Bone Thugs was right when they said Eazy didn't/don't get enough respect.

[JohnnyL]

Dear Mama is definitely one of 2Pac's most important songs. Hell, just google "best 2Pac songs" and I bet you Dear Mama will be on almost every list. I take it you don't like the song personally, but you can't deny its one of his most famous songs. Hell, its one of rap's most famous songs.

And you are missing the point about Boyz in the Hood. The fact that it wasn't the first gangsta song isn't the reason its not groundbreaking. The song Fuck the Police wasn't the first gangsta song either, yet it clearly WAS groundbreaking. It's the fact that's Boyz in the Hood is a ripoff of 6 in the Mornin. Same style, same flow, same storytelling manner.

 I love the song "Dear Mama," and I don't deny that it's one of 2pac's most famous songs.  I just don't find it to have much social relevance, compared to many of his other songs.  Maybe I'm using too narrow of a definition of "important."  I think it's a great song, but by "important" I don't mean "most popular" or "most commercially successful."  I'm talking about songs where Pac really had something to say. As far as important, at least in the sense I was talking about, I would list songs like these:

Trapped
Part Time Mutha
Brenda's Got a Baby
Papa's Song
Last Wordz
Wonder Why They Call You Bitch
Letter to the President
So Many Tears
Lord Knows
It Ain't Easy

 I'm not saying these are the only "important" Pac songs.  Not by a long shot.  He has many.  These are just a few that I thought of, off the top of my head.  This is just my opinion, but in terms of really having something to say, I found these songs to be some of Pac's most important.
 And I agree with you that "Fuck the Police" was more groundbreaking than "Boyz in the Hood," but you used "Boyz in the Hood" in your comparison to "Dear Mama."  And as far as "Boyz in the Hood" being a ripoff of "6 in the Mornin,'" that may be so.  But the entire rap genre is  rooted in borrowing ideas and even music from other artists.  How many rap songs are there that don't sample something?  I can't buy that as a reason to not include "Boyz in the Hood" as a song that has a very considerable significance to the genre. 
 

[Jimmy H.]

you're missing the point. 2Pac and Biggie get more love than Eazy because of their talent. Clearly Eazy E gave gangsta rap a unique image. Problem is that when it comes down to it, an image was all he was.

I'm gonna disagree. Talent has little to do with it. I won't go so far as to say it's not a factor at all but a good chunk of it is the story behind it. In addition to being two great artists, the Pac-Big drama was this compelling larger than life story. The public can romanticize a rap feud turned fatal. They can choose sides and create discussions about who was better. The press can build up whatever kind of story they want... and with both murders remaining unsolved? I mean, where else do you have a genre of music where arguably two of its biggest stars get into this explosive feud where they are both dead within a year of each other? And you have rival record labels, one of the artists being in prison after being shot however many times then coming home and boasting of fucking the other's wife. There's way more spins you can put on this story than you can with a 30-year-old rapper dying of A.I.D.S.

But there is also the fact that Ruthless hasn't done much to keep his legacy going. They put out the DVD and EP in 2002 and occasional catalog re-releases from time to time but I think they have missed the boat in terms of keeping his name going in a lot of ways.

[Dre-Day]

wow @ the "boyz n da hood" remarkz.  so what if it was sampled, so are 95% of ALL rap records from ANY time period.  i thought u faggs had atleast that little bit of common sense but i guess not.  LMAO!  that's extreme right there.  



anybody notice how rapsodie, jaydc, and chamillitary click always respond after each other.  lol, i told y'all they were dormmates mane.

  I can't believe I'm on a west coast forum, and I have to try to explain to people why "Boyz In the Hood" was an important record.  Lol.
  Well, first let me say that in the grand scheme of things I don't think "Dear Mama" was even close to one of 2pac's most important songs.  I'm a huge 2pac fan, and "Dear Mama" is a great song, but it's more of a personal song.  As far as social commentary, 2pac had more important songs on "2pacalypse Now," and "Strictly For My Niggaz."  Actually, you could pick almost any other song off of "Me Against the World," and Pac had more to say than he did on Dear Mama.  But having said that, let me try to address the responses to my point about "Boyz In the Hood."
  Well, the first and most obvious point I would make about "Boyz In the Hood" is that it's the song that essentially started the careers of everyone in N.W.A.  So, no "Boyz in the Hood," no N.W.A., and by extension that would probably mean no Dr. Dre, no Ice Cube, no Death Row, no Aftermath, and on and on.  To further illustrate my point, here's a nice spread from "Rap Pages" magazine of the N.W.A. family tree...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2196/2156295505_880f4ba1a0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/21630929%40N04/2156295505&usg=__bafKFuUgaSYieHpnThHVUTwgbsE=&h=375&w=500&sz=121&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=k80lBHK3JK_hwM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRap%2BPages%2BNWA%2Bfamily%2Btree%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

