From 'Dear Mama' to 'Hail Mary,' his music mixed street reality with moments of hope.
If you want to understand why he still matters, listen to 'Dear Mama' and 'Hail Mary' back to back. They show the whole range in about ten minutes.
He wrote about things people were living through but rarely heard on the radio. 'Dear Mama' became an anthem for anyone who'd ever struggled with family, and 'Brenda's Got a Baby' told a story that felt uncomfortably real. Even when he was angry or defiant, there was always something human in the delivery.
He started as a backup dancer and rapper with Digital Underground in the late '80s. By 1995, he was recording 'Me Against the World' from prison, and his final albums like 'All Eyez on Me' came out just before he was killed in 1996.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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