Enigma

To comprehend another, as a whole- is asking too much. The concept of "understanding" another individuals mind is an acutely disturbed notion. Those people who claim to know another better than that individual does itself, are delirious. The mind is an extraordinary, yet simple tool. Utterly fascinating, yet frustrating.

A mist. A huge, engulfing ice cold mist which needs to be infiltrated and trudged through- in order to reach the other side and accomplish understanding another. Picture yourself in the middle of this mist. All green land. Cold. Wet. Dewey. The gnarly, deteriorating leaves kissing your ankles. They can easily be slithered off your feet, however they keep you firmly rooted.

Breathe. Take in that polluted misty air. Shortcut almost. Hey, at least the mist is thinning. Huge gasps help. When breathing out, count and catch each little puff escaping in short intervals. The catches, say are pauses. For at times in life, we must stop and simply. Let it be. If it helps in achieving the ultimate understanding, why not?

Take it in. Reality strikes. Don't be the spider anymore. Spider? Tiny, and insignificant. As a spider swindles it's way down a pipe- it must feel comfortable. Sheltered and away from the giant blundering human. We find pleasure in its pain, pleasure whilst we cackle in our evil actions by leaving it to flounder in the tub while the tap releases a cold gush of water, washing it away. Isn't that what society is to us? Cruel. Harsh. When all the spider wanted was to maintain an invisible a presence as possible. The spider must enjoy the solitude of the darkness. I know I do.

Break free. Imagine you are stood behind the curtain, waiting until this stage you are stood on lights up, and the curtain parts for everyone to cast their eyes upon you. You've pushed and pushed this moment for as long as you possibly can now, but time has now caught up with you. The tick tock, tick tock-every second passing whilst your nerves become miniature balls of ice- forcing their way through your veins all around your body. Almost like an electric shock. The wait has rendered you jittery. It's time to stop running. This magnificent, shiny black polished stage just splayed out under your feet. Just picture it- standing, peering out, peeking between the gap of the curtains into the silent dark minefield. Each and every single member in the audience, is everyone you've ever had the fortune or misfortune of ever meeting, throughout your whole entire lifetime. Essentially, it's all down to you to bare your soul.

Whoever the person is, (or people may be) Once you have your foot inside the sliding door, and have sat on the same carriage as their wavelength train- never get off. Unless, you never wanted to get on in the first place.

SK.

TO ALL THE LADIES IN THE PLACE WITH STYLE AND GRACE.

So I was sat there yesterday, alphabetically ordering my albums on the racks- when this random but utterly bemusing thought flitted into my scattered brain. Queen Latifah, is a lesbian. I have no idea why I thought that, seeing as I was quite happily bopping my head along to some Notorious, Big Poppa. Possibly, my justification is that I kind of entertained the idea of Latifah/Biggie babies. I don't even know why. They just both....go? No? OK, I'll get down to why I'm blogging after 435843257 years. Exams, assessments  assignments have been major stressing me out these past few months, so every time I've sat down to write- I felt guilty and instead turned to my work instead. FORGIVE ME, I know how much y'all missed me. I have another entry, initially the one I was going to publish on U.S gun law- however I felt like taking a lazy seat and making my blog a bit more entertaining, because I think I'm a G. (and I know most of my followers think they're genuine Gangsters, so most will prefer this entry) and the fact that I feel pretty damn passionate about this topic.

SO- Biggie or Tupac? Well most of my followers know, I am indisputably a Biggie fan, and that I prefer him over Tupac. I mean the amount of times I tweet his lyrics. So in this entry I am here to tell you why Biggie is better than Tupac. Now I listen to both, just because Biggie is my favourite, does not mean I am discriminating against Tupac. Any true hip hop fan I believe knows the difference, and accepts the artistic genius of both their musical abilities. The acknowledged fact everyone has accepted is that Big's smooth flow is pretty remarkable, and for lyricism Pac is outstanding. Me being biased slightly however, Big was unequivocally a decent storyteller so that's another tip on the scale for me which pushes me to favour Biggie over Tupac.

Lets take a trip down memory lane, all the way back to 1994.

• 2Pac and Biggie were both internationally noted as being two of the greatest rappers of all-time.
• Rivalry sprung forth between the two when Pac was shot in his studio in Manhattan whilst recording, this then brought about the notorious East vs West Coast battle.

So on September 13th, 1994, an upcoming talented rapper named Christopher Wallace (stage name The Notorious B.I.G a.k.a Biggie Smalls) released his instant hit début album, "Ready To Die". My top three favourite singles being, "Juicy", "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance". Even though previous hip-hop artists such as N.W.A, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Dr Dre had already brought about the revival of gangsta rap to national/media attention, Biggie was a force to be reckoned with as he did so with an unrivalled disposition for gritty hardcore flowing storytelling that essentially stripped away the glamour, "sex bitches and cars" cheap coverings and told it how it was, raw and naked for all to experience. His sheer undeniable talent shone through with this album, as it became an enormous success, going quadruple platinum, and thus a rap legend was born. Six months down the line, another young rookie rapper, who went by the name of Tupac "2Pac" Shakur released an instant classic in addition. Released while Pac was being detained on sexual assault charges, "Me Against The World" went on to receive ecstatic reviews. It matched Biggies album in terms of effort in raw grittiness and realism. However what made Biggies album that tad bit better, is his ability to tell his story with the smooth rhythmic flow he inhabited on tracks such as "Suicidal Thoughts". The album centred around his life and struggles, partly autobiographical telling of his experiences as a young criminal. Indeed he even referred to himself as "the black Frank White" from his single "The What".

