That Neil Drummond guy responds to his 2Pac review

[Last Dragon]

That dude that wrote that idiot review of UTEOT at BET.com has responded to the negative feedback he's been getting.  It looks like all those emails saying how off base he was with his review worked.  He got enough flack from it that BET is letting him respond on their website.

Here's the link.

http://www.bet.com/MUSIC/0,1821,C-7-xx-223101,00.html

Last modification: Last Dragon - 04/08/01 at 16:20:08

[Top-Dogg2001]

I read that. I can't believe what he said about how tupac's prayers don't deserve to be answered. Then he had the nerve to say that from his quote "my only fear of death is reincarnation" he must have knew that even when dead he could overstay his welcome. What kinda stuff is that. It's cool to review an album and not like it but when you start reviewing a person thats bull shit. I'm gonna post the review and the response so you guys can read it.
Fuck Neil Drummond

[Top-Dogg2001]

The Review
Is Tupac's new CD a true representation of his legacy or is it just a ripoff of it?

By Neil Drumming
Special to BET.com

Tupac Shakur
Until the End of Time
Interscope Records

Even the wonder that comes with hearing a voice from beyond the graveeventually passes. At this point, annual 2Pac releases, including books, poetry and even theatre, are so common that they're practically unremarkable. Thanks in part to a mother's determination to have her son seen as a hero rather than a studio gangster, most new 2Pac material is presented as iconic. But fans can only pay so much tribute before they morph back into listeners and start viewing the dead in the context of those alive and well. “Until the End of Time” is a posthumously released double CD of Shakurian nostalgia that only really made sense in 1996.

Tupac Shakur spent most of his life positioning himself somewhere between a cold criminal and a revolutionary. By his Makaveli period, the time during which these songs were recorded, he had become so comfortable with the glaring contradictions between the two as to seem callous. “Until the End of Time” showcases so much purposeless violence and misdirected anger, that, barring the inherent answers, Pac's prayers don't deserve to be heard: “Come take my body, God/Don't let me suffer any longer. Where is the end to all our misery? Is there a close?/I guess that's why I murder my foes.” Deliberately-sentimental missives like “Letter 2 My Unborn” and “Happy Home” are evenly distributed throughout the two discs, but amidst the overwhelming din of f------g gold-digging b-------s and busting shots at the East Coast (from “Let Em Have It:” “F--k Jay-Z”), what little variety exists gets lost.

Pac is further drowned out by the sound of today's rappers, who echo his thug-speak over contemporary electronic beats while Pac is doomed to repeat himself to the gangster-funk R&B that was dance floor fodder over three years ago. Mom might want to suggest some big name remixers for the next comp. But even new sounds will not change the fact that, no matter how much hidden 2Pac material is out there waiting to be released, there will be no new information contained within, no new sides to the man revealed. On “Ballad of a Dead Soldier,” Pac rhymes, “my only fear of death is reincarnation.” Perhaps he knew that even a dead man could wear out his welcome.

[Top-Dogg2001]

The Response:
To everyone who took the time to respond to my review:

I firmly believe that it serves no purpose for a music critic to respond to your opinions about what he or she has written. That is not to say that I consider myself above your opinions, it's just that I have already had my say. I am privileged in that I have access to exposure that many people do not, and I shouldn't abuse that exposure. More importantly, I stand by my words. Any back and forth is generally unnecessary. However, in this case, I feel that the angry comments directed at me are so misguided that I will, for better or worse, attempt to clarify my own feelings.

Right off the bat, anyone who swore at me or said I should be killed or fired or whatever, that is an immature way to voice a grievance and you don't deserve a response. Secondly, to anyone who accused me of being a white person or someone who just doesn't like rap, that's wrong. I am an African American male who grew up with hip-hop. It is one of my great loves, the foundation of my livelihood and as much a part of my life as anyone's. Those who called me a "fag" or a "queer" has no right to accuse anyone but themselves of being divisive or undermining black people. Also, save your nasty comments about BET.com. I do not work for that company full time in any capacity. I am a freelancer; I write for many publications.

For those of you who accuse me of not loving 2Pac, that's probably true. I don't love or hate the man. I have liked some of his music, and other material I have not. It is pretty much the same for me with every artist. The point of my piece was to critique the product--the album--not the man. And I feel I did that.

If I was attacking anything, it was the fact that these songs were released 5 years after the man's death. If you truly believe that Tupac was an artist, then you have to understand that he would not be in the same place musically now as he was in 1996. Therefore, Until the End of Time is just a reiteration of sentiment that he expressed way back when. You can argue the aesthetic qualities of that material all day long if you want, but from a purely musical standpoint, a critic has to acknowledge that there can no longer be any growth from Tupac. Of course the music is dated; he man is dead. His progress ceased with his death, nevertheless, capitalism dictates that his material be repackaged and resold as many times as can be made profitable. I think, just as in the case of Biggie's posthumously released Born Again, that such manipulation eventually degrades the legacy of the artist.

