Throwback Thursday: "Dear Mama" -- 2pac

Those close to me know that my mother has endured some major health issues over the last few weeks. It's been a stressful time, but I'm holding onto a cautiously-optimistic outlook. I want to dedicate this week's throwback to the woman who gave me everything I have in this world, and to remind her that I love her, and that she is appreciated.

2Pac & Biggie Freestyle

Just sit back and take it in. Better days...

Up in Smoke

This is... I mean...

From The Huffington Post:

In a new video for VladTV, members of the reunited group addressed the rumors that long persisted that the rapper, who was in 1996, had rolled up his ashes and smoked it.

"Yeah, it's definitely true. I think it was the night of, we had a little memorial for him, with his mom, his family and s*it," Young Noble said. "And we hit the beach, do a lot of s*it he liked on the beach. Some weed, some chicken wings, he loved orange soda and all that kind of s*it. Pac loved that kind of s*it, so we were giving him our own farewell that night. That night, I forget which one of us came up with that s*it."

"I came up with that s*it, if you listen to 'Black Jesus' he says last wishes, n*ggas smoke my ashes, so that was a request that he had. Now whether how serious he was about it, we took the s*it serious," E.D.I. added in.

"I forgot which one of us came up with it, like we need to go and do that, but we twisted up some of that great grandaddy California kush and mixed the big homie with it," Young Noble added.

As spiritual as Pac was, I can't help but wonder how this fits in with his feelings about last rites and a "proper" burial.

Throwback Thursday: "Uptown Anthem" -- Naughty by Nature

This is how long it's been since I'd seen this video: I had completely forgotten that Tupac appeared in it.

Naughty had a lot of underappreciated gems, and this is definitely one of them. [Some may argue that it got enough play to disqualify it from the realm of "underappreciated"; my response is that, although it got some play, it never got enough. This should probably be their career-defining track, like what "Elevators" was to OutKast.]

Throwback Thursday: "Holler If Ya Hear Me" -- 2Pac

Happy 40th, Pac. Here's to the fight still being alive in all of us.

A Thug Poet Turns 40

June 16, 1971. To the idle fan of hip-hop and rap, that date means very little. Especially to a generation of fans who were merely a twinkle in their parents' teenage eyes at that point in time. For those of us who loved Tupac Amaru Shakur as though he was a member of our very own family, though, it means much more.

That was the appeal of Pac. He wasn't just a musician or a personality, but a kindred soul of every man, woman, and child. His passion for life and social justice spilled out of every song he sang and every antagonized sound bite he gave with a greedy reporter’s microphone pressed to his face. And it was this passion that captivated us. His raw emotion flowed through every word that he put forth, whether over a drum beat or a hushed courtroom. He got angry like us. He spoke like us. He made mistakes like us. He felt downtrodden like us. He loved like us. He fought like us.

…He bled like us.

Today would have been Tupac’s 40th birthday, a milestone so many take for granted. It’s a day when a man stands roughly at the midway point of his timeline in the yet-to-be-written history book. A moment that often causes him to look at all the time he’s lost, while simultaneously ruing the thought that he has so much yet to accomplish.

If only Pac had been lucky enough to experience it.

R.I.P.

Man Confesses to Shooting Tupac in 1994

AllHipHop.com has obtained the written confession of Dexter Isaac, who claims to have been paid $2500 by James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond to rob and shoot Pac at the Quad City Studios in '94. It was this shooting, which took place while Biggie and Diddy (nee Puff Daddy) were upstairs, that forever fractured the friendship between Pac and Big, and eventually led to East Coast/West Coast beef that dominated the hip-hop landscape until Biggie's death in 1997.

Isaac came forward Wednesday (June 15th) with the information on the eve of what would be Tupac's 40th birthday.

He confessed to his involvement in the November 30th, 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur to AllHipHop.com, after Jimmy Henchman identified him in a statement, relating to Henchman's indictment for dealing numerous kilos of cocaine.

"I want to apologize to his family [Tupac Shakur] and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman]," Dexter Isaac told AllHipHop.com from prison. "I am trying to clean it up to give [Tupac and Biggie's] mothers some closure."

AllHipHop.com also posted a scanned copy of the confession letter, seen below. However, there is an interesting piece of this letter that doesn't seem to have been given much notice in the coverage of this news so far: Isaac indicates that Diddy may have had a hand in the incident as well.

Jimmy, you and Puffy like to come off all innocent-like, but as the saying goes: You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Mr. Rosemond, I ask you: Are you going to flip on Puffy when the feds get you? To save yourself like you have done in the past? Because that's what a rat does. So in closing, we shall see who the rat is, in the near future.

Dexter Isaac's letter (click to enlarge)

If Isaac is telling the truth—and it's certainly hard to imagine why he wouldn't be at this point—then this news could only grow bigger in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Throwback Thursday: "Smile" -- Scarface ft. Tupac

Classic words of wisdom from two of the brightest the game has ever known (R.I.P., Pac.)