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Tupac Shakur: 2Pac is THE best rapper of all time. I was also not very interested in him at first. In fact, I really wasn't interested until after he passed away. Now don't go accusing me of being one of these people that become a fan when someone dies and jumps on the bandwagon. I am the furthest from that type of person as possible. It was months after his death that I became interested in 2Pac. I'd seen plenty of his previous videos and thought they were ok, but didn't think any further about them. When "2 Live & Die In LA" came out I liked it as well. About eight or nine months after his death I finally purchased The 7 Day Theory and enjoyed it quite a bit. Then I purchased All Eyez On Me and that was it. As I listened to that album I could not believe how good he was at his style of music. Nearly every single song on that album is great, unskippable, and this is a double cd! I have researched some history about 2Pac and found that he was always devoted to rapping, and little else. He was even a poet in high school. I see him as a man who was born into an unfortunate situation with an abandoning father, a drug addict mother, living in the ghetto, and just doing what he had to do to survive, trying to make the best out of life. He dug his way from a ghetto rat to the best rapper to ever exist. I also see him as a confused individual and a victim of the streets. To the end of his life he was unable to escape his origins. Live by the gun, die by the gun. The man was shot and attacked repeatedly by many "ganstas". Shot many times, five times at one point and still made a full recooperation. His final attack in which he was shot 7 times he could not live through. Always confused of who were his friends and who were his enemies. It's unfortunate that he had to live under such circumstances, however at the same time if he didn't he would have never been who he was. The lyrics to his songs are also very meaningful, and a true reflection of what life was like through his eyes. Interviews of his were always contreversial. The man was always real, the man you hear in the interviews is the real tupac, he never covered up anything and always backed what he said, giving you the real deal on what he thought from the heart. The beats in his songs are fabulous, ear candy. Once again, his lyrics were outstanding, his songs go from extremely emotional, to extremely violent, all very real of his life though, all from the heart. He is still the best rapper to ever exist.
Spice Girls:
How It All Began: One cold January morning(around the 3rd) at about 4am I'm retiring to my room from another night on the computer. I turn on MTV in hopes of seeing the new NIN video for "The Perfect Drug", since they acutally play videos at night these days. I believe I was eating a piece of cake left over from New Years'. Commercials are on MTV as usual, then it came back and some video started playing. I see five girls jumping around the screen in slightly slow motion and I am wondering what this is. They are running around madly and go into this building wreaking havoc, I was enjoying watching their fun. Then the song started. The end of the video came and I noticed that the same piece of cake that I had forked before it started remained in the air waiting to be put in my mouth. The end of the video hit and the girls got on a bus and left telling me to come on along with them on their bus and then said goodbye. I remember at this moment an extreme wanting for the video not to end. I enjoyed watching it sooo much, and I looked at the corner waiting for the credits to appear so I knew what this was. The credit block said "Spice Girls" and I said the name to myself. As the video faded out, I paused for a few seconds getting my last glimpses of the girls and then I said "hmphh", sighed, and said outloud "Too bad I'll probably never hear of them again", thinking it was one of MTV's late night reject videos even though I personally enjoyed the song. WOW Was I ever wrong! And thank god that I was! From that point on I enjoyed every song they put out and loved watching them. I did not become a hardcore fan until half a year later in early August 1997, and to this day I continue to be a hard core fan. My dream of course is to meet the Spice Girls. I am obsessed, and when I mean obsessed, i mean fah-reakin obsessed. Alright, i have 43 Spice Girls cd's(a lot of import singles/interview, etc), 9 videos, and have been to three concerts on their world tour. I wanted to go to six but I couldn't get tickets for half of them even though I desperately tried.
Haters: People quickly dismiss the Spice Girls for some reason. Where in reality, I think that they produce some of the best songs to ever exist. They are the godesses of pop music. I can honestly say that every single song on their two albums is absolutely fantastic. Their two albums are among the best ever created in my opinion. I'm serious, forget the image, forget the promotion, forget the popularity for just one minute, and take a listen from beginning to end of "Spice". I do not know of a better music album in the world. Skip the first three tracks if you've heard them enough. Every single fucking song on those albums are unbelievably good, and there are few albums that do that sort of thing. This is a group that could literally release every single song off their albums as a single and it would go to number 1. It's unfortunate that they don't do it. Even more unfortunate is the fact that their best singles have never been released in the United States. These are undoubtedly "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Viva Forever". I don't know what Virgin Records is thinking. I'm also sick of this assumption that all Spice Girls fans are children. This originally was not the case. In Europe for example, they are not looked on as such a child's toy as they are often here in the US by many lamers. Sure kids are probably the biggest single group of their fans, but they are not the only ones. I thought it was quite lame here in the US when everyone liked them, and then suddenly after "Wannabe" wasn't the most popular song, everyone turned on them. Teenagers and twentysomethings I mean. Frankly I have trouble understanding why some people hate the Spice Girls. I guess people hate good looking girls that are entertaining and make great music. What-ever.
