Tupac's Technical Skills As A Rapper

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[Knicksman20]

This was how I learned alliteration.

'Pac's lyricism was much more from a poet's point of view rather than a battle rapper or corner freestyler.

Haven't seen your posts in a minute bro. What's good with you fam? You still at the bookstore?

 

[ManBearPig]

He no nas

 

[Cadillac]

Allow me to introduce first {*gunshot fires*} Makaveli the Don
Hysterical, spiritual lyrics like the holy Qu'Ran
nikkaz get shook like 5-0
My forty-five gun's next to me when we ride, for survival
Money makin plans, pistol close at hand, swollen pockets
Let me introduce the topic, then we drop it
Expose snakes cause they breath freely, see me ride?
Located world wide like the art of graffiti
I think I'm tougher than Nitti, my attitude is shytty
Born on a dopefiend's titty.. huh
In every city you'll find me
Look for trouble right behind me
My Outlaw nikkaz down to die for me, knahmean?
I hit the scene nikkaz duckin from my guillotine stare
I'm right there; my every word, a fukkin nightmare
Get me high, let me see the sun rise and fall
This for my dogs down to die for yours
Extreme venom, no mercy when we all up in 'em
Cut 'em down.. to Hell is where we send 'em
My whole team, trained to explode ride or die
Murder motherfukkers lyrically, and I'm not gon' cry
Me - a born leader never leave the block without my heater
Two big pits, I call them my bytch nikka eaters
And not a whimper 'til I'm gone
Thug Life runnin through my veins so I'm strong
(Ha ha ha)

Bye bye bye, let's get high and ride
Oh, how do we do these nikkaz but I'm not gon' cry
I'm a Bad Boy killa, Jay-Z die too
Lookin out for Mobb Deep, nikka when I find you
Weak motherfukkers don't deserve to breathe
How many nikkaz down to die for me? Yeahh-yeayy!
West coast ridah, comin right behind ya
Should've never fukked wit meeee
I want money hoes sex and weeeed
I wont rest till my road dawgs freeee, bomb first!

 

[Cryptocurrency Scarface]

Tupac's flow is slept on

 

[TheDarceKnight]

My thing on Pac has always been this, and I don't think it's some groundbreaking idea that no one has heard before.

He was powerful lyricist that was a true poet and made great music. Also overrated as a rapper. His forte was making strong and timeless music that resonated with people. Rhyming and emceeing isn't really where his strong point was IMO.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

My thing on Pac has always been this, and I don't think it's some groundbreaking idea that no one has heard before.

He was powerful lyricist that was a true poet and made great music. Also overrated as a rapper. His forte was making strong and timeless music that resonated with people. Rhyming and emceeing isn't really where his strong point was IMO.

hater

 

[Spitta Andretti]

Pac didn't need to be technical to be considered one of the top 5 rappers to ever live (#1 for me)

His poetic story telling, emotional flows and just overall charisma on the mic was enough. Pac's persona was too legendary

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

Pac was a genius/clairvoyant......In a lot of ways, "technicalities" was beneath him.The genealogy/pedigree/ soul being conveyed through his music trumped all that technical shyt.


Could he have mastered it? I have no doubts....The nicca was capable of anything

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

'Hold ya Head' is full of technical skill and gems.... That 2nd and especially 3rd verse though


Verse 1:
I wake up early in the mornin', mind state so military
Suckers fantasizin' pictures of a young brother buried
Was it me, the weed or this life I lead?
If daytime is for suckers then tonight we breathe

Out for all that, knowin' that this world bring drawbacks
Look how they shiver once I deliver these raw raps

Meet me at the cemetery, dressed in black
Tonight we honor the dead, those who won't be back
So if I die, do the same for me, shed no tears
An Outlaw, thug livin' in this game for years
Why worry? Hope to God, get me high when I'm buried
Knowin' deep inside only a few love me
Don't rush me to the gates of heaven
Let me picture for a while, how I lived for my days as a child
I wonder now, how do we outlast?
Always get cash, stay strong if we all mash; hold ya head!




