My Adventures with Tupac...Brainchild gone ROGUE - Part III
For Part II, go here; http://black2afrika.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-adventures-with-tupacbrainchild-gone_23.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngbf30vASss (Smile)
Pac always aspired to do great work, ya know, to live up to a title he had yet to claim. We would build on album concepts and songs to fit him for each album. Voices contained personas from the hood, characters we met on the road or from our past etc etc. We decided the market we were going for was everywhere West of NJ. I pointed out to Pac that most of the country was 'Country', at least to us New Yorkers so logically, I wanted to make music for the bigger audience. Everyone west of NJ had a twang to their accents and so I figured to appeal to that with a country down south rap style. NY at the time was running Hip Hop but the shift with NWA opened the game up and I saw a bigger picture. I had lived in Dallas Texas for two years and so I was well versed in the southern lifestyle. Westside originally really meant everywhere West of NJ. New Yorkers were always on some hater shit and so I had a 'fuck NY' attitude. Pac was all for persona's and characters and we discussed names and voices for each persona. It took Pac a couple of days to decide on the name for one persona & that was, '2Pac'. I knew it would be conflicting to most people but that was what made it all interesting and intriguing. He also said because it was the two of us building on concepts, he could justify another person’s influence as two heads were better than one. Stroking my ego, I agreed but told him to come up with another persona name soon. 'Tupac' would always be the main persona with many alter egos.Tupac Shakur’s birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks. Within thirty-six months, he’d been renamed for the last Incan emperor, a rebel beheaded by the Spanish before thousands in Cuzco, in modern-day Peru.
(Tupac Amaru)
We both had been down south so when the voice from the south was chosen, I was reluctant at first. I got shivers straight up my spine. Maybe a bit of intuition set in but...............not sure at that time but I knew he (this persona) was trouble.........hmmmmmm.....I questioned to know more about this persona and Tupac went on to explain who he was channeling and why. I only warned Pac about the possible outcomes when channeling but agreed that this was the best choice. My only criticism was not to strain his voice or sound like it's straining; somehow he needed to make it sound natural when stressing syllables. Baby Baby Thug Voice changed the game.
How to be remembered as the Greatest came with a long list of priorities. I took this all very seriously and tried to convey this to Pac especially when he was horse playing or joking around. He feverishly questioned me about music and what kind of tracks to select and even how to rhyme without a track and stay in time. I had already made tracks for myself and other rappers but his music had to be more universal and soulful. I had a clear vision for the sound or soundtrack to Thug Life that consisted of southern blues style instrumentals. I wanted a folk country feel, very southern and not too West coast. Pac asked many questions in anticipation of future situations and I always had to have an answer for him. For three months, he barraged me with questions that proved worthy in the short course of his life. We created a lifelong reminder that proves you can create something great outta of nothing when you put yourself out there.
Conscious lyrics
I couldn't express enough how important conscious lyrics were to me as a Jamaican dancer/rapper. I often would dance in or as close to the speaker as possible. I always believed lyrics were more essential to music and that tracks/beats come and go like the seasons. I had quite a challenge to convince Pac of my theory and I also believed that with positive lyrics, you can be more successful as an artist. My philosophy on the subject opened up Pac's ears to other artists I favored like Marvin Gaye and others like him. I recall Pac extremely excited when he heard particular song on the radio and how it affected him. He would always give me feedback on how my suggestions or beliefs would play out in his life. Music coming from Yard (Jamaica) & my Rasta influences shaped my philosophy on life. 2Pac's concept is from the perspective of a young Black male 18 or 19 who is cornered to the wall like a trapped rat. 2Pac:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwx6pLz21gE Cheesy Rat Blues (LL Cool J)
"Everybody's been talking ‘about it but now it's not important. It's like we just skipped over it. It's no longer a fad to be down for the young Black male. Everybody wants to go past. Like the gangster stuff, it just got exploited. This was just like back in the days with the movies. Everybody did their little gunshots and their hand grenades and blew up stuff and moved on. Now everybody is doing rap songs with the singing in it.. I'm still down for the young Black male. I'm going to stay until things get better. So it's all about addressing the problems that we face in everyday society".
