Kill Your Idols: Tupac Shakur

This makes sense, but it would be fun to post this at a Bruce board just to see the hardcores shit themselves.

Perhaps, but nothing posted in this thread successfully disputes that notion.

And nothing I have seen in my travels disputes it, either.

 

Feel free.

 

I addressed this idea back on the "Mushnick!" thread, but I think we all are influenced by our surroundings, even if we push to be better than them. You might fantasize about smashing an electric guitar, but there are limits to your ability and willingness to accept repercussions.

2Pac lived his teenage years exactly as you would hope a teenager with a crack-addicted mother would. He found create outlets for his frustrations, did well in school and kept himself generally clean. But he still lived in the shitholes of Baltimore and New York. He saw the drug dealers and murderers that he later wrote about. And, for better or worse, he idolized them.

He likely viewed his easiest way out of the poverty cycle being through success in the arts, including music and rap, so he focused on that. But when he began to hit the scene and make his name, he realized he could simultaneously live out his youthful fantasies and build his career basically by acting the part of a thug. That's why he kept an entourage and talked back to police. He was fusing his image of success with his path to success. It worked.