  The song obviously resonated with a lot of people. It became hugely successful without the benefit of radio or video support. On the lyrical side, I can't say anyone on the track exhibited the lyrical skill that some rappers are capable of today But rap like any art form is constantly evolving.  And those rappers were a product of their time.  The song is what it is- a straight forward story track.  And regardless of whether or not there were a couple of other rappers making music like this, no one at the time did it with the degree of success that N.W.A. did.
  

rapsodie is known to be very stubborn

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

you're missing the point. 2Pac and Biggie get more love than Eazy because of their talent. Clearly Eazy E gave gangsta rap a unique image. Problem is that when it comes down to it, an image was all he was.

I'm gonna disagree. Talent has little to do with it. I won't go so far as to say it's not a factor at all but a good chunk of it is the story behind it. In addition to being two great artists, the Pac-Big drama was this compelling larger than life story. The public can romanticize a rap feud turned fatal. They can choose sides and create discussions about who was better. The press can build up whatever kind of story they want... and with both murders remaining unsolved? I mean, where else do you have a genre of music where arguably two of its biggest stars get into this explosive feud where they are both dead within a year of each other? And you have rival record labels, one of the artists being in prison after being shot however many times then coming home and boasting of fucking the other's wife. There's way more spins you can put on this story than you can with a 30-year-old rapper dying of A.I.D.S.

But there is also the fact that Ruthless hasn't done much to keep his legacy going. They put out the DVD and EP in 2002 and occasional catalog re-releases from time to time but I think they have missed the boat in terms of keeping his name going in a lot of ways.

I don't know man. I listen to an Eazy E song and I laugh at it and think "this is dope." I listen to a 2Pac or Biggie song and I think "this is classic. Now these guys had incredible talent." I don't think Eazy ever would have been considered one of the greatest rappers, regardless of the circumstance of his death or what Ruthless did to promote him. Similar to a rapper like MC Hammer, he had his hits, he had his own unique style and made an impact, but I don't consider him a "great artist", regardless of his status as a pioneer. Ice T was a pioneer as well, but no one complains that he doesn't have the status of a 2Pac. There's also a large percentage of hip hop fans who look at Eazy E as a cartoonish joke rather than a serious artist because of the comical nature of his music and how its so far from reality.

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

Dear Mama is definitely one of 2Pac's most important songs. Hell, just google "best 2Pac songs" and I bet you Dear Mama will be on almost every list. I take it you don't like the song personally, but you can't deny its one of his most famous songs. Hell, its one of rap's most famous songs.

And you are missing the point about Boyz in the Hood. The fact that it wasn't the first gangsta song isn't the reason its not groundbreaking. The song Fuck the Police wasn't the first gangsta song either, yet it clearly WAS groundbreaking. It's the fact that's Boyz in the Hood is a ripoff of 6 in the Mornin. Same style, same flow, same storytelling manner.

 I love the song "Dear Mama," and I don't deny that it's one of 2pac's most famous songs.  I just don't find it to have much social relevance, compared to many of his other songs.  Maybe I'm using too narrow of a definition of "important."  I think it's a great song, but by "important" I don't mean "most popular" or "most commercially successful."  I'm talking about songs where Pac really had something to say. As far as important, at least in the sense I was talking about, I would list songs like these:

Trapped
Part Time Mutha
Brenda's Got a Baby
Papa's Song
Last Wordz
Wonder Why They Call You Bitch
Letter to the President
So Many Tears
Lord Knows
It Ain't Easy

 I'm not saying these are the only "important" Pac songs.  Not by a long shot.  He has many.  These are just a few that I thought of, off the top of my head.  This is just my opinion, but in terms of really having something to say, I found these songs to be some of Pac's most important.
 And I agree with you that "Fuck the Police" was more groundbreaking than "Boyz in the Hood," but you used "Boyz in the Hood" in your comparison to "Dear Mama."  And as far as "Boyz in the Hood" being a ripoff of "6 in the Mornin,'" that may be so.  But the entire rap genre is  rooted in borrowing ideas and even music from other artists.  How many rap songs are there that don't sample something?  I can't buy that as a reason to not include "Boyz in the Hood" as a song that has a very considerable significance to the genre. 
 