Verse 2:
These felonies be like prophecies, beggin' me to stop,
cause these lawyers gettin money every time they knock us
Snatchin' pockets lyrically, suckers flea when they notice
Switched my name to Makaveli, half the rap game ghost
Exposed foes with my hocus-pocus flows, they froze
Now suckers idolize my chosen blows

And mo' money mean litigatin', mo' playa hatin'
Got a cell at the Pen' for me waitin'; is this my fate?
Miss me with that misdemeanor thinkin', me fall back?
Never that, too much tequila drinkin, we all that

Make them understand me? Hell nah, this ain't my posse
Everyone with me is family, ‘cause everybody's got me
Watch me paint a perfect vision, this life we livin'
Got us all meetin' up in prison
Last week I got a letter from my road dog, written in blood
Sayin', "Please show a playa love", hold ya head! (Hold it!)



Verse 3:
God bless the child that can hold his own
Indeed, enemies bleed when I hold my chrome

Let these words be the last to my unborn seeds
Hope to raise my young nation in this world of greed
Currency means nothin' if you still ain't free
Money breeds jealousy, take the game from me
I hope for better days, trouble comes naturally
Runnin' from authorities 'til they capture me

And my aim is to spread mo' smiles than tears
Utilize lessons learned from my childhood years

Maybe Mama had it all right, rest yo' head
Tradin' conversations all night, bless the dead

To the homies that I used to have that no longer roll
Catch a brother at the crossroads
Plus nobody knows my soul, watchin' time pass
Through the glass of my drop-top Rolls; hold ya head!

This song is something else, man


I always saw it as his farewell letter

 

[productofrakim]

This is a pretty long response but most of it is quotes, verses, pictures, and etc...

The majority of the time pac is very simple like in dear mama:

When I was young, me and my mama had beef
17 years old, kicked out on the streets
Though back at the time I never thought I’d see her face
Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mama’s place
Suspended from school and scared to go home, I was a fool
With the big boys breaking all the rules
I shed tears with my baby sister, over the years
We was poorer than the other little kids
And even though we had different daddies, the same drama
When things went wrong we’d blame mama
I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell
Huggin' on my mama from a jail cell
And who’d think in elementary, hey
I’d see the penitentiary one day?
And running from the police, that’s right
Mama catch me, put a whoopin' to my backside
And even as a crack fiend, mama
You always was a black queen, mama
I finally understand
For a woman it ain’t easy trying to raise a man*
You always was committed
A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it
There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan
Is to show you that I understand
You are appreciated

Extremely simple verse, and maybe alive and time rhyme in the 3rd and 4th line but it could be a stretch. Obviously pac has examples where he tries to rhyme alot with internals and etc… However, they are exceptions to his usual simple rhyming, and not on the level of other top tier emcees/lyricist.

This is a pretty objective thing that can be easily seen when looking at his work as a whole and by pacs own admission sometimes:

“How does he stack up against the other heavy-hitters (Jay, Nas and Big) statistically?

First and foremost, he doesn’t rhyme as well. This is a simple fact. Not that Big/Jay/Nas are extremely similar rhyming-wise with Tupac a few steps below:

Tupac, at a rhyme density score of 0.235 is a notch below BIG, Jay and Nas who scored at 0.29, 0.30 and 0.30 respectively. It’s apparent that:

1) The score of 0.30 (which is pretty close to the overall average of 0.28 in our database) is a pretty good baseline necessary where we can argue that technical proficiency is met. Anything over or under by a significant amount should be carefully looked at contextually. We can start saying Good or Bad based on the 0.28-0.30 score.

2) Tupac just isn’t that good, technically speaking. He’s a notch below the Big 3 objectively speaking.

He had great energy on his tracks but to me his linear raps and weak rhyming make it too hard for me to ever really get into his work. Don’t shoot the messenger! Just link my work and help me build traffic."

