A friend of mine posted an NPR link on my Facebook wall the other day – "20 years ago, Tupac broke through."
I won’t link to it (because it’s not particularly good) but it got me thinking: 20 years? Really!?
The breakthrough he’s talking about was Shakur’s second studio release as a solo artist, "Strictly For My N.I.G.G.A.Z." Two decades. Wow.
I was 12 years old for most of 1993 (late birthday), and that year changed my musical life forever. MTV was actually MTV and I was exposed to hip hop, and it blew my mind – especially Shakur. It wasn’t the bikini’s in the "I Get Around" video, either – it was the rawness of "Holler If Ya Hear Me." That video, that sound, was etched in my brain.
So, I pedaled to a local record store, bought the cassette with my allowance – waiting out the adults so I could buy something with the "Parental Advisory" label on it. (And when I say local, I mean nine miles round trip on a bicycle down the "busy" street. Holy crap my parents would’ve killed me if they knew I wasn’t out playing baseball down the street).
I had to hide that tape, too – only listening to it on my headphones.
My best friend then introduced me to this crazy sound with the coolest cover art I’d ever seen – and frankly, still have ever seen – in "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)." Again – it touched a nerve, somehow, some way, in a kid in the south suburbs of Chicago.
What was awesome was he had an older brother, so through him I got dubs of other ’93 releases like Ice Cube’s "Lethal Injection," the Menace II Society soundtrack and Too $hort’s "Get In Where You Fit In." Of course, Snoop Doggy Dogg’s debut record, "Doggystyle," was everywhere and easily accessible, and I taped countless songs off the "real" rap station in Chicago – 106.3 back in the day. (In later years they wouldn’t even bother to edit Bone Thugs-n-Harmony!)
What’s funny is that period of hip hop is often considered angry, "gangsta," – whatever – but I had nothing to be angry about. True, the anger, the edge, in many of these records captivated me, but even at that young age, I listened. I appreciated the wordplay, the creativity. I already loved reading at that point, and this was another way for words to create a visceral impact. It fascinated me. It resonated.
Two decades later, it still does.
2Pac: "Holler If Ya Hear Me"
Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.
A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.
To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.
Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.
In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.
Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.
