There’s a narrative with some hip-hop fans that Jay-Z wouldn’t be as great if Tupac and Biggie hadn’t died. The idea is that Hov filled in the gap they left behind, emerging as hip-hop’s great hope after two icons passed away. Theoretically, if they were still around, Jay might play second fiddle to them in the history books.
Artists like Future have led with the same idea, arguing that the Brooklyn rapper wasn’t even considered as great by the time his debut album came out. “Jay-Z wasn’t great when Tupac and Biggie were alive,” he argued in a resurfaced barber shop conversation. “It was Biggie, Tupac, Ice Cube. [Reasonable Doubt] wasn’t hot until [Tupac and Biggie] died.”
That’s not to say that Future thinks the Blueprint rapper is wack. In fact, he absolutely loved Reasonable Doubt. However, the Atlanta legend insisted that, historically speaking, Jay was much lower on the totem pole. Putting him head to head with some of his contemporaries like Nas, he hadn’t quite reached their acclaim.
We can only speculate if Jay-Z would have become a GOAT had Biggie and Tupac never died
“I’m saying at that time, [it wasn’t hot]. They always go back for your classic album. When Nas dropped his first album, it was great then,” Future explained. “When I Ruled The World came out, it was the best then. You have to go back and listen to Reasonable Doubt and [think] this the best sh*t ever.”
It begs the question: would Jay still become one of the greatest rappers of all time, along with Tupac and Biggie, if they hadn’t died? Or would he be cast in their shadow, less popular and prestigious than he is today?
Naturally, fans were still particularly defensive of the resurfaced video. Many treated the clip as if he were judging Jay-Z on the quality of his music. One person argued that Future, in his Meathead days with the Dungeon Family, wasn’t big either. Another said on Facebook, “He only had 1 album, but was dissed by PAC, did two songs with BIG. He wasn’t as big as them but he was making major moves.”
Jay-Z would eventually make his mark in his own music and on others’ songs. He famously wrote for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on “Still D.R.E.” back in 1999, something he had to dive into their psyches to write. “You gotta have somewhat of reverence for them, the music they were making, The Chronic, and all of that,” Jay-Z said in 2021. “In order for me to really nail the essence of Dre and Snoop, it had to be like a studied reverence of what they were doing.”
The post Future Says Jay-Z ‘Wasn’t Great’ Until After Tupac and Biggie Died, but He’d Only Released One Album at the Time appeared first on VICE.
