1996: You Ain’t Killing 2Pac Softly
Oct 1, 2020
Topics: Tupac death, Fugees, Set It Off, Moesha (Bonus Artist: hidingtobefound)
1996 Snapshots
1. President: Bill Clinton
2.
Jan - Whitewater scandal: U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton
testifies before a grand jury.
3.
Feb - Daniel Green is convicted of the murder of James
Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.
4.
Mar - Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of
first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
5.
Apr - Chicago Bulls set a new NBA record for the most
wins in a season, 70.
6. May -?
7.
Jun - The Colorado Avalanche wins their first Stanley Cup
in their first season based out of Denver and The Chicago Bulls win
their fourth NBA Championship by defeating the Seattle
Supersonics.
8. July - The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the
1996 Summer Olympics kills 2 and injures 111.
9. Aug - Tiger Woods makes his professional PGA Tour
debut.
10. Sep - Tupac Shakur dies.
11. Oct - The Fox News Channel is launched.
12.
Nov - Bill Clinton defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole
to win his second term.
13. Dec - Death of JonBenét Ramsey: A six-year-old
beauty queen is beaten and strangled in the basement of her
family's home in Boulder, Colorado; her body is found the following
day.
14. Open Comments:
15. Music Snapshots
16. #1 Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los del Río
17. #2 One Sweet Day, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
18. #3 Because You Loved Me, Celine Dion
19. Record of the Year: Change the World – Eric
Clapton
20. Album of the Year: Falling Into You – Celine
Dion
21. Song of the Year: Change the World
22. Best New Artist: LeAnn Rimes
23. Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: You're
Makin' Me High – Toni Braxton
24. Best Male R&B Vocal Performance: Your Secret
Love – Luther Vandross
25. Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal: Killing Me Softly – Fugees
26. Best R&B Song: Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Babyface,
songwriter (Whitney Houston)
27. Best R&B Album: Words – The Tony Rich
Project
28. Best Rap Solo Performance: Hey Lover – LL Cool
J
29. Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group: Tha
Crossroads – Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
30. Best Rap Album: The Score – Fugees
31. Movie Snapshots
32. #1 Independence Day
33. #2 Twister
34. #3 Mission: Impossible
35. Notables: Don't Be a Menace to South Central While
Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, The Birdcage, Fargo, A Thin Line
Between Love and Hate, The Nutty Professor, Kazaam, Set It Off,
Space Jam, Jerry Maguire.
36. TV Snapshots
37. #1 - ER
38. #2 - Seinfeld
39. #3 - Suddenly Susan
40. Debuts: Moesha, The Daily Show, Kenan & Kel, The
Steve Harvey Show, In The House, Malcolm & Eddie, Homeboys in Outer
Space, The Jamie Foxx Show
41. Economic Snapshots
42. Income = 36.3k (Previously 36K)
43. House = 118.2K (113)
44. Car = 16.3k (15.5)
45. Rent = 554(550)
46. Harvard = 27.5k (26k)
47. Movie = 4.42 (4.35)
48. Gas = 1.22 (1.12)
49. Stamp = .32 (-)
50. Social Scene: Tupac Killed
51. Childhood: Tupac Shakur, born Parish Crooks, was
born on June 16, 1971, to Black Panther activist parents in New
York City. Thirteen days later, his mother, Alice Faye Walker
(Afeni Shakur), changed his name. The parents wanted to avoid him
being targeted by Black Panther-affiliated enemies. His mother was
imprisoned while she was pregnant with him. Tupac's father, Billy
Garland, was also a Panther but lost contact with Afeni when Tupac
was five years old. The rapper would not see his father again until
he was 23 - I thought my father was dead all my life.
52. Early Life: He had a difficult childhood, as he
grew up in the company of criminals, militant activist, violence,
and a drugged addicted mother with a transient lifestyle. Art
became a constructive and safe escape. His first acting stint was
in 1983 (@12
yrs. old) with the Harlem’s 127th StreetRepertory Ensemble
when he performed in a play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ at the Apollo
Theater. In 1984, Tupac's family moved from New York City to
Baltimore,
Maryland.There he studied poetry, jazz, acting, and ballet at
the Baltimore School for the Arts and befriended Jada Pinkett. The
family later moved to Marin City, California, across the bay from
Oakland, in 1988 (@17 yrs. old). They went to the
home of a woman Afeni had been close to during her Black Panther
days and lived in a poor housing complex, referred to as ‘the
Jungle.’
