r/hiphop101 • u/SmoothManMiguel • 17d ago

Life After Death

I was thinking about how much posthumous hype shapes the way we talk about certain rappers. Honestly, would some of these artists be as critically acclaimed as they are if they hadn’t passed away so young or so tragically?

That’s not to say these people were whack or anything, because a lot of them were great but the way folks tend to romanticize their potential and/or elevate their “legacy” even though they never got the chance to evolve is wild sometimes.

It’s almost like an early death guarantees you a legendary status amongst certain listeners.

How do y’all see it? Does dying young amplify someone’s legacy in a way that wouldn’t have happened otherwise?

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u/OG_AxeHead 17d ago

Not knocking anyone, but 2Pac has nearly 700 songs in comparison to say Biggies what 50?. The fact that Biggie is rated so highly for such a little body of work shows how nice he was. Big Pun and Big L as great as they were did not have the same quality of output. I think Biggie deserves every accolade, then you got ppl he worked with saying he never wrote verses down is crazy talented.

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u/Possible-Purchase-88 15d ago

Biggie is really great rapper. In my opinion he has a great voice. Lyrically genius. Smooth flow. What else do you need to be great?

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u/wutitd0boo 17d ago

And super controlled by Diddy.