chapter 19 & 20

BIGGIE:
As soon as the casket closed Comb’s recorded missing you with a dramatic video and tribute at the 1997VMA’s, in which made BIG a martyr(279).
Comb’s wanted the world to know and to understand how important Biggie was to him, but also what Big meant to the rap world. Big’s wife faith and sting put on one of the most expressive and emotional performance on stage to date.
Combs rise as an artist and the production of studio Albums did not do anything for BIGGIE, what it did do was link Big to the next wave of artist(279).
After Big‘s death, Comb started releasing unheard music, prevalence recorded by Big, with calibrations with up and coming artist. By Combs doing so it maintained Big name into the next generation. Therefore his old released remained current. With the new wave of music being released Biggie as a feature, made the song better. Big being thought as having a thug image, made any artist creditable.
Biggie philosophy was to making it and when he made it his people made it. In his own words: Ant no fun if the homies cant have none (280).
Big message when he rapped was more directed at his people, his immediate family and friends. He was not out to change the world, but if he was eating well his family was to. Not to say that he didn’t give back to his old community because he did, but he was not out to save the world. His words were not meant for that but more of way to till his story from rags to riches.
PAC:
His iconography also extends beyond race and national boundaries. All over the worlds Pac name resonates with the young people struggling to define and assert themselves individually and collectively against injustice and oppression (281).
Pac was a man who the world thought to be one of them. His words would fill young people with the belief that someone else has gone through the same struggles as them. Pac, feeling the pains of the world, the good and bad the world has to offer. Ever song he rapped one could feel a passionate message being expressed. He was the outlet of the people.
Close friends who became bitter enemies (282).
When Biggie first entered the game Pac help developed him, help mold him give him some one he could look up to in a essence. Through miscommunication all the love in the friendship went away.
We the Hip hop generation cherry picked from Malcolm and Martin and patched together an American quilt that neither of them would have slept under.
Malcolm and Martin are supposed to be Biggie and Pac hypothetically. One representing one side of the spectrum, and the other almost believing the same thing, but dealing with the issues in a different way. Pac wanted to change the world, while Biggie just wants a better life for his own.
These two great leader of the 60’s and the 70’s preached a great message but we the American people, or better stated like above, the Hip hop generation, have taken their words, develop are own meanings and turned them into something that neither of them would agree with.

JAY-Z:
While Jay-Z is widely associated with the classic "rags to riches" story, to many, the backdrop of his commercialized success and the reasoning behind why he took the route he did, is quite vague. However, these uncertainties can be explained when closely examining albums such as In My Lifetime, S. Carter Volume III, The Blueprint, and The Black Album. The cause of his upward mobility in the industry can be heard and seen through songs like, Hard Knock Life and Moment of Clarity.
Ross begins by touching on Jay-Z's claim to be "The Mike Jordan of Recording", referring to how he switched his flow in the same sense that Jordan changed his style of hooping. While many consider Jay's transition to be a "sell out" move, he claims that it was strictly for monetary purposes. Though, the author argues that the worlds of sports and hip hop are incomparable, stating that, "Corporate stockholders and executives may judge success by an artist's number of #1 records, but fans rarely keep track of such figures" (290). However, Jay-Z says that in the process of reaching a greater portion of the mainstream market, "I dumbed down for my audience" (291). Yet, the author contests that, on the contrary, it was through the use of sampling and featuring artists from other music genres, that allowed Jay to make a successful transition into mainstream America. For instance, his hit song, "Hard Knock Life", used a sample from the Annie theme, which served as Jay's bridge into affluent Appalachia. This type of crossover has been used by many successful artists prior to the reign of Jay-Z. Artist such as Biggie and Sean Combs took this direction with "Juicy" and "Big Poppa", and Run DMC with "Walk This Way", featuring Aerosmith. The common denominator is their appeal to white America.
Aside from Hova's crossover tactics, Ross gives credit to America's growing economy in the late 90's and the passing of the Telecommunications Act in 1997. Jobs were at an all-time high, and so was consumer spending. In addition to the economic situation, the Act passed in '97 permitted large companies to monopolize on as many stations as they could afford. In turn, small, independent stations were bought out, which took away from the exposure of local artists, resulting in standardization. Stations were now only playing top national songs, mainly extending from big name record companies, which in essence, allowed Jay-Z to flourish even more as an artist.
Next, the author back-steps to this notion of "selling out", addressing the numerous accounts of Jay-Z borrowing lines from Biggie. Ross discusses how BIG released a mixtape entitled, "Real Niggaz Do Real Things", where Jay incorporated the entire hook saying, "On the road to riches and diamond rings/Real Niggas do real things"(300). Ross also questions the premise of Jay-Z's "Sunshine", which bares a close resemblance to BIG's, "Me and My Bitch". Jay-Z responds to these accusations of theft in his song "What More Can I Say" from The Black Album:
I'm not a biter/I'm a writer for myself and others/I say a BIG verse I'm only biggin' up my brotha'/Biggin' up my borough/I'm big enough to do it/I'm that thorough/Plus I know my flow is foolish (301).
Ross correlates Jay's image through BIG's legacy to Jesse Jackson utilizing his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a stepping stone to being an accepted black leader. However, the author expresses that Jay's mistake was not in reaching success, rather, what he chose to do with his success. It is not necessarily the fact that Jay focuses on hyper-materialistic, hyper-masculine American values, because black leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, also had a "relish for standards of civilization as they understood them to exist in American society" (304). Even still, Ross states that, "The best leaders of the black resistance tradition always make a demand of the people...They love the people enough to criticize them and not be afraid of what that criticism will mean to their careers" (308).
Nevertheless, Jay-Z--the skinny, fast-rhyming rapper from the ghetto--was able to convince corporate America that he was the best "representative of urban America" (310), while effectively making the shift from being a businessman to being "a business, man".

-Clevon Kirkland and Desmond Polk