Lil Xan vs. The Hip-Hop Community: The Book of Pac
Uttering the name of Tupac Shakur changes the overall atmosphere of the room. Whether you were an East Coast supporter or someone new in the game, it's almost required for you to know that Pac was influential. The memories of his person are generally supposed to evoke emotions of joy and sadness. He changes the mood now as if he was still alive. He was just like that.
The latest news in the Culture has to do with Tupac's legacy, with Lil Xan going on Revolt TV and saying in a segment, where the guest has to rank certain things out of a score of 0 to 9, that Tupac was a 2. He later elaborated by saying that Pac has "pretty boring music". Quite a few people in the Hip-Hop community have been inflamed over the comments by the young up-and-coming rapper since. Therefore the backlash was understandably fierce as devoted fans came to the support of the late-great Makaveli.
Some people are claiming that due to what could be considered exploitative methods of gaining fans by having face tattoos, grillz and even his name, all while disrespecting one of the all-time greats is him being a culture vulture. Waka Flocka Flame, a long time Tupac fan, has called for an all-out ban, with rap heavyweight T.I agreeing with him. Michael Rappaport went on an instagram rant, saying:
"Little buck tooth rabbit face motherf*****. You need to apologize, alright? And you don't need to apologize to Tupac or Tupac's fans. You need to apologize to whoever the f*** raised you, or didn't raise you, for raising you to be a dumb f***. You don't get to speak on anything that has to do with hip-hop."
Xan has responded by saying that he will no longer do interviews, but that he will be staying in the game for a while.
Now that I've given you all the facts, permit me to give my overall opinion on what is going on.
People are allowed to believe what they want to believe and say what they want to say, and as fans of hip-hop, we should not judge someone for the things they say. But, that doesn't excuse him from saying something so blasphemous to Tupac Shakur, the man who paved the way for so many of rap's greats. Ever since Tupac died, rappers have all encompassed a part of his overall personality, may that be the thug (50 Cent, The Game), the lover (Drake, Ja Rule) just to name a few. You can check out Hip-Hop DX's The Breakdown on Ja Rule, 50 Cent & The Battle Of The Tupac-A-Likes to get a more in depth look on that. But, the influence and the accomplishments are there, and they stay in the hearts of the fans; the same fans that Lil Xan must now fight to get back after having disrespected the music and legacy of a hero and a legend.
Calling Lil Xan a culture vulture for the reasons that I previously described are understandable, and I personally agree. We don't call Eminem someone who appropriates the culture because he doesn't steal from it; he's given back to it and respected it every step of the way. Lil Xan hasn't done anything for the culture. But that's him. We cannot say that all white rappers from this generation are being culture vultures if there isn't substantial facts that support this argument.
His individual opinion shouldn't be a reflection on the younger rappers today. We should look at rappers and personalities for their own individual opinions. Even though Lil Xan said this about Pac and Lil Yachty called Biggie overrated, we shouldn't say that all young artists are disrespectful to the greats.
In conclusion, the game is changing. Tupac gave us the Otlawz, therefore we can assume that he was forward thinking and still had this spirit of innovation that created the genre that we love. Let's not rag on the rappers of the new school because they aren't rapping or doing the things that we expect of them. Lil Xan disrespected Tupac and his fans. True. LL Cool J feuded with Kool Moe Dee over this concept of respect in the rap game. If the Game and the Culture are changing, should the respect that comes with it change too?