Why Spice Girls Are Great: The Spice Girls have been absolutely fantastic to their fans. They did a world tour which consisted of over 100 concerts. And the girls put on one hell of a show. You will find very few artists that will devote so much. Example: Posh Spice is pregnant, on tour, feels terrible, and is out there in the Texas summer heat in a black leather skin tight outfit performing, and putting on a smile, she throws up in a bucket off stage in between every few songs. And these girls DO write their own songs, they have SOME help from song writers, but not an overwhelming amount. They control everything that goes on with themselves, down to the inserts of each of their cd's and singles, everything. Unlike many of today's pop music acts which not only do not write their own songs, but lip sync live, and do not even know what their cd art looks like until they get the final completed copy. What a bunch of bullshit. Every single thing the Spice Girls do is their own idea. The Spice Girls are actually responsible for this saturation of teen-pop into the music industry that has taken place. They started it, but they didn't intend to, they just did their thing, then tons of groups copied them, and ride off of their success. Even the Spice Girls themselves are not happy about all the teen-pop music on the market as each of them like their own style of music, mostly not pop!
Geri Halliwell: Perhaps you wonder about my opinion of the girl formerly known as Ginger Spice. Quite frankly, I don't like her, in kind words. And really when I think of the Spice Girls she doesn't often come to mind. I've seen the girls 4 times in real life, and not once was Geri there. Basically, I hate Geri Halliwell. Ok, the Spice Girls are on a World Tour and she bails half way through, that is weak. She completely took herself out of the entire US leg of the tour abandoning any American fans she had. I guess it's better seeing four girls perform happily rather then four happy and one not though. What I find most repulsive is the fact that this was all pre-meditated by her. Apparently she told the Spice Girls at the beginning of 1998 that she would be leaving after the tour. However, she instead left in the middle of the tour and just left the rest of the Spice Girls hanging, forcing them to re-organise their act. I was disgusted when I watched her "Documentary" and the day after she left the Spice Girls she is having someone video taping her as she says "Today is the day after I left the Spice Girls..." with a happy smile on her face. She doesn't even show a sign of remorse, guilt, or anything. What I don't understand is that there is still a significant amount of Spice Girls fans who like her. I don't know why you would like someone that walked out on one of your favorite bands. Unless she was your favorite Spice Girl or something. Whatever, no love for Geri. You know what though. When she left I was thinking they were going to replace her, and you know what would've been da bomb!? If they replaced Geri with Michelle Stephenson! Thats right, for you non-hardcore fans thats the girl that was in the Spice Girls before they acquired the name! She had to leave for personal non-band related reasons and was replaced with Emma. She apparently had one of the best voices as well. How awesome would it have been for the girls to bring her back and replace Geri with her!? Why wasn't it done!!? It would be so cool!
Conclusion: Spice Girls are not an overnight created act. They struggled as a group for almost 2 full years before hitting it big. It's unfortunate that so few people know the truth about them. Every single song they put out as a group is unbelievably good, I can't stress that enough. If you don't like pop music, then you have the right not to like Spice Girls' music, but you cannot automatically dislike the girls themselves, because almost nobody knows all the trouble and work they have gone through to get where they are, and they should be respected for it, at least by now. I could write pages and pages about them as you see. Never in my life have I been so obsessed with a musical act, and I never will be again.
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 | My CD Collection - A listing of all the CD's I own. |
 | Rape Victims - The only "band" I was ever in. |
 | All Saints @ Crazy Louie's - Pictures I took of All Saints (well at least half of them, the other two wussed out and didn't attend) at a bar close up & singing in Columbus, OH. |
 | SpiceNews.com - Updated daily, your best bet for the latest Spice Girls news. Done & run by yours truly. |