Tupac's Top 10

Tweet

Hello millennium sande fans! I’m Igor and I’m really excited to be part of this blog. I was originally supposed to be writing a weekly report on the NBA season, but unfortunately the players and the owners have not come to terms on an agreement yet and the first two weeks of the regular season have been cancelled. Oh the sad time it is for an NBA fan. Since I have no basketball to write about and after reading Cabrock Jones’ article about OutKast’s top 10 songs, I decided to make a list of my favourite Tupac songs.

When I was 14, one of my friends introduced me to hip-hop, and specifically Tupac. We used to jam to his beats all the time back then and ever since I’ve been in love with his music. He’s got a great mix of everything, songs with great lyrics, party songs and beats to chill to. What was unique about him was that these songs were delivered with such charisma and passion. Tupac also addressed many themes about the world and life itself. Anyways, enough of the intro, here are my top 10 Tupac songs, with 5 honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions (These won’t include best lyrics):

5. Me and My Girlfriend (7 Day Theory)
All I need in this life of sin is me and my gir…gun. One of the best metaphors for a song, and Tupac kills it. This is one of his most sampled songs, most notably used by Jay-z and Eminem.

4. Life Goes On (All Eyez on Me)

This was so hard to exclude from the top ten, almost left me in tears. Tupac wastes no time rapping over a nice soft beat about how his homies have passed away, while his life still goes..or went on. This one always gets to me.

3. Old School (Me Against the World)

A more “old school” beat comes on and Tupac starts rapping about all the old rappers that paved the way for him. This song makes be think of a really happy Pac just enjoying himself and rapping about his idols and the old school way. I wonder why no rappers nowadays pay some respect to the older rappers and make a song similar to this?

2. Keep Ya Head Up (Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.)

I will probably get massive criticism for putting this so low, but I couldn’t move the other songs out of the top ten. This song has some amazing lyrics, really showed what a talent Pac was. The young Tupac raps about how women are being treated poorly by men, but that things will get better one day. Deep shit for a 22 year old.

1. All Eyez on Me (All Eyez on Me)

I don’t have much to say about this song, except just listen to it. The beat is perfect, lyrics great, it’s simply amazing.

The Top Ten

OutKast: Top 10 by the Top 2

Tweet

A few days ago my good friend and fellow colleague here at Millenium SnE sent me a text that made my heart skip a beat(no homo). Luka told me that I should be proud of him, for he was listening through some OutKast classics. [Quick sidenote: Luka claims to like all rap music, but realistically he has Eminem on such a high pedestal that no other rappers even compare. He also likes to disrespect OutKast because, in my opinion, they’re the best thing that ever happened to rap music.] I was totally shocked to hear this and didn’t really know how to respond. “That’s sick bro, what songs are you listening to?” I asked. He told me that he found some random guys “Top OutKast Song List” on google and was listening through them in order. 2 thoughts dawned upon me: Firstly, I was offended that he hadn’t asked me for MY list of OutKast’s best songs, and secondly, I realized that it would be really difficult yet extremely fun to actually take the time to put together such a list. Whether you’re into lyricism like me, or you like a rapper’s flow, OutKast has it all. It isn’t hard to see that with song titles like “Skew it on the Bar-B” and “Spaghetti Junction,” their creativity is simply unparalleled by any rap/hip-hop artist, EVER. So without wasting any more time talking about how great they are, let’s get to it! Luka, this is my Top 10 OutKast songs and the reason people should pay more respect to Andre 3000 and Big Boi list.



10. Jazzy Belle – An eerie beat that pretty much every rapper would fail at spitting on, Big Boi and Andre tear apart with clever word play and versatile flows. Jazzy Belle is a track about the rap game, depicted as a woman. It’s easy to get lost in the way they wrap the words around the spooky beat, but the meaning behind the song is still deep and very potent.

Best Line: “Talk bad about her n**** guaranteed to snap like bra / strap, sticking together like grandma and grandpa-pa”

9. Chonkyfire – One of the most sampled OutKast tracks, Chonyfire is just pure....well, fire. You start off listening to Andre and Big Boi going hard on the track, but half way through, the beat slows down so Big Boi can rip into all of the whack MCs in the game. Chonkyfire is so unusual and creative that you almost don’t understand what is going on, until Big Boi lets you know that the reason it’s so weird is to let the industry know that OutKast is the only group that can come up with songs like that.

Best Line: “Overcast, but on behalf of OutKast, I cordially / invite you to an emotion filled theatre / bring your umbrella cause young fella it gets no weirder”

8. Babylon – All I have to say about this is they sampled what sounds like a Celtic 12th Century Hymn...and still ate the track up.... Yeah.

Best Line: “While we ranting and raving bout gats / n**** they made dem gats / they got some shit that’ll blow out our back”

7. Da Art of Storytellin’ (Part 1) – It is pretty widely accepted that Slick Rick is one of the greatest story tellers and lyricists of all time. To pay tribute to his most famous album (Da Art of Storytellin’), OutKast immortalized the name by coming up with their own lyrically brilliant track. Telling a story of the Ghetto world around them, OutKast show that they too are on another level lyrically.

Best Line: “I asked her what she wanna be, she said ‘Alive’ / it made me think for a minute, I looked in her eyes / I could have died”

6. Two Dope Boyz (In A Cadillac) – One of my favourite OutKast beats, bar none. One of the best bragging tracks, Andre and Big Boi explain why they really are the truth. On only their second album, they showed with their insane flow that they really are Two of the Dopest Boyz in the game.

Best Line: “Yeah tight like nuts and bolts, sluts and hoes they get evicted / I’m dealing with queens in my castle, ain’t worth it to risk it”