Missy Elliott has been having fun with the new icons of the hip-hop and pop world, like Cardi B, Lizzo, and Anitta, through exuberant performances. Now, she’s paying her respects to veteran legends in the music world, including Tupac, Aaliyah, Aretha Franklin, Steve Wonder, and more.
On Instagram, Elliott shared her Christmas tree in an Instagram video. “This tree is a different kind of tree,” she said. “This tree has vinyl and CDs on it. You got Aretha Franklin, you got Aaliyah, you got 2Pac. You got a Chaka Khan CD right there. You got Luther Vandross over there. You got Stevie Wonder up there.”
Alongside the big tree are two smaller trees with more tributes to artists such as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Prince, Diana Ross, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, and Biggie Smalls.
Missy Elliott’s support for the new generation of icons is consistent. She’s also praised pop star Lizzo. In the “Truth Hurts” singer’s capsule in Entertainment Weekly‘s “2022 Entertainers Of The Year” package, Elliott wrote, “What I really appreciate about Lizzo is that she is so diverse,” later adding, “There are so many levels to her. When she’s in the studio, she knows how to go into these different characters, she knows how to be heard, she knows how to sing, dance, rap, and it’s all amazing.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Snoop Dogg is easily one of the most identifiable figures in hip-hop, and pop culture as a whole, but perhaps, that wouldn’t have happened without2Pac.
During a recent appearance on The 85 South Comedy Show, Snoop Dogg explained that he was never comfortable with embracing a flamboyant fashion sense until 2Pac pushed him towards it. He recalled still dressing in khakis and Chucks after the success of Doggystyle. However, ‘Pac said that he needed to elevate his style to appeal to a wider audience.
“[2Pac] like, ‘Me and you finna have a meeting… We stepping our game up. We gotta change your look, Snoop Dogg. You a pimp, n***a. Bitches love you. You fly. You gotta start showing your fly side,” Snoop recalled. “‘I’ma get you suited up.’ ‘I’ma call this n***a Dion Scott, get your suits fitted, get your hair laid, get your nails done. Put some pimpin’ on screen, n***a.’”
Rappers Snoop Doggy Dogg (left) and Tupac Shakur flash gang signs while attending the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall. (Photo by Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
The result of the pep talk inspired the look in 2Pac and Snoop’s “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” music video in 1996, which certainly marked a shift in Snoop’s career. However, Snoop explained that he wasn’t necessarily comfortable with making the stylistic shift at first.
“Just look at how I’m standing next to cuh when I’m wearing it. I’m trying to figure it out! I’m like, ‘Do I look right? I hope I don’t look sweet ’cause these pants tight as a muthafucka!’” Snoop Dogg continued, explaining that ‘Pac had him in “all this Italian that” that he “couldn’t even spell or pronounce.”
“Once I got comfortable with it, then it was like, ‘OK, this n***a’s teaching me how to be a star.’ Like, levels and layers,” Snoop continued. “‘We know you gangsta, dawg, but can you go higher than that? What if a n***a call you to be in a movie where they want you to be a lawyer? What if a n***a wants you to be a detective?’”
While hip-hop lovers have often speculated that Tupac and Jada Pinkett Smith may have been each other’s “the one that got away” prior to the rapper’s untimely death, a resurfaced interview from 2015 finds the Girls Trip actress explaining to Howard Stern just how wrong those theories are.
Many have wondered how the mother of two avoided the temptation right in front of her in the form of one of her closest friends, and the host didn’t hesitate to press her by asking, “How were you not attracted to Tupac?”
American actress Jada Pinkett Smith with American rapper Tupac Shakur, 1996. (Photo by Mychal Watts/WireImage)
“I met Tupac at the Baltimore School of the Arts. We went to High School together,” Pinkett Smith recalled, also noting that, while the West Coast artist was undeniably charismatic, he was also poor, and allegedly only owned two pairs of pants and two sweaters when she met him.
As Stern inquired about if ‘Pac was as “gangsta as we all thought he was,” the 51-year-old confirmed the gossip. “He was a revolutionary without a revolution. That kind of energy just transferred into a whole other thing,” she explained.
When the host asked if Pinkett Smith thought the “All Eyez On Me” hitmaker was in love with her due to the beautiful poetry he penned in her honour, she said, “It is so funny. Now being older, I have more of an understanding of what that was between us.”
“When you have two young people who have very strong feelings but there is no physical chemistry… between us at all. And it wasn’t even just for me. It was him too.”
The Red Table Talk host shared that there was once a time when she asked Tupac to kiss her, just to see what would happen. “When I tell you it had to be the most disgusting thing, kiss for us both,” she admitted.
While Stern suggests the lack of sexual chemistry was due to the “platonic” nature of their relationship, Pinkett Smith offered a more philosophical explanation.
“The only way I can put it is the ‘Higher Power’ just did not want that,” the Baltimore native suggested. “I feel as though if Pac and I had any kind of sexual chemistry we might have killed each other because we were both so passionate and we loved deeply.”
In the same interview, Pinkett Smith said she didn’t feel guilty about not being on good terms with 2Pac at the time of his death, as she knew that he knew that she loved him.
