The Hip Hop Cottage Industry Abuse of Tupac Print
Written by Robert ID3011   
Thursday, 14 September 2006 06:26

Since the passing of the hip hop icon Tupac Shakur (2Pac) ten years ago, his name has become synonymous in the ‘hip hop cottage industry’. Seems everyone is trying to cash in on the name of the late great rap artist and hip hop culture icon.

I have seen everything from tee shirts, coffee mugs, calendars – really anything they can squeeze his picture on for sale.

Some are official and have license to do so, but then again there are the mix tapes that everyone with pc and the thought that they are a mix master has put out.

Along with these items are the books that are filled with theories of what happened, who is responsible for the death of the hip hop icon and even those books who claim to have ‘hard evidence’ that Pac is alive.

The point here is ten years later people have turned a hip hop icon into their cash cow. As far as the ‘trinkets’, shirts and all the rest – why? The only real purpose is to make money. A pencil with the picture or name of Tupac on it is not something you floss at parties.

The mix tapes – there are a few that sound ok but it is not real Pac. It is like buying Nike knockoffs. Why not buy the real thing.

The books filled with their theories are just one way to make money off a man who can not say anything. If any of these authors have so called ‘evidence’ hand it over to the police an let them do their job.

There are even those who are saying Pac faked his own death and they twist and pick out verses of Pac’s songs to prove their point; just like some so called ‘christians’ pick verses out of the bible and use them to ‘prove’ their point. In fact if the lyrics or bible verses are not taken out of context then you get another meaning.

Buy real albums and poetry books by Tupac and get the real deal instead of wasting your money and feeding the ‘hip hop cottage industry’ called Tupac.

If you are a real Tupac fan you know the way he felt about bootleggers, there is a video of how he handled one in NY. We can only speculate that he would feel the same way about some of these other shady entrepreneurs.

Keep the Legacy Alive – but do it in a legit way. Support the real. Tupac is gone and we don’t want to let go and that is understandable; but even Tupac has lyrics that say ‘how long we mourn …life goes on... and basically just represent for you baby’. ( From the lyrics to ‘Life Goes On’.)

R.I.P. – Tupac (2Pac)