So, why is Biggie without a doubt better than Tupac? Well it all comes down to lyrics, flow and persona for me. Biggie will forever be notably known for his remarkable flow, which is undeniably the smoothest of any rapper, and to this day I don't think anyone has matched it, I would go as far as to say. I'm going to be a bit pernickety here now, and point out an example of how Pacs flow is just not on par with Biggies. "Hail Mary" - let's have a look at this track, now please don't get me wrong, like I said, I listen to Pac too, just stating why Biggie is my favourite and mainly thanks to his smooth lyrical flows is why I love him so. Avid rap listeners shouldn't fail to notice, that in "Hail Mary" his double over the first vocal gets lost at 0:47 where he raps "listening", then again at 0:48 when he raps "diamonds, when they're glistening". Merely pointing out to show that it means Pac fails to recognise his own flow (biggie never did) and was not entirely sure how to spit lyrics smoothly when he doubled it. With Biggie, a track with undeniable head bopping flow is "Notorious Thugz", a song with a tempo in which I feel Pac never dared explored, most likely in the fear that his flow would be lost and not as smooth as his rivals in the intro. On this track, Biggie is effective in administering a quick fast paced tempo so that Bone Thugs and Harmony could also do their thing on it (as y'all should know it's their fast flows that they are notably known for) This meant Biggie also had to ensure he kept a quick flow up and kept up with them- and of course anyone who has heard the song knows Biggie does so with perfection and effortless ease. He kept his content on it and at the same time took a dig at Tupac in addition. Like a boss. Biggie, rides his high tempos with an easy smooth flow like it's nothing, Pac loses out on mere low tempos- and Biggie also keeps his doubles on point unlike Mr Tupac Amaru Shakur.



Biggie I believe had the ability to paint a picture. His wordplay, his lyricism it all mixed together to form something you could envision rather than only hear. Par example being "Juicy" what with lines such as "birthdays were the worst days now we sip champagne when we thirsty" on the groovy beat just takes you into his poverty ridden past, and just as smoothly brings you to his light glaring famous stage where he has now made it. This is something I feel Tupac could not do. Whenever I jam to Pac, I'm just listening and feeling, on the other hand when I listen to Biggie, I'm listening feeling and seeing all in the one. Of course this is all my opinion, and I've always felt in terms of rapping ability, Biggie was far superior. I mean, I could  go on and on about his effective wordplay. His rhyming pattern was extremely simple, yet innovative. There wasn't any complicated big words rapped in, however using simple words he managed to ensure a nice neat cleverness and quick wit in his bars. Saying and portraying to his listeners a LOT, with simplicity. With this method alone, he satisfied the night time party animals, that wanted to spit his lyrics while intoxicated in the club- and the hip-hop fanatic that wanted to break down bars zoning out within his pad. If you don't quite comprehend what I mean, picture this for a minute- "I perform like Mike/anyone Tyson, Jordan, Jackson" or even "they used to call me fatso now they call me Castro". These lyrics, in addition to his flow stand out alone without rhythm or trying to implement a punch line. Something you would say whilst trying to converse with Biggie at a party. The raps he made hits out of were not "force fed" so to speak, (like some of Pacs are, I feel) Par example: favourite wordplay, "Don't fuck with B.I. that's that 'Oh I, thought he was wack' oh come come now/why y'all so dumb now? Hunt me or be hunted I got three hundred and fifty-seven ways to simmer saute/I'm the winner all-day, lights get dimmer down Biggie's hallway..." Like I've stated before, a vivid yet intricate storyteller, quite effortlessly.

I could go on and on forever. I mean, it's me. Quite literally the queen of tangents and could speak for the world. So forgive me if I got too intense there in describing my love for him. I know I know, the 1994 battle/argument between who is better will possibly be dragged all the way into world oblivion. I listen to both rappers, I admire both. This entry was just stating why I loved Biggie that little bit more. Content, the flow, record sales, ability to story tell, collabs, his weird way he made light of his erm physical shortcomings,(girls found it mysterious and alluring, I mean he still managed to capture Faith Evans) his trendsetting ways (Moschino and Versace shoutouts amidst his raps gave them mega publicity) and of course "The Juicy Factor" with his hit single "Juicy", just many of the reasons I personally believe Notorious is much better than his rival. There is no denying the HUGE impact Pac and Biggie had on the world and rapping society. Their rise to mega fame was unprecedented in hip-hop history, and they gave way to a platform for later rappers to climb the very stage they struggled to get on to, when alive. In essence, Biggie is King. Sit back and zone out to Juicy- and all will fall into place...


S.K.