Get Rich or Die Tryin’ 2005 - Tupac Shakur - Jay Z - Louis Theroux TV - Ice-T - Kurt Cobain TV - Nina Simone - It Was Alright in the 1990s TV - Storyville TV - Spitting Image TV - Facing Suge Knight TV - Public Enemy: Prophets of Rage 2011 - Trailer Park Boys 2001-2018 - Reggie in China TV - The Murder of Nipsey Hussle TV - Hustle & Flow 2005 - Tupac Shakur: A Life in Ten Pictures TV - Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac TV - Fear of a Black Hat 1993 - Storyville: United Skates TV - True Crime Recaps 2022 - What We Do in the Shadows TV -
After Tupac everybody wanted to be a gangsta rapper. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ 2005 starring Curtis 50 Cent Jackson & Marc John Jefferies & Terrence Howard & Joy Bryant & Omar Benson Miller & Bill Duke & Viola Davis et al, director Jim Sheridan
After three hours I gave up my career as a rapper and went back to selling Coke … it was like minimum wage. ibid.
They all sold out – wow! Tupac Shakur
So if there’s a way you can get out of the game before it’s too late – get out of the game before it’s too late. If you’re going to be in the game then you’re committing yourself fully – then do what you gotta do to get back to the community that you’re raping. Tupac Shakur
We don’t need no more rappers. We don’t need no more basketball players. No more football players. We need more thinkers. We need more scientists. We need more managers. We need more mathematicians. We need more teachers. We need more people who care. Tupac Shakur
Illuminati want my mind, my soul and my body ... Secret Society tryin’ to keep their eye on me. Jay-Z, Devils, & LL Cool J, I Shot Ya (remix), & Prodigy, ‘Illuminati’
The art of rap is deceptive. It seems so straightforward and personal and real that people read it completely literally, as raw testimony or autobiography. And sometimes the words we use, nigga, bitch, motherfucker, and the violence of the images overwhelms some listeners. It’s all white noise to them till they hear a bitch or a nigga and then they run off yelling, ‘See!’ And feel vindicated in their narrow conception of what the music is about. Jay-Z, Decoded
New Orleans, Louisiana. I had heard about an extreme form of gangsta rap that claimed to echo violent ghetto life here in America’s so-called dirty south. My mission to make it as the first white middle-class rapper. Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends s3e6: Gangsta Rap, BBC 2000
I was getting the impression that gangsta rap is more about playing at being tough. ibid.
It’s quite shocking to see how much death and how much legal problems there are in these stars’ lives. ibid.
I had won the approval of the streets of New Orleans. ibid.
I was exploring one of America’s most creative and controversial music scenes. In Florida, Rap is a multi-million-dollar industry giving unvarnished expression to a host of social ills. But some of its biggest artists stand accused of participating in the lawlessness their music describes. Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America: Rap’s New Frontline, BBC 2022
If you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut. Ice-T
Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since Punk rock. Kurt Cobain
I don’t like rap music at all. I don’t think it’s music. It’s just a beat and rapping. Nina Simone
World’s worst rap duet: The 8-15 From Manchester – Saturday morning kids’ show, a regular feature called Rapattack – ‘a group from Cheltenham who go by the name of The Untouchables.’ It Was Alright in the 1990s, Channel 4 2015
‘Think of all the fun you could have, instead of spending money on a dumb pack of fags.’ ibid. The Untouchables’ rap attack
‘Sonita! Sonita! Sonita! Storyville: Brides for Sale: Sonita, Sonita down with the kids, BBC 2016
How much did they offer as a bridge price? — $3,000. But my dad wants more money. ibid. girl to girl
The film crew decided to pay $2,000 to Sonita’s mother. In return Sonita is allowed another six months in Iran. ibid.
Girl 1: ‘And worse, he already has a wife and kids.’
Girl 2: ‘You’re lucky; at least they asked you.’
Girl 3: ‘Did you agree or did they beat you?
Girl 1: ‘At first, they beat me up. Then I agreed. ibid.
‘Can’t you see that I’m just a teen? But he doesn’t answer, just leaves me there.’ ibid. Sonita rap lyrics
I’m talking to top rapper Crap Master Crap. Spitting Image s5e2, young un’s hip programme, ITV 1988
‘Suge Knight stands in front of me with a gun in his waistband.’ Facing Suge Knight s1e4, National Geographic 2016
‘Accused of a fatal hit and run.’ ibid. news
‘He was a deviant.’ ibid. friend
‘That was basically the demise of our marriage: Suge was out of control.’ ibid. ex-wife
They were the biggest rap group on the planet and the most controversial. They sold millions of records preaching pro-black politics in a predominantly white country … The self-proclaimed prophets of rage who opened the eyes of a generation to black struggle. Public Enemy: Prophets of Rage, BBC 2011
The Public Enemy members grew up within a few miles of each other in the small town of Roosevelt … They all grew up in the sixties and shared a passion for politics. ibid.
The Bomb-Squad’s ground-breaking production centred on the sampler. ibid.
‘Terminator X brought to the group a style that no other DJ had.’ ibid.
Bad relations between Flav and Griff were an continuing problem. ibid.
Check this out, man. You are gonna headline a Rap concert today. Trailer Park Boys s3e4: Who’s the Microphone Assassin? Julian to J-Roc
The Silver Bling Cowboy – I’m like a cowboy but a gangster rapper. You know, a hybrid. Trailer Park Boys s10e8: The Super Bling Cowboy, Bubbles
The Rap of China: a huge hit … The rappers look like they’re free to express themselves. Reggie in China III, BBC 2019
Nipsey Hussle is a Grammy-winning rapper from the streets of LA. He was loved by his community. But on 31st March 1999 he died in that community. The Mysterious Murder of Nipsey Hussle, BBC 2020
The killing didn’t make any sense: who would want Nipsey dead? This story would take me to the extremes of conspiracy and to the complicated codes of these streets. ibid.
He clocked 1.8 billion music streams in one year. ibid.
You got what they call bad equilibrium. Hustle & Flow 2005 starring Terrence Howard & Anthony Anderson & Isaac Hayes & Elise Neal & Taryn Manning & Taraji P Henson & D J Qualls & Chris Bridges & Paula Jai Parker & Juicy J & Haystak, director Craig Brewer, DJ
You Mormons is some brave motherfuckers. ibid. DJ
Whoop that trick. ibid. DJ’s rap
We do what the fuck what we gotta do, man. By any means. ibid. DJ
From iconic shots to private moments these are Tupac Shakur’s defining moments, revealed by those who were there and those who know his story best. Tupac Shakur: A Life in Ten Pictures, BBC 2021
Tupac Shakur was born on 16th June 1971 in New York City. He was raised by his mother Afeni. When this photo was taken, Afeni had recently been acquitted in a legal case. She was one of a group of Black Panthers charged with conspiracy to bomb public places. Held for a year, when the case came to court, she defended herself, and was released. Afeni raised Tupac and his younger sister in the New York outer boroughs. ibid.
Throughout his childhood, Tupac was tutored by his mother in Black history and the Civil Rights movement. ibid.
When Tupac arrived on the [rap] scene, he brought street poetry with a social conscience. ibid.
Launched in 1994, Thug Life was not just an album, it was a manifesto for a whole way of life. It rooted Tupac and his work in the gang culture of Los Angeles. ibid.
Tupac maintained the case was a set-up. He was cleared of six of the charges but found guilty of three counts of sexual abuse. ibid.
Tupac’s first album for Death Row went five times platinum. Its success made front page news. ibid.