Tupac: A Notch Below Technically


So his rhyming density as a whole in 5-6 albums plus albums after his death are below BIG’s rhyme density in 2 albums (the least technical GOAT contender IMO) and below the average rap rhyme density…

Overall he cant comapre to the skills of rakim, kool g rap, blakc thought, canibus, nas, pharoahe monch, eminem, mf doom, AZ, and a plethora of top tier emcees.

For his skills concernign flow there is nothing special. His flow for a good part of his short lived career was pretty simple, repetative, and lacked versatility (not all the time tho). I would suggest checking out martin connor (someone I respect alot for his work) who is a tupac stan, and analyed tupacs flow and rhyme schmese on “Changes” (one of pacs more "techncial" songs). He openely says that he loves tupac and that changes is possibly one of the greatest songs OAT. However when it came to flow even admitted that tupac’s flow is not notable or super great by any measure:

“There doesn’t seem to be any plan to the pace of his rhymes. There is no acceleration or deceleration of phrases (shorter or longer sentences, or more or less of them), any discernable switch between a high number of rhymes and a low number of rhymes. There isn’t even any variation on the couplet structure, which would be somewhat laborious without 2pac’s delivery and strong message.”

“When you combine that uniformity of sentence structure with the predictable rhythme structure of being extremely couplet-heavy, you better understand what I’m trying to describe here – his unfinished, unpolished style.”

“Furthermore, he moves between different modes of rhyming without any sort of transition, and there doesn’t seem to be any overarching, guiding principle to how he’ll move from one rhyme to the next. That is, the pacing of his rhymes – how many he drops, and how intense they are in terms of length and placement – is all over the place, and either not very complex or too complex. For example, he starts off with a couplet and a single-syllable end rhyme”

So tupacs flow was mediocre at times and average at best. Nothing special. This is only tupacs flow. Connor thinks that it is compensated with his delivery and message which to me are his only good strong points. Connor even says:

“But as I said before, I don’t think this reflects negatively on 2pac. This is because that style fits his aggressive message and delivery very well”

Rapper's Flow Encyclopedia - 2pac | The Composer's Corner

Tupac's flow is nowhere near the flow skills of pharoahe monch, AZ, Biggie, Eminem, and etc...

 

[productofrakim]

u trolling biggie was a one syllable rhymer and had simple rhyme schemes compared to pac.

I'm flaming gats, aiming at, these...
Maniacs put my name in rap
So part the game is that like it hustle backwards
I smoke blackwoods and dutchies you can't touch me
Try to rush me, slugs go touchy touchy
You bleeding lovely with your spirit above me
Or beneath me your whole life you live sleepy
Now you rest internally sleepy, you burn when you creep me
Rest where the worms and the weak be
My nine flies baptize rap guys
With the holy ghost I put holes in most you hold your toast shaky
Flip and try to break me, look what you made me do
Brains blew my team in the marine-blue, six coupe
Skied it out weed it out...

I make yo' mouthpiece obese like Della Reese
When I release, you lose teeth like Lil' Cease
nikka please, blood floods your dungarees
And that's just the half of my warpath
Laugh now cry later, I rhyme greater
Than the average playa hater, and spectators
Buy my CD twice; they see me in the streets
They be like, "Yo he nice, but that's on the low though"
Be the cats with no dough, tried to play me at my show
I pull out fo'-fo's, and go up in they clothes
Short-change nikkas, snort 'caine nikkas
Extortion came quicker, bought the Range nikka


Biggie was more tehcncial and had a higher rhyme density than pac, which says alot since I cosndier biggie overrated from a tehcncial standpoint tbph. Check out:

Rapper's Flow Encyclopedia - Notorious B.I.G. | Genius Blog

BTW imo biggie was more techncial, had a better flow, and was a better storyteller than tupac

 

[productofrakim]

'Hold ya Head' is full of technical skill and gems.... That 2nd and especially 3rd verse though

rappad is a generator that analyzies verses/lyrics from a techncial point of view. It calculates the rhyme density, syllables, syllabels rhymed, vocabulary, adn etc... If you comapre each verse of hold ya head they may stand out amoung tupacs best verses techncially but still fall short.

