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by ricky d. mercer contributing writer BIGGIE ’S Death and the State of Hip Hop F irst 2Pac, now Biggie. Killers aren't satisfied with just killing the aver age brother anymore. Now they've moved up to the high profile brothers. It's a damn shame, but think about it: what can we all say about Biggie's death that we didn't say when 2Pac got killed? "Uh—we need to stop the violence." Or "uh—all this senseless violence has got to stop." This whole thing is stupid to me. We got rappers, good rappers, dropping like flies, and then the hardcore rappers, like everybody's favorite gangster rapper turned preacher rapper turned gangster rapper again (Ice Cube), canceling con certs in their own hometowns because they're afraid. They're afraid that the real gangsters that they glamorize are going to come after them! What the hell has Hip Hop come to? Good rappers getting killed in their prime while the wack ones run scared and keep making records! And MTV has the gall to dis Biggie on the DL when they were report- mention his weight. The most tragic thing about Biggie's death was that it came when he was saying the most positi things in his career. He's taking it upon himself to do his part in squashing this whole East Coast- West Coast thing, preaching unity, and he's gunned dally if they're on Bad Boy Records, and he's showing love. And his re ward is a clip full of bullets and a one-way ticket to the morgue. Hip Hop's got nowhere to go but up from all of this. Maybe since The most tragic thing about Biggie's death was that it came when he was saying the most positive things in his career. He's taking it upon himself to do his part in squashing this whole East Coast-West Coast thing, preaching unity, and he's gunned down. ing the memorial service in Brooklyn. The man is dead but the reporter goes out of his way to say that his "300 lb body was shipped to New York." Shipped, like he's a side of beef or a spe cial extra large package. When Curt Cobain blew his own brains out he wasn't "shipped" anywhere—he was sent —and they for damn sure didn't Not to disgrace the dead, but at least 2Pac had gravitated back into his old hating, negative self when he was killed. I miss his lyrical skills and his delivery, but I'm not going to miss hear ing how the west side is the best side. (Sorry, I'm not from California.) And Biggie's in L.A., which is enemy terri tory for anybody from New York, espe- Page iii are actually dying now rappers will stop talking about killing people and start getting back to what rap originally was: a mouthpiece for the young Black expe rience. We don't all live in ghettos, and those that do don't always sell drugs and shoot people. We go to parties, we have fun with our boys, we discuss life and our futures, and some of us even fall in love. I hate to see Biggie go, es pecially when he was on such a posi tive tip, but hopefully Hip Hop will grow because of it and get better. May 11997/ The Maroon