53. Early Career: While attending high school he
participated in a poetry workshop known as The Microphone Sessions,
organized by Leila Steinberg, who would eventually become his first
manager. She introduced 19-year-old Tupac to Atron Gregory, a
manager for the World Class Wrekin Cru’ and tour manager for NWA,
who had just returned to the Bay Area, started TNT Records, and
quickly gained attention by signing Digital Underground.
Gregory matched Tupac with Digital Underground as a roadie
and backup dancer. Tupac’s talent was soon recognized by the group,
and he began rapping in some of their songs. He debuted on ‘Same
Song,’ which was featured in the 1991 film Nothing But Trouble.
(@20 yrs.
old)
54. Solo Career: He released his debut solo album
‘2Pacalypse Now’ in 1991. (Big hit - 'Brenda's Got a Baby') Also in
1991, Shakur filed a $10-million lawsuit against the Oakland Police
Department for allegedly brutalizing him over jaywalking. The case
was settled for about $43,000. (1992 - Juice, first starring role)
His second album, ‘Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z’ came out in 1993. It
was more successful than its predecessor and contained the hits
‘Keep Ya Head Up’ and ‘I Get Around’. (1993 - Poetic Justice,
co-starred with Janet Jackson) In 1994, he formed a group Thug Life
and they released one album ‘Thug Life: Volume 1. (1994 - Above the
Rim, Co-starred with Duane Martin) During this period he had
several brushes with the law (he was associated with the shooting
of a 6 yr. old Qa'id Walker-Teal in Marin City / shooting two
policemen / various physical assaults) and was shot in an armed
robbery case. After recovering from the shooting, he was sent to
prison on a sexual assault charge. He released the album ‘Me
Against the World’ in 1995 (@24) while serving his prison term. The
album was an immediate hit and debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200.
55. Final Album: During 1995, while imprisoned,
impoverished, and with his mother about to lose her house, Tupac
had his wife get word to Marion Suge Knight, in Los Angeles, boss
of the Death Row Records, at the time a verry successful company,
and asked for a meeting. Tupac's mother received $15k, Suge paid
Tupac's $1.4m bail, signed the rapper, and went to work on the
album ‘All Eyez on Me’. The album was recorded in two weeks! In a matter of two
weeks, Tupac recorded and completed the double-disc album,
completing two out of three albums he owed Death Row. (The third
release would end up being the posthumously released The Don
Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory) Released in February of 1996, the
album featured five singles and went multi-Platinum in just a few
months after its release.
56. Death: Seven months later, in September 1996,
Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting. He was 25 years old.
57. Open Comments:
58. Question: Confused young man or someone to be
taken seriously? (What did he represent?)
59. Music Scene:
60. Black Songs in the Top 40
61. #1 Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los del Río
62. #2 One Sweet Day, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
63. #4 Nobody Knows, The Tony Rich Project
64. #5 Always Be My Baby, Mariah Carey
65. #6 Give Me One Reason, Tracy Chapman
66. #7 Tha Crossroads, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
67. #9 You're Makin' Me High / Let It Flow, Toni
Braxton
68. #10 Twisted, Keith Sweat
69. #11 C'mon N' Ride It (The Train), Quad City
DJ's
70. #14 Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Whitney Houston
71. #16 Sittin' Up in My Room, Brandy
72. #17 How Do U Want It / California Love, 2Pac
featuring K-Ci and JoJo
73. #20 Hey Lover, LL Cool J
74. #21 Loungin, LL Cool J
75. #23 Be My Lover, La Bouche
76. #27 I Can't Sleep Baby (If I), R. Kelly
77. #32 Not Gon' Cry, Mary J. Blige
78. #33 Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio featuring L.V.
79. #34 Only You, 112 featuring The Notorious B.I.G.
