Anyone else find it pathetic that while Tupac Shakur was alive, he was constantly making fun of Jay-Z, and then Jay-z has the nerve to sample the chorus from Me and my girlfriend on his weak track Bonnie and Clyde 03? His Excuse? "I think he didn't like me at the time because I rolled with BIG" Sean, its not cool to sample artists that are dead and never liked you to begin with.
I don't get this 2Pac-jacking trend in hip hop right now. Nas, whom Pac called out on "Hit 'Em Up", is doing a Natalie Cole with him, while Ja Rule, an absolute joke of a rapper, is sampling 2Pac wholesale and talking about how they would ride together if he were still alive. I wasn't a huge fan of 2Pac, but I wish they'd let the guy rest in peace.
Even though I don't think Tupac was particularly good, or even adequate, the current crop of mainstream thug rappers are much worse than he was (Ja Rule, anyone?). People still want to make their money while shitting all over hiphop as art, so they'll gleefully dig up Pac's corpse and have it dance around if someone will pay to see it. The people spending the money have no real knowledge or memory, so they don't give a rat's ass how Tupac really felt.
You and I will have to disagree on Pac's, er, adequacy, but completely agree with the rest of your post. It's not just 2Pac they're jacking. Irv "Murduh!" Gotti spent the last year jacking beats from Puffy of all people, you have 50 Cent (whom I'm starting to like, for some odd reason) Natalie Cole-ing with Biggie, and worst of all, J.Lo's "Jenny From The Block" jacking beats from BDP and the Beatnuts. I tried listening to the hip hop stations here for a couple of months but I just had to stop. Not to sound like an old fogey but there was a time when hip hoppers respected the roots.
Ja Rule is about as whack as it gets when it comes to rapping and you can throw Jay-Z in that category too.I was a fan of his until he came out with the Blueprint 1&2,both albums lacked originality and he also proved he can't battle by losing the feud with Nas,who came out with the much better God's Son and released the Lost Tapes.