The first verse was not great at all. It calculated a techncial grade of a B- and pac only rhymed 17.44% of the verse which is very simple and low. He also used mostly one syllable words for more than half of the verse, and at msot rhymed only 3 syllable words very very rarely.

Lyrical Analysis for Hold Ya Head verse 1 - RapPad

The 2nd verse is the most tehcncial of the 3 verses getting an A-, rhyming 32.86% of the verse. While this is good, the rhyme density is still below the average, and is alright to good at best. Nothing super notable in the verse from a rhyming perspective, however it scored expeptionally alright.

Lyrical Analysis for Hold ya Head verse 2 - RapPad

The 3rd verse was a step down getting only a B+ and rhyming roughly 30% of the verse. Nothing more to say than what I said about the 2nd verse for this one.

Lyrical Analysis for Hold Ya Head Verse 3 - RapPad

Overall it was at best a very averga e song from a techncial point of view. nothing special or notable rhyme wise tbh. I would take an off verse from 20 top tier emcees and bet that they are probably more techncial than these 3 verses.

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

This is a pretty long response but most of it is quotes, verses, pictures, and etc...

The majority of the time pac is very simple like in dear mama:

When I was young, me and my mama had beef
17 years old, kicked out on the streets
Though back at the time I never thought I’d see her face
Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mama’s place
Suspended from school and scared to go home, I was a fool
With the big boys breaking all the rules
I shed tears with my baby sister, over the years
We was poorer than the other little kids
And even though we had different daddies, the same drama
When things went wrong we’d blame mama
I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell
Huggin' on my mama from a jail cell
And who’d think in elementary, hey
I’d see the penitentiary one day?
And running from the police, that’s right
Mama catch me, put a whoopin' to my backside
And even as a crack fiend, mama
You always was a black queen, mama
I finally understand
For a woman it ain’t easy trying to raise a man*
You always was committed
A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it
There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan
Is to show you that I understand
You are appreciated

Extremely simple verse, and maybe alive and time rhyme in the 3rd and 4th line but it could be a stretch. Obviously pac has examples where he tries to rhyme alot with internals and etc… However, they are exceptions to his usual simple rhyming, and not on the level of other top tier emcees/lyricist.

This is a pretty objective thing that can be easily seen when looking at his work as a whole and by pacs own admission sometimes:

“How does he stack up against the other heavy-hitters (Jay, Nas and Big) statistically?

First and foremost, he doesn’t rhyme as well. This is a simple fact. Not that Big/Jay/Nas are extremely similar rhyming-wise with Tupac a few steps below:

Tupac, at a rhyme density score of 0.235 is a notch below BIG, Jay and Nas who scored at 0.29, 0.30 and 0.30 respectively. It’s apparent that:

1) The score of 0.30 (which is pretty close to the overall average of 0.28 in our database) is a pretty good baseline necessary where we can argue that technical proficiency is met. Anything over or under by a significant amount should be carefully looked at contextually. We can start saying Good or Bad based on the 0.28-0.30 score.

2) Tupac just isn’t that good, technically speaking. He’s a notch below the Big 3 objectively speaking.

He had great energy on his tracks but to me his linear raps and weak rhyming make it too hard for me to ever really get into his work. Don’t shoot the messenger! Just link my work and help me build traffic."

Tupac: A Notch Below Technically


So his rhyming density as a whole in 5-6 albums plus albums after his death are below BIG’s rhyme density in 2 albums (the least technical GOAT contender IMO) and below the average rap rhyme density…

Overall he cant comapre to the skills of rakim, kool g rap, blakc thought, canibus, nas, pharoahe monch, eminem, mf doom, AZ, and a plethora of top tier emcees.

