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Rock critics, who had always lengthy career, from ‘50s R&B to Lady T, came out, much of the R&B marked the first time she’d done so run-ins with the law as his music. his lifestyle as it was his music.
ranked Brown considerably below ‘70s funk. world was shocked to see how well in the pop market. Ironically, By 1994, 2Pac rivaled Snoop Dogg
Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin fair-skinned she was. But to many Marie was a white singer who had as the most controversial figure The son of two Black Panther
in the soul canon, began to re- In 2004, Brown was diagnosed of the black R&B fans who were enjoyed little exposure outside the in rap, spending as much time in members, Tupac Amaru Shakur
evaluate his output, particularly with prostate cancer but success- eating her music up, it really didn’t R&B market prior to “Lovergirl.” prison as he did in the recording was born in New York City. His
the material from his funk years, fully fought the disease. By 2006, it matter -- the bottom line was she studio. His burgeoning outlaw parents had separated before he
sometimes anointing him not just was in remission and Brown, then was a first-rate soul singer whose Three more Epic albums followed: mythology helped his 1995 album was born, and his mother moved
“Soul Brother Number One,” but 73, began a global tour dubbed the love of black culture ran deep. 1986’s Emerald City, 1988’s Naked Me Against the World enter the him and his sister around the
the most important black musician Seven Decades of Funk World Tour. to the World (which contained charts at number one, and it also country for much of their child-
of the rock era. Late in the year while at a routine By her third album, 1980’s gold her smash hit “Ooh La La La”), opened him up to charges of ex- hood. Frequently, the family was
dentist appointment, the singer Irons in the Fire, Marie was do- and 1990’s Ivory. Unfortunately, ploitation. Yet, as the single “Dear at the poverty level, but Shakur
In 1988, Brown’s personal life came was diagnosed with pneumonia. ing most of her own writing and Marie’s popularity had faded con- Mama” illustrated, he was capable managed to gain acceptance to the
crashing down in a well-publicized He was admitted to the hospital producing. That album boasted siderably by the late ‘80s, and Epic of sensitivity as well as violence. prestigious Baltimore School of the
incident in which he was accused for treatment but died of heart the major hit “I Need Your Lovin’,” dropped her. In 1994, the singer Signing with Death Row Records Arts as a teenager. While he was at
by his wife of assault and battery. failure a few days later, in the early and Marie went gold again with released Passion Play on her own the school, his creative side flour-
After a year skirting hazy legal and morning hours of Christmas Day. A her next album, It Must Be Magic Sarai Records label. Ten years ished, as he began writing raps
personal troubles, he led the police public viewing was held at Apollo (which included the major hit later, she signed to Cash Money and acting. Before he could gradu-
on an interstate car chase after al- Theater in Harlem, followed by a “Square Biz”). It Must Be Magic and released La Doña, featuring ate, his family moved to Marin
legedly threatening people with a private ceremony in his hometown turned out to be her last album for assistance from Gerald LeVert, City, CA, when he was 17 years old.
handgun. The episode ended in a of Augusta, GA. ~ Motown, which she had a nasty Rick James, and MC Lyte. Sapphire Over the next few years, he lived
six-year prison sentence that many legal battle with. Marie got out of followed two years later. Though on the streets and began hustling.
felt was excessive; he was paroled her contract with Motown, and both La Doña and Sapphire peaked Eventually, he met Shock-G, the
after serving two years. the case ended up with the courts at number three on the R&B/Hip- leader of Digital Underground. The
Teena Maria passing what is known as “The Hop Albums chart, she switched Oakland-based crew decided to
Throughout the ‘90s Brown con- Teena Marie Law” -- which states to Stax for her next album, 2009’s hire him as a dancer and roadie,
tinued to perform and release No white artist sang R&B more
new material like Love Over-Due convincingly than Teena Marie, that a label cannot keep an artist Congo Square. Marie unexpect- and as he toured with the group,
(1991), Universal James (1992), whose big, robust vocals were so under contract without putting out edly died in her sleep at her home he worked on his own material.
and I’m Back (1998). While none black-sounding that when she was an album by him or her. in Pasadena, CA on December 26, 2Pac made his first recorded ap-
pearance on the group’s spring
2010; she was 54 years of age.
of these recordings could be con- starting out, some listeners won- Switching to Epic in 1983, Marie 1991 record, This Is an EP Release,
sidered as important as his earlier dered if she was a light-skinned recorded her fifth album, Robbery, Tupac and he also appeared on their sec-
work and did little to increase his African-American. Marie grew up in late 1995, 2Pac released the ond album, Sons of the P. The fol-
popularity, his classic catalog be- in west Los Angeles in a neighbor- 2Pac became the unlikely martyr double-album All Eyez on Me in lowing year, he released his own
came more popular in the Ameri- hood that was nicknamed “Venice of gangsta rap, and a tragic symbol the spring of 1996, and the record, debut, 2Pacalypse Now. The album
can mainstream during this time Harlem” because of its heavy black of the toll its lifestyle exacted on as well as its hit single “California
than it had been since the ‘70s, and population. The singer/songwriter/ urban black America. At the out- Love,” confirmed his superstar became a word-of-mouth hit, as
not just among young rappers and producer was in her early twenties set of his career, it didn’t appear status. Unfortunately, the gangsta “Brenda’s Got a Baby” reached
samplers. One of the main reasons when, around 1977, she landed a that he would emerge as one of lifestyle he captured in his music the R&B Top 30 and the record
for this was a proper presentation job at Motown Records. It was at the definitive rappers of the ‘90s soon overtook his own life. While went gold. However, its blunt and
of his recorded legacy. For a long Motown that she met her mentor -- he started out as a second-string his celebrity was at its peak, he explicit lyrics earned criticisms
time, his cumbersome, byzantine and paramour-to-be, Rick James, rapper and dancer for Digital Un- publicly fought with his rival, for moral watchdogs, and Vice
discography was mostly out of who ended up doing all of the writ- derground, joining only after they the Notorious B.I.G., and there President Dan Quayle attacked the
print, with pieces available only on ing and producing for her debut had already landed their biggest were tensions brewing at Death album while he was campaigning
skimpy greatest-hits collections. album of 1979, Wild and Peaceful. hit. But in 1991, he delivered an ac- Row. Even with such conflicts, for re-election that year. Shakur’s
profile was raised considerably by
A series of exceptionally well- That LP, which boasted her hit duet and had a hit with “Fix It.” In 1984, claimed debut album, 2Pacalypse however, 2Pac’s drive-by shooting his acclaimed role in the Ernest
packaged reissues on PolyGram with James, “I’m Just a Sucker for Marie recorded her sixth album, Now, and quickly followed with in September 1996 came as an Dickerson film Juice, which led to a
changed that situation; the Star Your Love,” didn’t show Marie’s Starchild, and had her biggest pop a star-making performance in unexpected shock. On September lead role in John Singleton’s Poetic
Time box set is the best overview, picture -- so many programmers at hit ever with “Lovergirl.” Though the urban drama Juice. Over the 13, six days after the shooting, Justice the following year. By the
with other superb compilations black radio just assumed she was Marie had often soared to the course of one year, his profile rose 2Pac passed away, leaving behind time the film hit theaters, 2Pac
devoted to specific phases of his black. When her second album, top of the R&B charts, “Lovergirl” substantially, based as much on his a legacy that was based as much on
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