TUPAC LIVES!!!

“We talk a lot about Malcom X and Martin Luther King JR, but It’s time to be like them, as strong as them. They were mortal men like us and everyone of us can be like them. I don’t want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who i am, this is what i do. I say what’s on my mind.” - Tupac Shakur

I don’t listen too much in the way of Hip Hop or Rap, lost interest after N.W.A. and the total commoditization of the genera. Tupac, though, almost had me back. He was a poet and a performer who had a message beyond the obvious, he was a man in protest and opposition to the societal forces that cause the wealth, education, and opportunity gaps that exist between races in America. Tupac had a voice that represented his people’s plight and not the image of entitlement that is projected by a majority of the performers, at least those in the mainstream.  

Okay, sorry got off on a tangent there, just saying Tupac was a bad MoFo. And he is Gridlock’d with Dr. Cal Lightman, or Tim Roth, depending on just how sunk into pop-culture you are. The cast is top notch, Tupac was downright amazing in his role and while Thandi Newton was way too fucking hot to be a junkie, it is a smart film that really takes a shot at our governmental institutions and how they are run. Plus it gets hipster points for being the first time I can recall the use of the ‘d to connote finality, so that is awesome also. Find it on Netflix Streaming and don’t be a junkie in America, those are the messages of the Stream for the day.