Hmm....if you're going by social relevance, I guess I would argue that Dear Mam would have to be better than Boyz in the Hood, which has almost zero social relevance.

And on a further note on Dear Mama itself, I would consider it to have extreme social relevance. In a music genre that has been stereotyped as portraying women negatively, a song that comes out and does the complete opposite says a lot. It praises a mother without sugarcoating her and points out her flaws at the same time. It opened the doors for other rappers to be introspective about their own lives and open up on a personal level in their music. Not only that, anyone who has an overall positive relationship with their mother can relate to the song.

[Jaydc]

Not to mention the rash of songs dedicated to mothers after dear mama

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

Mother dedication songs are bomb.. I love them cuz it makes me think of and appreciate my mom more.  You guys should listen to Dear Mama everyday!

If you don't find songs like that "relevant", you needa work on your family skills..

[JohnnyL]

Mother dedication songs are bomb.. I love them cuz it makes me think of and appreciate my mom more.  You guys should listen to Dear Mama everyday!

If you don't find songs like that "relevant", you needa work on your family skills..

 My family is fine.  WTF?!?  You guys are the most thin-skinned bunch of people.  You'd think I dug up 2pac and desecrated the corpse or something.  In every post I've made about "Dear Mama" I said I liked the song.  I said it was a great song.  I even said in my very first post about it that I thought it was a better song than "Boyz in the Hood," but because I personally don't find it to be as important to the history of rap music as "Boyz in the Hood, or for that matter, many of Pac's other songs, you guys are taking it personal.  So now, apparently I'm a terrible person and my family is dysfunctional...this shit's ridiculous.

[Jimmy H.]

I don't know man. I listen to an Eazy E song and I laugh at it and think "this is dope." I listen to a 2Pac or Biggie song and I think "this is classic. Now these guys had incredible talent." I don't think Eazy ever would have been considered one of the greatest rappers, regardless of the circumstance of his death or what Ruthless did to promote him. Similar to a rapper like MC Hammer, he had his hits, he had his own unique style and made an impact, but I don't consider him a "great artist", regardless of his status as a pioneer. Ice T was a pioneer as well, but no one complains that he doesn't have the status of a 2Pac. There's also a large percentage of hip hop fans who look at Eazy E as a cartoonish joke rather than a serious artist because of the comical nature of his music and how its so far from reality.

I don't think he ever would have gotten the Pac and Big status and he's never gonna be considered one of the greatest rappers but despite his limitations as an artist, I think Ruthless could have contributed a little further to keeping his legacy going. Ands perhaps I missed this conversation completetly but how is MC Hammer a pioneer?

[Muhfukka]

"niggas aint shit in the 90's i dont trust em, and bitches on my dick but they aint shit so muthafuck em">tupac's existance

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

I don't know man. I listen to an Eazy E song and I laugh at it and think "this is dope." I listen to a 2Pac or Biggie song and I think "this is classic. Now these guys had incredible talent." I don't think Eazy ever would have been considered one of the greatest rappers, regardless of the circumstance of his death or what Ruthless did to promote him. Similar to a rapper like MC Hammer, he had his hits, he had his own unique style and made an impact, but I don't consider him a "great artist", regardless of his status as a pioneer. Ice T was a pioneer as well, but no one complains that he doesn't have the status of a 2Pac. There's also a large percentage of hip hop fans who look at Eazy E as a cartoonish joke rather than a serious artist because of the comical nature of his music and how its so far from reality.

