That’s what Blender thinks (h/t). Or at least that’s what Blender is willing to say in order to stir up some controversy and sell their newest issue. ‘Pac just topped the music mag’s sarcasm-drenched list of "The 33 Most Overrated People, Places, Trends and Other Junk in Rock," beating out such worthy contenders as "God" (No. 16), "Getting Backstage" (No. 27) and "Sexin’ All Night Long" (No. 33). Most of the entries are little conceptual jokes like those, making it even more obvious that they’re just bidding for attention by bashing Tupac so prominently. Ha ha! But… well… do they have a point about ‘Pac?
Look, his death was a real tragedy. He was a charismatic cultural figure who inspired (and continues to inspire) millions. And he definitely recorded a handful of classic songs. He was even a pretty solid actor! But I’d be lying if I said Tupac’s lyrical efforts always impressed me — emphasis on "always." Blender’s blurb here is actually a lot more thoughtful than that scare headline would suggest (links contain NSFW lyrics): "…while Tupac’s musical highs were epic — the pro-feminist ‘Keep YaHead Up,’ the terrifying ‘Hail Mary,’ the boisterous ‘CaliforniaLove’ — that still leaves 15,837 other songs. He was a good rapper, not agreat one." Yep. I respect the guy’s legacy, I really enjoy an album or so’s worth out of his hugely voluminous catalog, but no one who recorded as much forgettable filler as ‘Pac will ever be in my personal top 10 emcees.
Of course, "overrated" is a silly, subjective category. And saying Tupac gets more disproportionate praise than anyone or anything seems like a real stretch to me — especially when, like, Vampire effin’ Weekend is still getting taken seriously. But whatever. I’m really much more offended by the editors’ decision to put "the music you loved as a teenager" at No. 23 on their list. Screw you, Blender, the music I loved as a teenager is my jam! (Including a couple of Tupac songs.) But you tell me: Does Tupac’s reputation deserve to be taken down a peg or two, or what?
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Not into rap myself at all but it does seem like there’s a certain, uh, unwilligness to look at his discography objectively shall we say?
And cue the cries of racisim in 5, 4, 3, 2…
Tupac by far is THE MOST OOOOOOOVERRATED RAP ARTIST…..EVER!…. to me NOTORIOUS B.I.G. WAS AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE GREATEST RAP ARTIST OF ALL TIME.
Why does Popwatch give any press time to Blender’s clueless lists in the first place? Time and time again, their staff have proven that they don’t know much about music. Example? Blender has referred to the Beatles’ “Oh Bla Di” as a reggae song more than once. However, there was NO REGGAE at the time the White Album came out. The genre known as reggae didn’t come into existence until two years after Oh Bla Di came out, which was actually a SKA song.
My point? Music journalists who dish about music should know more than the fans, not the other way around.
Nevermind that Blender is what Maxim Magazine would be if it were a little bit more focused on music. Are you in college and think your taste in mainstream music is better than everyone else’s? Want to see lots of boobies and read smart alecky comments from smarmy pseudo-journalists? Then read Blender…
BTW how did Jerry Garcia not make that list? I’d argue he’s 100 times more overrated than Tupac ever was.
Seems as if anytime *anyone* dies, his work suddenly becomes a lot better than it was in retrospect. (shrug) Tupac’s an excellent example of this. Another was Marilyn Monroe who, let’s face it, simply wasn’t a good actress.
You guys are all stupid. If you actually take a few minutes to sit and listen to more than the pop songs the radio plays, and pay attention to the words he speaks you could learn something. Everysingle cd he put out was classic. You can listen to every song on every cd he ever put out. You cant do that these days. When you buy a cd your lucky if you get 4 good songs. You have to be ignorant to his work to say he’s overrated.
I think Tupac is not overated. His raps are from life experiences and are real. These new rappers are just out for the bling and fame. No comparison.
Blender really is a pretty terrible music magazine. Every issue has the same tired jokes about the same over-exposed people. I made the mistake of getting a subscription a while ago because I’d flip through it while waiting in line at Blockbuster and often chuckled at it. But it didn’t take a long time for me to realize that their staff is not only lacking in music knowledge but also lacking in creativity. However, I still get it because I’m too lazy to cancel the subscription.
As for Tupac, I’m not a rap expert so I don’t know how much weight my opinion carries, but I find his songs to be kind of stale after a few listens. I have his greatest hits on my Ipod, and the only song I always listen to when it comes up on shuffle is “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” Everything else can be skipped at any moment. I don’t think his music is nearly as entertaining as say Outkast or any number of guys still out there today.
this is dumb. you can’t judge him on the stuff that was released after death- every artist makes raps that don’t make the final album cut.
for pac, too many weak producers like eminem tried to release his unreleased stuff and just ended up putting out crap.
look at how bad biggie’s unreleased tracks were – if there was 6 albums of that out you’d call him overrated too
Most overrated in my opinion: Kurt Cobain.
How do you rate a rapper? Tupac is certainly one of prolific rappers (if not the most). His commercial reach went beyond traditional listeners of rap. His lyrics and personal story gave him street cred. And his bravado was unmatched. More important he rhymed about more than cars, fashion, women and the accumulation of wealth. Sure other rappers did the same. But no one can match him in making you feel when you listened to him that there was at least one other person who felt like it was him against the world – even after all that commercial success. You can’t say that about Jay Z. If Tupac is overrated, what does that make Blender? The magazine is living off of Maxim ad rates and circulation numbers. Blender is to Rolling Stone magazine, as Ja Rule is to Tupac. Small in relevance and stature in its respective community. Now I’m gonna let the rest of my lil homies ride on that rag that considers itself journalism.