Song content
Police brutality, poverty, unemployment, insufficient education, disunity, violence, black on black crime, teenage pregnancy, crack addiction..............do you want me to go on? These were the topics Tupac was designed to cover. Bob Marley was a big influence on me growing up in Jamaican culture, so lyrics were always positive vibes. I told Pac to look out his window for inspiration on life in the ghetto or even the news or newspaper as they were always filled with stories. I insisted he keep it "real" as that was the buzz on the streets in 1989. Truth is far more exciting than fiction and I don't want to hear about anything you did not live, see or do, I explained to him. I like my lyrics raw like when Mel E Mel said, "they pushed that girl in front of the train doctors sewed it back on again". That line always stuck with me, plus I remembered that newspaper headline as a kid. I also insisted he not to use the word 'like' because the bible says there is no greater thing than self, so you can't compare yourself to anything. I really tried to influence my concise psychological thinking for meaningful lyrics. "Song had to teach how to survive in these streets when your back was against the wall, will you stumble or will you fall? These were the questions you keep asking me and I wanna know, is this for real or just a dream? I wanna know why snitch nigga's keeps snitching when they want to be a G?" His flow was to be conversational style, meaning, as if he's talking directly to you without a lot of rhyming words but with words that sounded alike. Newspaper and daily life in the ghetto was the inspiration Pac got from looking out his window or by reading the newspaper or talking to thugs on the corners. That REAL LIFE!
Origins of a young Black man in America, concept perspectives of ghetto life, music industry fakes and the Black mans’ plot under government rule. My favorite Bob Marley album was the Rebel album, which inspired me to create a modern day Black Rebel. I knew a little of Pac's history with the Black Panthers running all thru his bloodline which made it all the easier for him to grasp these concepts. I believed the Black Panther influence flowed thru his veins when he spoke so that you could sense the urgency & empowering tones he spoke with. I explained my philosophy on Ghetto Life as a homeless youth since I was 15 years old; I knew the harsh life of living on your own. Although I was born an orphan, and put up for adoption at birth, I did meet & live with my real mother for a few years & it was a whole lot of mental & physical abuse from age 6 thru13. So being homeless at 15, I left school, got any jobs I could do, (barber, security guard, messenger) until I got my first apartment 2 week before my 16th birthday. The mean streets of Brooklyn & in particular, from Flatbush in the 90's was my stomping grounds. Growing up on those Brooklyn streets shaped my attitude about life’s hardships.
Thug Life came with many rules! ‘Tupac’ had to obey, understand, teach and live by....There’s Rules to this Shit yo! Here are only a few rules to the GAME! 1) Rule number 1..................
by Donovan Niccolo Henry
to be continued in Part IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngbf30vASss (Smile)
Pac always aspired to do great work, ya know, to live up to a title he had yet to claim. We would build on album concepts and songs to fit him for each album. Voices contained personas from the hood, characters we met on the road or from our past etc etc. We decided the market we were going for was everywhere West of NJ. I pointed out to Pac that most of the country was 'Country', at least to us New Yorkers so logically, I wanted to make music for the bigger audience. Everyone west of NJ had a twang to their accents and so I figured to appeal to that with a country down south rap style. NY at the time was running Hip Hop but the shift with NWA opened the game up and I saw a bigger picture. I had lived in Dallas Texas for two years and so I was well versed in the southern lifestyle. Westside originally really meant everywhere West of NJ. New Yorkers were always on some hater shit and so I had a 'fuck NY' attitude. Pac was all for persona's and characters and we discussed names and voices for each persona. It took Pac a couple of days to decide on the name for one persona & that was, '2Pac'. I knew it would be conflicting to most people but that was what made it all interesting and intriguing. He also said because it was the two of us building on concepts, he could justify another person’s influence as two heads were better than one. Stroking my ego, I agreed but told him to come up with another persona name soon. 'Tupac' would always be the main persona with many alter egos.Tupac Shakur’s birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks. Within thirty-six months, he’d been renamed for the last Incan emperor, a rebel beheaded by the Spanish before thousands in Cuzco, in modern-day Peru.
(Tupac Amaru)
We both had been down south so when the voice from the south was chosen, I was reluctant at first. I got shivers straight up my spine. Maybe a bit of intuition set in but...............not sure at that time but I knew he (this persona) was trouble.........hmmmmmm.....I questioned to know more about this persona and Tupac went on to explain who he was channeling and why. I only warned Pac about the possible outcomes when channeling but agreed that this was the best choice. My only criticism was not to strain his voice or sound like it's straining; somehow he needed to make it sound natural when stressing syllables. Baby Baby Thug Voice changed the game.
How to be remembered as the Greatest came with a long list of priorities. I took this all very seriously and tried to convey this to Pac especially when he was horse playing or joking around. He feverishly questioned me about music and what kind of tracks to select and even how to rhyme without a track and stay in time. I had already made tracks for myself and other rappers but his music had to be more universal and soulful. I had a clear vision for the sound or soundtrack to Thug Life that consisted of southern blues style instrumentals. I wanted a folk country feel, very southern and not too West coast. Pac asked many questions in anticipation of future situations and I always had to have an answer for him. For three months, he barraged me with questions that proved worthy in the short course of his life. We created a lifelong reminder that proves you can create something great outta of nothing when you put yourself out there.