I don't think he ever would have gotten the Pac and Big status and he's never gonna be considered one of the greatest rappers but despite his limitations as an artist, I think Ruthless could have contributed a little further to keeping his legacy going. Ands perhaps I missed this conversation completetly but how is MC Hammer a pioneer?

he put the "hop" in hip hop. He helped take hip hop to the mainstream, particular dance-oriented hip hop, and he had the first diamond hip hop album. He too had a "unique image"

[BiggBoogaBiff]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/ywmMO8iilaE&amp;feature=fvst" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/ywmMO8iilaE&amp;feature=fvst</a>  - 7000000+ views tho dam, that's power right there no matter how u wanna judge it, and that's only youtube.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/Nd68e0cI6eA" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/Nd68e0cI6eA</a>  - classic for an Ice T song but it's not that good, everybody else did it better than him IMHO.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/pBtJYgd2OXI" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/pBtJYgd2OXI</a>  -  this and "boyz n da hood" have equally their own impact ("boyz n da hood" opened the door 4 a 2Pac to come out, plus it was that shit and "Dear Mama" gave Rap an extra positive boost in the mainstream at the time and is truely one of Hip Hop's greatest songs- same as Boyz N Da Hood {some of y'all OPINIONS aren't how everybody else looks at it}). 
i think when you're trying 2 compare the 2 u r pretty much doing an Eazy E vs. 2Pac battle (and u can't considering that Pac was clearly the better rapper & had more success and attention at the time, that's like me comparing a Gucci Mane song to a Scarface song lyrically, not 2 say Eazy E and Gucci Mane are on the same level - that's just blasphemy in it'sself).  But without "boyz n da hood" there probably wouldn't have a been a "dear mama" so let's not 4get that and what the song MEANT TO HIP HOP.



but don't u just love Hip Hop, we got all of the best poets and all around the best music.  u can't beat it.

[JohnnyL]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/ywmMO8iilaE&amp;feature=fvst" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/ywmMO8iilaE&amp;feature=fvst</a>  - 7000000+ views tho dam, that's power right there no matter how u wanna judge it, and that's only youtube.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/Nd68e0cI6eA" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/Nd68e0cI6eA</a>  - classic for an Ice T song but it's not that good, everybody else did it better than him IMHO.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/pBtJYgd2OXI" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/pBtJYgd2OXI</a>  -  this and "boyz n da hood" have equally their own impact ("boyz n da hood" opened the door 4 a 2Pac to come out, plus it was that shit and "Dear Mama" gave Rap an extra positive boost in the mainstream at the time and is truely one of Hip Hop's greatest songs- same as Boyz N Da Hood {some of y'all OPINIONS aren't how everybody else looks at it}). 
i think when you're trying 2 compare the 2 u r pretty much doing an Eazy E vs. 2Pac battle (and u can't considering that Pac was clearly the better rapper & had more success and attention at the time, that's like me comparing a Gucci Mane song to a Scarface song lyrically, not 2 say Eazy E and Gucci Mane are on the same level - that's just blasphemy in it'sself).  But without "boyz n da hood" there probably wouldn't have a been a "dear mama" so let's not 4get that and what the song MEANT TO HIP HOP.



but don't u just love Hip Hop, we got all of the best poets and all around the best music.  u can't beat it.

 You're right.  But there were certain people in here who wanted to turn this "Eazy Deserves More Respect" thread into an "Eazy Vs. 2pac" thread when no one, including myself, ever said that Eazy was a better rapper than 2pac.  Actually, I think everyone whose posted in here has agreed that it was just the opposite.  But certain people got their panties in a bunch because in my opinion "Boyz in the Hood" had more historical significance.  I never said mine was the only opinion.  I was respectful of other's opinions.  But apparently with certain people, their's is the only opinion and if you don't agree with them 100% of the time, they get all kinds of bent out of shape over it.

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

OH RALLY?

they said that shit on "The Deal" tha other week.  and u know wat, that shit is too true.  my nigga Eazy ain't never get tha same love Pac & Big got and never has.  

He gets plenty of respect. He gets more love than Ice T WHO CAME BEFORE HIM

[JohnnyL]

OH RALLY?

they said that shit on "The Deal" tha other week.  and u know wat, that shit is too true.  my nigga Eazy ain't never get tha same love Pac & Big got and never has.  

He gets plenty of respect. He gets more love than Ice T WHO CAME BEFORE HIM

 That has more to do with giving respect to another person who is also deceased than it does with comparing the skill level of those three individuals.  I think the person who said that was trying to say that 2pac and Biggie are regarded as legends, but Eazy who has also passed on deserves to be remembered for his contributions too.  I don't think anyone originally intended to turn this into an Eazy-E/2pac pissing contest.