To be honest, Blender’s list always suck. They do the crappy lists so people can talk about them. I honestly had no clue there was a magazine called that until they started doing these list. So I don’t think they really make the list on if they really believe it or they just want the mention in EW or on local radio stations. It worked, here we are talking about it on the blog.
Since when does Tupac’s rapping qualify as “rock”?
Snarf, your way out there guy…It has nothing to do with racism, just ignorance, Like, “Not into rap myself” lol So your expertise is where?
Well from someone who does own Pac’s ENTIRE ‘released’ collection, I can say that if anything…Pac aint given enough credit… And the writer of this article don’t even seem to know Pacs music…All he stated was his released singles when any TRUE pac fan knows that most of his bangers were not the singles..That tells me that all you know is the shyt you’ve heard on the radio…That aint even to take away from the singles but the ALBUM is what brought it.. Ballad of a Dead Soulja, Static, Trapped (realeased)…man I can go on and on..PAC is G.O.A.T and before you write something on hym make sure you knowledgable of his music…
Well, i don’t read Blender, but the list was interesting. I agree with some of the things on their list. Music festivals ARE more trouble than they’re worth. But I DEFINITELY don’t agree with the music I liked as a teen being lame. Does that make me old? I still listen to that stuff, along with a lot of new stuff. All my old faves still get played on alternative radio stations. It had staying power. Anyway, I don’t really agree that Tupac should be #1 on the list. I didn’t listen to his music (I don’t really like rap), but does it seriously deserve to be the absolute MOST overrated? Seriously? I can think of a lot more overrated artists out there than Tupac! In fact, wasn’t that a topic on PopWatch once?
Who’s Tupac?
what let me guess u listen to lil wayne or soulja boy, huh? tupac is the best rapper.
yea, who’s tupac
Writing even a handful of amazing, timeless, powerful songs puts him above and beyond the majority of musicians in the past 2 decades or so.
Out of all the 1,000s and 1,000s of lyricist out here that want to be stars…2pac made it. Theres something to be said about that. Theres nothing overrated about that.
NO! Tupac is not overrated; that is completely ridiculous. He made me love rap. I agree with Ep Sato (who doesn’t?), why even give this article mention in the first place?
Wow this is a person writing this artical. Did he know Tupac as an artist or person? Baby Don’t Cry ” Temptations ” One Day At A Time ” i can go on and on !! Britney Spears was and is overrated but that does’nt sell magazines because we already know that now !! Tupac still sells 11 years later so cut the check to: Tupac’s Estate.
I have always disagreed with Simon about his rap music tastes and now I know why… when faced with the question, “is Tupac overrated?”, even considering it is ridiculous. Listen to any of Tupac’s music (particularly the music he released while alive, which is really what he should be judged on) and you weep when faced with how terrible most rappers are today. He is nearly in a league nearly by himself.
This person must not be African American if he thinks Tupac is overrated.
The guy who wrote this piece is definitely not a real rap connoisseur. He might want to stick to music he knows and understands. What an idiot…
The first and only artist to put out a doudle album and it does 10 million in sales. If it don’t make dollars it don’t make cents. What is Blender rated in the magazine list sales and popularity. Over – Under / circle one.
myspace.com/1delray
Well, I’m African-American, I love rap, and I’ve been listening to it forever. That said, I’ve always thought Tupac was overrated. Good, but not great consistently. And that was BEFORE all the albums after he died. I think Blender is dead on with this one.
To say that Tupac is overrated is incredibly ignorant. Just compare him to today’s rappers. In 1996, he was still considered the driving force of hip-hop, even before he died. In 2008, we have Lil Wayne as the driving force of today’s hip-hop game…what does that say about hip-hop? Wayne has a broad vocabulary, and tells no stories…yet he’s the best we have today? Tupac was able to tell a story with a new rhyme scheme, and included a great vocabulary…
He was a great storyteller and poet, who used hip-hop as an outreach to better the world. To say that Tupac is overrated, is to say that MLK was overrated.
To the clearly ignorant and racist guy that posed this of all the questions that could have been asked, the answer is no. Tupac was a great and original talent. Even in death, he still sells millions of new songs to new listeners. Elvis….that’s overrated. He wasn’t original; he copied others.
Ok, it appears that our transient society based upon what have you done for me lately has decide to question the noteriety associated with Tu-Pac. Saying that he was over-rated and I guess they were also attempting to imply that he was not a genius or a creative power during his time. Well lets take a look at other misunderstood white icons that society tends to look over their travesties and embellish their contributions to epic proportions. Edgar Allan Poe was an alcoholic, Albert Einstein operated in a childhood state until the age of 25! Oppenheimer was a questionable member of German loyalist? I could continue on and discuss others from earlier eras such as the bi-sexual Julius Cesar or the adulterous whoremongering Alexander the Great. No, I will not take the muck road instead I will only ask that we examine Tu-Pacs’ impact on the rap genre in another 2 decades and lets see how future generations view him as overrated or do they see him as a prolific speaker of his time?