Dead rapper 2Pac tops "overrated" music list

21 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dead rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur, the hip-hop icon who sold more records after he was murdered than during his brief career, is the most overrated person in music, according to music magazine Blender.

Shakur tops a tongue-in-cheek list that also includes "places, trends and other junk in rock," Blender said in its upcoming October issue, due on newsstands next week.

Other overrated finalists included the Grammys at No. 7, encores at No. 12, Pink Floyd at No. 14 and "the music you loved as a teenager" at No. 23.

Shakur, a "gangsta" rapper who showed his sensitive side in movies, was killed during an unsolved drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. More than a dozen albums have been released in the ensuing years, and his image is almost as ubiquitous as that of Che Guevara or Bob Marley.

But while Shakur was a decent rapper with "insane rock-star charisma," according to Blender, he also "larded records with self-mythologizing, mediocre filler."

It's not the first time the pages of Blender have been used to bring down Shakur a few notches. In its June issue, rapper Lil Wayne listed him among his top five rappers, but then admitted: "I can't front: I was never into Pac."

As for the Grammys, the music industry's top awards, Blender said sitting through the ceremony was "like watching paint dry on Celine Dion's forehead."

And encores were notable chiefly for allowing bands to go backstage and do drugs while fans wonder if they should beat the rush to the parking lot, Blender said.

Veteran British rock band Pink Floyd, meanwhile, were responsible for "unbearable LSD slapstick" and "self-important bombast." And Blender warned that teenagers' brains "can inflate a great band to Christ-size proportions" and turn a bad song into the most meaningful.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Jill Serjeant)

Have they heard Madonna?

Beyonce anyone?

I have to agree 2Pac is overrated.

edit
[Edited 9/3/08 14:44pm]

i liked prince and bowie as a teenager.

Anxiety said:

You know some college student my age is making up this list. I wouldn't sweat it personally. What's wrong with your musical favorites as a teenager?

Much I can say that this generation can only go as far as John Mayer, Fall Out Boy and the Jonas Twins, er, Brothers.

Timmy84 said:

well, my musical favorites as a teenager are the same as my musical favorites as an adult. my mama raised me good and introduced me to great music and she explained to me why so much of the top 40 drek wasn't worth my time in the long run.

yes, that's right, i come from a long LINE of music snobs.

He's definately the most overrated artist I've ever seen. And as for "musician", that trash's name doesn't deserve to be said in the same sentence with the word.

Not a bad choice for #1 at all.

I can name some musicians more overrated than 2pac:

The Notorious B.I.G.
Jack White
Creed
Nickelback
Amy Lee
Souljah Boy


And THAT is within the first 10 seconds for me!

I like tupac alot (and this from someone who doesn't listen to hiphop LOL), but the whole mythology of pac (by the media) is tiresome. Not really his fault though.

Maybe there will be a time when he goes out of vogue? Certainly all his posthumus releases are tiresome.

thesexofit said:

His posthumous releases have definitely made him overrated.

I agree 100% with this article.

2pac is/was/always will be so overrated it ain't even funny.

He's not the most overrated



That title goes to Elvis



but anyway, who in the hell cares what Lil Wayne thinks?

vainandy said:

Did you really have to go there?

TonyVanDam said:

i don't think jack white is all that overrated, at least not anymore. and i think he's a lot more credible a musician than tupac, though maybe that's comparing apples and oranges. i think tupac had talent, but i also think he's revered more for his image than for his chops as a recording artist. meanwhile, everyone knows jack white can work his way around a guitar, even if you don't like his music.

He belongs on an overrated list, but Blender is garbage, so....

Anxiety said:

Yeah little is known about his actual talent but from what I've heard, Tupac was more of a studious recording artist in his own right. During one studio session, he yelled at everyone in the room to stop fooling around and begin recording, according to several rappers and engineers, 'Pac would be up for 10 hours or so recording material. From the few movies I saw him act in, he was good too. 'Pac was talented but his image overshadowed that. I also think his image also led to his death and the posthumous releases to help make him seem relevant at one hand and not so relevant on the other.

I would say overrated if you considered him to be the best rapper of all time.
The guy could rhyme but when he decided to get thug with it, it became a
bore.

Graycap23 said:

HELLO!!!!! You ain't lying and I'm a fan and I feel that way about her Add Beyonce to that list too.
[Edited 9/3/08 21:20pm]

vainandy said:

owww in the name of bigge,eazy e,letfeye aaliyah and selena give me strength lord cuz these ppl on the org just testin me everyday

phunkdaddy said:

Give me "I Get Around," "If My Homie Calls," "Keep Ya Head Up," and "Brenda's Got a Baby" over all of his later material.
[Edited 9/3/08 21:36pm]

I think that he was more overrated as a personality, than he was/is musically. He wasn't any sort of a 'revolutionary' leader or hero, who was gonna change the society of America around. He did not say anything about the ills of American society that had not already been said by many others before him. I also found him, at times, to be a very childish, immature and even an ignorant person. His musical style, though, was engaging, entertaining and filled with tons of style and energy. But his attack towards Biggie, on 'Hit 'em Up', was simply a pathetic excuse for a 'song', with no value in it whatsoever. But the man, as a whole, was both a talented rapper and an actor. But his music was in no way a 'revoulutionary' call to arms, as so many have somehow made it out to be.

But in any event, there is no way that he should have been placed at number one on the list. There are many other 'artists' who deserve this spot.
[Edited 9/3/08 23:34pm]

Anxiety said:

Fair enough. But I don't find anything groundbreaking about a rock band with only a guitar and a drum kit. Any band in general could get back without a bass.

TonyVanDam said:

yeah, if that's the only thing you take away from it. i don't care if it's just two people or a whole orchestra. i think he's a good enough musician and songwriter. not the best, but good enough to merit the sales and accolades he's gotten over the years. i don't think he's overrated or underrated, and i don't think his image eclipses his talents.

TonyVanDam said:

You forgot a couple words: "I don't find anything groundbreaking about a rock band with only a guitar and drum kit... and a crappy drummer."

I'm sorry but when that thug look and image started taking over music in general in the early 1990s, not just Tupac's music, I couldn't wait for the styles to hurry and change. I mean, of all things, a damn thug image. I mean, a thug is the black version of a redneck which is something that you stay the hell away from when you see them on the street, if you value your safety.

I don't give a damn what he may have had in his lyrics (the music was to dull to sit through to even get to the lyrics) but that image, not to mention his actions, overshadowed whatever his lyrics may have been. When he died (which is the worst thing that could have happened), they turned him a black version of Elvis that will live on forever. That thug image didn't go away, like all styles eventually do, instead, it got worse.

I'm sorry but I have no respect or sympathy for him whatsoever.

Graycap23 said:

These fools actually named Madonna one of the top geniuses in musical history, above both Prince and James Brown. They also named Sting the "worst lyricist of all time".

midnightmover said:

Told you it was probably some college student my age making this up.