Where Whould They Be Today?

Where would they be today? Not an easy question...unless your Nostradamus.

I have something that I have been meaning to write for a minute now that I need to get off my chest… so if you’ll bare with me I’ll try and make it quick (and you might even learn something). A couple weeks ago, on the anniversary of Biggie’s untimely murder, there was a couple days in which hip-hop remembered the murder of Biggie. During this week they played a lot of his music and talked about his influence. Here is where my problem comes into play… When people pose the question “where would Biggie be now?”… In which the response if often several minute long about how Biggie would be the ultimate human. He would be the most influential person not just in hip-hop, but in the entire world… basically his dookie would twinkle with diamonds.

Many people fall into this trap. They simply take the success someone was having after they died, times it by how many years they have been dead… and take that number to the power of the age they were when they died. When the fact is NO ONE KNOW’s where Biggie would be now if he were alive. He may have continued his success, or he may have tailed off a bit. But it is more then likely that he would come out with at least one bad CD, if not several.

Imagine if Jay-Z would have died after Black Album, or if Big Boi would have died after Stankonia, or if LL Cool J would have died after Bigger And Deffer. Don’t you think just maybe it would be their posters on your wall, and maybe they might have gone down as the best rappers of all time… Just a thought.

Part of his success is, sadly, his death. So without his death, we would not be the icon he is today, and though he would have plenty of fans and considered a great rapper, he would not be appreciated to the extent he is today. Don’t believe me? Ask: James Dean, Kurt Cobain, Bob Marley, Big L, Jimmy Hendrix, 2 Pac… or just look at any college room wall, and see which posters are of people who died unnaturally.