In this YouTube monologue, the speaker challenges the claim that Lauryn Hill ranks above Tupac Shakur as the greatest rapper. He recounts his personal experience listening to Tupac in the early 1990s, cites specific tracks such as “Brenda Got a Baby” and “Brenda’s Got a Baby” (note: likely “Brenda’s Got a Baby”), and emphasizes how Tupac’s lyrics addressed poverty, violence, systemic injustice, and police brutality long before high‑profile incidents like the Rodney King beating (1992) and the George Floyd protests (2020). The speaker argues that Tupac’s work was educational and activist, not merely entertainment, and that ranking him below Lauryn Hill ignores his early, prescient social commentary. The tone is confrontational and defensive, with a passionate, supportive sentiment toward Tupac’s legacy.
Chapters
But whenever y'all put Lauryn Hill, bruh, as a better rapper of all time than Tupac, man, where's y'all credentials at, man? Throw them in the garbage. Come on, man. Come on, man. Lauryn Hill, bruh, a better rapper than Tupac all time? Like Tupac 15 and she number 10? I'm just, you know, paraphrasing. I forgot which— what order it was, but it don't matter what order it is, it's out of order. Period. Period. Come on, man. Come on. Come on, man. Let's start with his albums, man. Now this was me, man. 1993, I think it was. '92, '93. I just graduated from high school in '92. Tupac-less, man. We was going to In Effect back in the day. Me and my boy Big Sean and my cousin Shelly, man. We was hanging out all the time. But definitely me and Big Sean. We going to any fact, man. Pumping this Tupac strictly for my, strictly for my, strictly for my, strictly for my— hey man, tracks like Brenda Got a Baby, Brenda Trapped, you know, highlights issues like poverty, violence, and the, the, the injustice system and the, the injustices that we have taken on as a people, man. This dude was talking about this, man, back in 1993, bro, you know. Way before a lot of this stuff was happening. I think the Rodney King thing had happened in '92, and so this was stuff that he was touching on, man. You know, things that we seeing now that, that just had got out of control at one point. I think it then died down some since the George Floyd. We had a few, uh, other ones after that, man, but it, you know, we haven't had as many police killings of young Black men in the last few years like we did at one point, man. It seemed like we was having one like every other week, man. But my boy Pac, man, he was talking about this in '93, man. He, you know, this is what he was on, making it clear that Tupac wasn't just here to entertain, he was here to educate and spark change.