Check it all out below, and tap back in with HNHH later for more hip-hop news updates.
Too $hort explained how he tried to stray Tupac from bad influences during an appearance on the 85 South Show.
The Oakland rapper broke down how Tupac was a “different” person every single time he saw him. Throughout their relationship, Short explained that ‘Pac’s Zodiac sign as a Gemini became more apparent. “I never saw the same Tupac twice. They always trying to show the image of what Tupac was, and like, bruh, he was always like drastically different. Like most Geminis,” Short said.
NEW YORK – JULY 23: Rapper Tupac Shakur performs onstage at Club Amazon on July 23, 1993 in New York, New York. (Photo by Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The legendary rapper revealed said that ‘Pac spent a significant amount of time in Oakland during Digital Underground‘s reign. Still, he wasn’t necessarily the leader of the circles he was tied to. “‘Pac was the lil homie of the crew,” Short explained, citing an old video where Tupac was a background dancer.
“Tupac started coming of age and I looked at him,” Short continued. He described the “So Many Tears” artist as a “real one” who wasn’t going to be punked.
“I was like, ‘I can not bring this n***a around my homies.’ ‘Cause it’s going to be like oil and fire. Like, when Tupac got to L.A., and they let him get around, he was going 10,000 miles an hour.”
“I knew it. I was like, I can not bring this n***a around my homies,” he said. “I literally made a conscious effort to not ever bring Tupac around my — he found his way to Richie Rich… he gave ‘Pac the town but I said, ‘I wouldn’t do it.’”
Short said he didn’t want to feel “that guilt” of introducing Tupac to people that would put him in sticky situations.
Check out the clip below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Burgeoning Bay Area rapper Symba is having a bit of a moment right now as his profile climbs in the wake of his signing to Atlantic Records. After sharing the tracklist and release date of his upcoming Gangsta Grillz mixtape with DJ Drama, Results Take Time, Symba official set off his media tour to promote the project with a freestyle on Hot 97’s Funk Flex Show.
However, rather than simply spitting scintillating punchlines — of which there are sure to be plenty on his mixtape — Symba uses the moment to take the show’s host to task for his inflammatory remarks about Tupac Shakur. A little over ten years ago, during a live performance, Flex went on an anti-Tupac rant, then, in 2017, again lashed out against the late rapper on Twitter for some reason. When celebrated rappers like T.I. jumped in to check him during an Instagram Live, Flex insisted that “[Tupac] lied” about his thug persona while apparently on the verge of tears.
Symba, every bit the brash pugilist Tupac presented in his life, wasn’t afraid to confront his host — even though he could have damaged his own opportunities by calling him out. “I got a bone to pick with you, Flex,” he said, prefacing a devastating — yet hilarious — freestyle in which he took Flex to task for his words. “You been a big part of this culture my whole life / So what I’m ’bout to say almost don’t feel right / You say some wild sh*t, most times you actually right / But all that disrespecting Tupac sh*t stops tonight.”
And while Flex could have easily taken offense, he actually seems to agree with Symba, bursting out in laughter and interrupting to promise: “I’m a stop!” Once all that is out of the way, Symba shows off his penchant for punishing punchlines, making his case as one of the most charismatic pure rappers today.
The official Pop In A Box Instagram account announced the release on July 26 with a photo of both the Funko Pop and the cover art for Tupac’s 1991 LP. People will notice that the outfit the figurine is wearing is the exact same one the rapper sported on the album’s cover. The special edition Tupac Funko Pop! figurine will be available for purchase on November 28, 2022 for $19.99.
2Pacalypse is a beloved record in Tupac Shakur’s discography, boasting the songs “Brenda’s Got A Baby,” “Trapped,” and “I Don’t Give A F***.” The album was released while he was signed to Interscope Records and TNT Recordings, in addition to being a member of Digital Underground. It would serve as the launchpad for a legendary, albeit short solo career.
Check out the Tupac special edition Funko Pop! above.
Snoop Dogg has seen a lot in his career, including the aftermath of Tupac’s Las Vegas shooting. Speaking with Logan Paul on the Impaulsive podcast, The Doggfather revealed he fainted after traveling to Vegas to see his Death Row, label mate.
“When we drive to Vegas to see Pac, we got to Suge [Knight] house first, so we haven’t even seen Pac..We just talking to Suge, and he got the head wrapped up and he telling us what happened and [saying] ‘Pac gonna be alright, he going to pull through he got shot nine times before he going to be alright.’
We feeling like it’s gonna be alright until we go to the hospital and see that it ain’t alright. He got tubes in him..When I walked in, I could just feel like he wasn’t even there and I fainted.”
Snoop revealed Pac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, helped him regain his composure. “She was like, ‘My baby ain’t never seen you weak. I don’t want you to be weak in front of him. You go in the bathroom and fix yourself up and you go back in there and you talk to him and you tell him how you feel.’”