Conscious lyrics
I couldn't express enough how important conscious lyrics were to me as a Jamaican dancer/rapper. I often would dance in or as close to the speaker as possible. I always believed lyrics were more essential to music and that tracks/beats come and go like the seasons. I had quite a challenge to convince Pac of my theory and I also believed that with positive lyrics, you can be more successful as an artist. My philosophy on the subject opened up Pac's ears to other artists I favored like Marvin Gaye and others like him. I recall Pac extremely excited when he heard particular song on the radio and how it affected him. He would always give me feedback on how my suggestions or beliefs would play out in his life. Music coming from Yard (Jamaica) & my Rasta influences shaped my philosophy on life. 2Pac's concept is from the perspective of a young Black male 18 or 19 who is cornered to the wall like a trapped rat. 2Pac:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwx6pLz21gE Cheesy Rat Blues (LL Cool J)
"Everybody's been talking ‘about it but now it's not important. It's like we just skipped over it. It's no longer a fad to be down for the young Black male. Everybody wants to go past. Like the gangster stuff, it just got exploited. This was just like back in the days with the movies. Everybody did their little gunshots and their hand grenades and blew up stuff and moved on. Now everybody is doing rap songs with the singing in it.. I'm still down for the young Black male. I'm going to stay until things get better. So it's all about addressing the problems that we face in everyday society".
Song content
Police brutality, poverty, unemployment, insufficient education, disunity, violence, black on black crime, teenage pregnancy, crack addiction..............do you want me to go on? These were the topics Tupac was designed to cover. Bob Marley was a big influence on me growing up in Jamaican culture, so lyrics were always positive vibes. I told Pac to look out his window for inspiration on life in the ghetto or even the news or newspaper as they were always filled with stories. I insisted he keep it "real" as that was the buzz on the streets in 1989. Truth is far more exciting than fiction and I don't want to hear about anything you did not live, see or do, I explained to him. I like my lyrics raw like when Mel E Mel said, "they pushed that girl in front of the train doctors sewed it back on again". That line always stuck with me, plus I remembered that newspaper headline as a kid. I also insisted he not to use the word 'like' because the bible says there is no greater thing than self, so you can't compare yourself to anything. I really tried to influence my concise psychological thinking for meaningful lyrics. "Song had to teach how to survive in these streets when your back was against the wall, will you stumble or will you fall? These were the questions you keep asking me and I wanna know, is this for real or just a dream? I wanna know why snitch nigga's keeps snitching when they want to be a G?" His flow was to be conversational style, meaning, as if he's talking directly to you without a lot of rhyming words but with words that sounded alike. Newspaper and daily life in the ghetto was the inspiration Pac got from looking out his window or by reading the newspaper or talking to thugs on the corners. That REAL LIFE!
Origins of a young Black man in America, concept perspectives of ghetto life, music industry fakes and the Black mans’ plot under government rule. My favorite Bob Marley album was the Rebel album, which inspired me to create a modern day Black Rebel. I knew a little of Pac's history with the Black Panthers running all thru his bloodline which made it all the easier for him to grasp these concepts. I believed the Black Panther influence flowed thru his veins when he spoke so that you could sense the urgency & empowering tones he spoke with. I explained my philosophy on Ghetto Life as a homeless youth since I was 15 years old; I knew the harsh life of living on your own. Although I was born an orphan, and put up for adoption at birth, I did meet & live with my real mother for a few years & it was a whole lot of mental & physical abuse from age 6 thru13. So being homeless at 15, I left school, got any jobs I could do, (barber, security guard, messenger) until I got my first apartment 2 week before my 16th birthday. The mean streets of Brooklyn & in particular, from Flatbush in the 90's was my stomping grounds. Growing up on those Brooklyn streets shaped my attitude about life’s hardships.
Thug Life came with many rules! ‘Tupac’ had to obey, understand, teach and live by....There’s Rules to this Shit yo! Here are only a few rules to the GAME! 1) Rule number 1..................
by Donovan Niccolo Henry
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www.youtube.com/doncer
Thanks for understanding
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Thank you for your support
2Pac The Don GOAT formula
https://t.co/OF0ZDr3KHQ detailed info about Biggie Jay-Z Puffy origins. Don Killuminati~☆
2Pac The Don GOAT formula
https://t.co/OF0ZDr3KHQ detailed info about Biggie Jay-Z Puffy origins. Don Killuminati~☆
to be continued in Part IV
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