America needs Tupac in the Rock Hall
His nomination reflects a new generation of rap
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebrates a uniquely American genre, one that has taken many forms over the decades — in Chuck Berry’s soul, Bob Marley’s reggae protest songs, Prince’s flamboyant pop, and as the Rock Hall acknowledged this week, Tupac’s rhymes.
The rapper, who earned a nomination for the Rock Hall on Tuesday, is a uniquely American figure. Raised in poverty by two former Black Panthers, Tupac pioneered hip- hop’s celebration of rags- toriches success, its poetic lyricism and its political undercurrents, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide in the process.
Twenty years after his death following a drive- by shooting, his influence is nearly as great as it was in life. Hundreds of posthumous recordings have been released, and he has shaped a generation of rappers who came after him.
The rapper is joined by an accomplished group of fellow nominees, such as Pearl Jam, the group responsible for grunge’s post- Nirvana longevity, and hardcore legend Bad Brains, who gave punk a more diverse face. For many of the nominees, their inclusion feels historically accurate to the genres they’ve helped shape. For Tupac, a Rock Hall nomination is essential.
Tupac isn’t the first rapper to be nominated for the Rock Hall, but his name on the list feels like a first. Rock Hall inductees Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and N. W. A were among rap’s founding fathers, with Dr. Dre’s Death Row Records giving rise to Pac’s revolutionary career.
Tupac is the first member of a new generation of rappers to get a Rock Hall nomination, the first to become famous in the ’ 90s, the key figure in the decade’s East Coast/ West Coast rivalry. He belongs to a more modern era of hip- hop, a time marked by excess and contradictions in which young artists rose from nothing to become superstars, making music with stunning lyricism and sociopolitical messages while embracing all the cash, furs and trappings of fame that American capitalism offered them. ( Couldn’t that describe any number of eras of rock ’ n’ roll?)
If social media grumblings are any indication, some rock listeners are confused how Tupac fits into the genre’s narrative. Which is why it’s even more revolutionary for the Hall to induct the rapper— and irresponsible not to.
There’s a reason we pay attention to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A nomination is an acknowledgment of mainstream success, an indication that an artist’s name is important enough for rock’s history books. And when critics try to turn away rappers at the door for not sounding “rock” enough, they’re taking part in rock’s long history of white artists appropriating black culture and erasing its creators while profiting from their sound.
Tupac’s name deserves to be in the Rock Hall, and it deserves to happen this cycle, in a year where the Black Lives Matter movement is marching against the police brutality he often rhymed about, as presidential candidates paint a dystopian picture of the “inner cities” that he illustrated in humanizing color in his music. His nomination suggests what his fans have known for decades — Pac is a prophet, a uniquely American kind of poet laureate and, if nothing else, a rock star.