Snoop Dogg and Tupac were two of the most prominent rap artists in the ’90s, both representing the West Coast as members of Death Row Records and maintaining a close friendship. Amidst rumors of tension between the label imprint, the dynamic changed a bit but not enough to where the “Gin & Juice” artist wouldn’t stop by to see Pac in his time of need. Snoop recently recalled his final moments with the “Dear Mama” rapper on Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive.
Snoop drove to Las Vegas after Tupac was shot in a drive-by shooting. He told Paul “We feeling like it’s going to be alright until we go to the hospital and see that he ain’t alright. He got tubes in him, and it’s like when I walked in, like, I could just feel that he wasn’t even there, and I fainted. Then his mother got me up and walked me to the bathroom, and had a conversation with me about being strong.”
Snoop has committed to keeping what they built alive as he recently purchased Death Row in a historic deal back in February. The 50-year-old recently released “Touch Away” featuring October London ahead of the Death Row summer album. Check out Snoop Dogg recounting the unfortunate experience on Impaulsive above.
This past Saturday, Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., would have turned 50 years old. Among the many, many celebrations of the Brooklyn rapper’s life and legacy over the weekend was a Twitter Spaces event hosted by Tidal. Thousands of listeners tuned in to hear B.I.G.’s contemporaries, friends, and peers share their stories and remember the giant-sized footprints he left on hip-hop despite his short reign.
One of those peers was Jay-Z, who said that a void was left behind by the deaths of Biggie and his friend-turned-rival Tupac. “That’s a big void,” he admitted, before allowing, “Others stepped in to fill it as well, not just myself.”
Jay received praise from Sean “Diddy” Combs, Biggie’s benefactor as the founder of Bad Boy Records, who told him, “You filled them shoes, though. You came in and we definitely give thanks. You definitely came, and I just know how much Big really looked up to Jay. They looked up to each other. That is crazy you had to step into the shoes of two people. That’s all it was was those two people. They had things on lock.”
He continued, pointing out how, before the two titans’ deaths, Jay was still something of a neophyte, having only released one album, Reasonable Doubt, in 1996. Unfortunately, by the time he’d released its follow-up, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, both Tupac and Big had been gunned down. “Hov was coming,” Diddy explained to the Spaces listeners, “but it was like these two cats was just so big… I think Hov kept the art of it going and took where they was at and took it even higher.”
In addition to the celebration on Twitter, Big’s birthday was honored by the city of New York with commemorative MetroCards, a series of murals throughout the city, and a crown atop the Empire State Building.
The original album cover art painting from Tupac Shakur’s The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, recorded under the pseudonym Makaveli, will be auctioned by Riskie Forever in collaboration with Zelus, a company that aims to revolutionize the way people interact with art and finance, and Heritage Auctions.
Makaveli front cover
Working with Heritage, Zelus will auction the original record cover painting from now until June 18 together with a one-of-a-kind NFT that includes a never-before-heard tale from Riskie about the piece’s beginnings. On a 29″ × 47″ canvas seen via a 35″ x 53″ frame, the original painting was produced using airbrush and mixed media. The NFT will deliver a one-of-a-kind collectible experience related to a piece of hip-hop history to the buyer.
On his podcast “Hotboxin’ w/ Mike Tyson,” longtime friend of Tupac Shakur and boxing legend Mike Tyson will discuss the original painting while showcasing the artwork. He’ll talk about his memories of Tupac, as well as the significance of the album cover in music history. On May 19, the show will appear on YouTube with special guests Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“This episode was cool to shoot,” said Tyson. “Having the opportunity to honor Pac and have this painting here with us was awesome. It’s by far the most iconic hip hop album artwork of all time.”
On May 19, Heritage Auctions, located at 445 Park Avenue, will host the “HeritageNow” event. The auction will feature items like Frank Miller’s original cover art for The Dark Knight Returns Book One, which has never been auctioned before; Enola Gay Captain Robert Lewis’ contemporaneous first-hand account of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945; a manuscript in Mozart’s hand from The Marriage of Figaro; and other iconic, major moments in American and world history. As part of the exhibition, Heritage has included the Riskie Forever cover art painting.
“The Don Killuminati is, of course, now regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, and its cover art by Riskie is no less a masterwork – a true collaboration between two geniuses that resulted in one of music and popular culture’s most indelible images,” said Heritage Auctions’ Executive Vice President, Joe Maddalena. “It’s one of the few album covers ever created that merited critical discussion – there are so many theories behind its meaning – and it’s an honor and thrill to offer this not just as a piece of music history, but as a true work of American art.”
Riskie sold the original physical artwork he made in 1996 for The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory’s album cover to a long-time fan in 2015. However, in 2021, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the posthumous album’s publication, Zelus assisted Riskie Forever in reclaiming the artwork. Tupac was introduced to Riskie by Suge Knight, and after seeing Riskie’s portfolio, Tupac insisted that his label pay him to create a picture depicting Tupac crucified on a cross, just like Jesus, complete with a crown of thorns. Tupac was seen the artwork just days before his sad demise.
“I remember giving Pac the painting officially, I knew then this was something special,” said Riskie Forever. “Now to be able to celebrate that legacy while creating something truly new and unique – that’s something I’m incredibly proud to be a part of.”