For his skills concernign flow there is nothing special. His flow for a good part of his short lived career was pretty simple, repetative, and lacked versatility (not all the time tho). I would suggest checking out martin connor (someone I respect alot for his work) who is a tupac stan, and analyed tupacs flow and rhyme schmese on “Changes” (one of pacs more "techncial" songs). He openely says that he loves tupac and that changes is possibly one of the greatest songs OAT. However when it came to flow even admitted that tupac’s flow is not notable or super great by any measure:

“There doesn’t seem to be any plan to the pace of his rhymes. There is no acceleration or deceleration of phrases (shorter or longer sentences, or more or less of them), any discernable switch between a high number of rhymes and a low number of rhymes. There isn’t even any variation on the couplet structure, which would be somewhat laborious without 2pac’s delivery and strong message.”

“When you combine that uniformity of sentence structure with the predictable rhythme structure of being extremely couplet-heavy, you better understand what I’m trying to describe here – his unfinished, unpolished style.”

“Furthermore, he moves between different modes of rhyming without any sort of transition, and there doesn’t seem to be any overarching, guiding principle to how he’ll move from one rhyme to the next. That is, the pacing of his rhymes – how many he drops, and how intense they are in terms of length and placement – is all over the place, and either not very complex or too complex. For example, he starts off with a couplet and a single-syllable end rhyme”

So tupacs flow was mediocre at times and average at best. Nothing special. This is only tupacs flow. Connor thinks that it is compensated with his delivery and message which to me are his only good strong points. Connor even says:

“But as I said before, I don’t think this reflects negatively on 2pac. This is because that style fits his aggressive message and delivery very well”

Rapper's Flow Encyclopedia - 2pac | The Composer's Corner

Tupac's flow is nowhere near the flow skills of pharoahe monch, AZ, Biggie, Eminem, and etc...

This the kind of shyt that allows white folks to come in and appropriate the culture.Bars, technicalities, graphs, and shyt.Much ado about nothing.


It's all about what moves your soul.


"The big 3" combined could never make a song more socially relevant/powerful as this one


A simple truth>>>>>Technical rhyme scheme jargon.


Next they'll be saying Tyrese is "technically" better than James Brown....his density is greater

 

[productofrakim]

It's all about what moves your soul.


"The big 3" combined could never make a song more socially relevant/powerful as this one


A simple truth>>>>>Technical rhyme scheme jargon.


Next they'll be saying Tyrese is "technically" better than James Brown....his density is greater

This thread is about techncial skills in the genre of rap. That includes rhyme schemes, multis, compunds, internals, and etc... It is irrelevant to the content of the music, the power of the music, the social relevacny of the music, and etc... Im talking strictly techncial. Biggie is not better than pac becuase he is more technical than pac. Being techncial is not the only think I consider when rnaking rappers. You must consider their lyricism, flow, punchlines, quotables, content, delivery, disocgraphy, versatility, and etc...

BTW biggie may ahve never made a song like keep ya head up (however he has made songs sort of similar in "power" and social commentary) but emcees like black thoguht, common, krs one, chuck d, talib kweli, mos def, and etc... have made songs like that and they do so with better lyrics, better flow, better message, delivery, and etc... The two main thigns good about pac is his passionate and emotional delivery and his powerful and relatbale "real shyt" content". the rest (flow, lyricism, storytelling, adn etc...) imo he just falls short. I prefer a more full package,which to me pac was not.

This the kind of shyt that allows white folks to come in and appropriate the culture.Bars, technicalities, graphs, and shyt.Much ado about nothing.

These thigns contribute top the conversation of the thread which is technical skills which can be objectively measured in some ways. Nothing else but rhyming abilities in rap. Not the content of the song, whos better, whos more relatbale, and etc... thsoe thigns are irrelevant to a discussion concernign technical rhyming skills. BTW Im not even white....