When I said that "Pac is further drowned out by the sound of today's rappers echoing his thugspeak," I was not implying that contemporary artists are better than Tupac, although their sounds are more current. I was saying that the sentiment (i.e. "Thug Life") that he expressed is hardly uncommon in today's urban music. Whether or not they got it from Pac (and I admit that many of them did) it is still all over the place now. But what confounds me most of all is that you, Tupac's fans, demand that he be viewed as a hero for the things that he said. Forgive me, but as a young black man who struggles with many of the same issues as we all do, I do not see the heroism in Until The End of Time. Yes, Tupac was a complex man. Yes, he reflected the troubles in his life and his community. But that is not enough to make you a hero. We all know how it is "in the ghetto." We've heard the stories a million times. Every "gangsta" rapper uses "I just tell it like it is" as a justification for their existence. But if you want me to consider you a hero, there's got to be more to it than that. 'It's fucked up in the 'hood.' 'Damn right, so what are you doing about it?' Someone wrote to me that I did not look past Pac's words and examine the charitable things that he did for the community. That may be true, but in reviewing the content of an album, those things are irrelevant. It is a sad commentary on the current state of hip-hop that it was fine for Tupac to brag about his artillery on his records, but he would have been considered 'soft' if he had addressed his contributions.

As far as the fact that Until The End Of Time has sold hundreds of thousands of copies goes, that's good. I hope someone other than rich label executives are making money off of that. However, record sales do not change my opinion about the album. Hundreds of thousands of us African Americans feel free to call each other "nigger" every damn day. That doesn't mean I have to support it.

At the risk of being longwinded, I will finish by saying that I have seen many angry responses to critics on BET.com's message boards. It pains me that the people responding often do not understand the purpose of arts criticism. It is not the job of the black arts critic to blindly praise all art produced by fellow blacks. That's not how we contribute to the community or support our people. Criticism is offered with the intention of improving art. It's certainly not the most important thing in the world, but nevertheless we offer our opinions. That's how we support our people.

Peace,

Neil Drumming

[Last Dragon]

Some of what he said was true.  Just becasue PAc was a brother doesn't mean you have to blindly praise him.  But other things in his reply were so full of shit I could convert it to fertilizer and have a damn good garden with it.
He said:
"But what confounds me most of all is that you, Tupac's fans, demand that he be viewed as a hero for the things that he said. Forgive me, but as a young black man who struggles with many of the same issues as we all do, I do not see the heroism in Until The End of Time."

Pac put it out there with more honesty than any other artist.  And, unlike a lot of artist, he put in a sense of hope in those ghetto stories.  It wasn't always hopeless.  

This guy has a lot to learn about Hip-Hop.  

[Don Jacob]

i guess Kirt Kobane wasn't an icon then either....you don't have to be Martin Luther King JR. to be a black leader

like the homie said pac's music had a sense of hope, and when your down and shit you can pop in a pac album and it'll give you some hope and ispiration to move on....some people don't feel pac some don't he was just one of the few who didn't like pac (or the one or 2 cd's he heard from pac) alot of stuff that man said was so hypicritical though, music critics like that only get jobs becuase of their fancy wordings not for their real Knowledge of the form...

[Trauma-san]

I Totally Agree With What The Guy Said, That's EXACTLY What I Thought When I bought The CD.  If I Could Have Listened To It Before I Bought It, I Would't Have, It's Just The Same Old Stuff, In My Opinion.  Tupac Was Great, But He Wasn't God... And His Shocking Lyrics, And The Sentimental, Deep Stuff Does Nothing For Me.  

Tupac Was A Poet... His Lyrics On This Album Are No Deeper Than Any Poet Would Have Made Them!  I Respect Tupac For His Acting And Poetry MUCH More Than For His Music.

[Sikotic™]

All the shit he said was true except the part about Pac's prayers shouldn't be answered and the thing he said at the last of his so-called review.

The problem with it is where the fuck is the review? All I saw was that he said shit about 2Pac and his mom. He didn't really point out anything good/bad about the album.

And like the other guy said the reply is full of more shit. He is just babbling on about how fucked up Rap is and points the finger at 2Pac like he was the only one saying that stuff.

Apparently he wasn't paying attention to the quality of the lyrics and album but instead giving us his personal opinion.

He is just trying to get more attention so more people will ask him to write articles.

[cremedelaclem]

thats a good point Bdogg

he doesnt give the album a chance....


i actually like UTEOT a lot more than i thought i would...

[Sikotic™]

I got a little tired of it. Its kind of strange since I usally listen to a 2pac album for 3 months straight.