one album. Being associated with Death Row has made his image and lyrics tougher, reducing his complexity and making it easier to be classified as a gangster rapper, or as he likes to be called - a villain. After he was released from prison, he released the first CD in hip-hop history, All Eyez on Me, which sold four million copies.
2PAC becomes the main label of Death Row Records