and Mase
80. #35 Down Low (Nobody Has to Know), R. Kelly
featuring The Isley Brothers
81. #36 You're the One, SWV
82. #37 Sweet Dreams, La Bouche
83. #38 Before You Walk Out of My Life / Like This and
Like That, Monica
84. #40 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New), Coolio
85. #42 No Diggity, Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre
86. Vote:
87. Top RnB Albums
88. Jan - Waiting to Exhale, Soundtrack / Various
artists
89. Feb - Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin
Compton, Eazy-E
90. Mar - All Eyez on Me, 2Pac
91. Mar - The Score, Fugees
92. Apr - The Coming, Busta Rhymes
93. Apr - The Resurrection, Geto Boys
94. Jun - Gettin' It (Album Number Ten), Too Short
95. Jun - Legal Drug Money, Lost Boyz
96. Jun - The Nutty Professor, Soundtrack / Various
artists
97. Jul - Secrets, Toni Braxton
98. Jul - Keith Sweat, Keith Sweat
99. Jul - It Was Written, Nas
100. Aug - Beats, Rhymes and Life, A Tribe Called
Quest
101. Sep - ATLiens, Outkast
102. Sep - Home Again, New Edition
103. Oct - Another Level, Blackstreet
104. Nov - Bow Down, Westside Connection
105. Nov - Ironman, Ghostface Killah
106. Nov - The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,
Makaveli
107. Nov - Tha Doggfather, Snoop Dogg
108. Dec - Hell on Earth, Mobb Deep
109. Dec - Muddy Waters, Redman
110. Vote:
111. Featured Artist: The Fugees
112. Lauryn Hill (@21 yrs. old in 1996) was born in
1975 to a high school teacher and computer expert in New Jersey.
Her mother played piano and her father sang in nightclubs. Young
Lauryn sang in church choirs, gospel groups and showed a strong
voice. She loved '60s and '70s soul and by age thirteen, she was
playing the amateur night showtime at the Apollo, doing a cover of
Smokey Robinson's "Who's Loving You". Hill nabbed minor roles on
television's As the World Turns and in the film Sister Act II: Back
in the Habit. Her work with the Fugees began in 1987 in high school
with friend Prakazrel Samuel Michel.
113. "Pras" (@23 in 1996) was born in Brooklyn
in 1972 and raised in New Jersey. He showed an early interest in
music and attended Rutgers University and Yale University, pursuing
a double major in Philosophy and Psychology.
114. Wyclef Jean (@27 yrs. old) was born in 1969 in
Haiti, the son of a minister. When he was nine, he moved to the
projects of Brooklyn, and later New Jersey, where he took up guitar
and the study of music.
115. The trio formed in the late '80s, named
themselves the Tranzlator Crew and used Hill's soap opera acting
proceeds to pay for equipment. They toured the tri-state area and
were signed to major label Ruffhouse/Columbia in 1993. Hill was
still a minor. Shortly thereafter, they renamed themselves Fugees,
a derisive slang term for refugees, and released a debut 12-inch
Fugees (Tranzlator Crew) "Boof Baf" to no notable sales.
116. Their 1994 debut LP Blunted on Reality, stylized
in a fashion like A Tribe Called Quest, Poor Righteous Teachers,
and Digable Planets, did better. However, it was the remixed
versions of "Nappy Head (Mona Lisa)" and "Vocab" that earned the
group another budget for a follow-up album. (Also, notable, in
later interviews Pras would say that a married Wyclef and the
underage Hill were having a clandestine relationship at the
time)
117. Combining a mix of conscious hip hp, soul, and
reggae, with a homemade basement studio, sampled melodies, live
guitars, bass, keys, "The Score" arrived in 1996, filling the void
between gangsta and glitter. It became an instant classic,
ultimately selling over 18 million copies.
118. Open Comments:
119. Internal "Affairs": In the summer of 1996, on the
Smoking Grooves Tour, Hill met Rohan Marley, (one of Bob Marley's
kids) and even though the former University of Miami football
player was initially rebuffed, because Hill was still seeing Jean,
, no one knew who the child really belonged to.
120. In the summer of 1996 Hill had met Rohan Marley,
a son of Bob Marley and a former University of Miami football
player. Hill subsequently began a relationship with him, while
still also involved with the married Wyclef. She soon became
visibly pregnant. Marley and Hill's first child was born the
following summer.
121. Soon after Zion was born, she learned that Marley
already had a wife and two children from another marriage.
122. Amid newfound international fame and baby Daddy
drama, Wyclef did not support Hill's solo desires (she had made
appearances on Wyclef's solo project), thus leading to the group
splitting up.
123. Hill started work on The Miseducation of Lauryn
Hill; blocking out Wyclef Jean from any type of production help
after he had snubbed her. Her old-school takes on "Doo Wop (That
Thing)" helped it rule the charts in 1998 and win five Grammy
Awards, including Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female
R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best R&B
Album -- the most ever for a woman.
124. Meanwhile, Hill was having more of Marley's
children and becoming close with Brother Anthony, a spiritual
adviser who studied the Bible with her several times per week. In
2001, she recorded an MTV Unplugged session where she broke down in
tears and admitted to being deranged and emotionally unstable.
Rolling Stone called the session "a public breakdown", though it
debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and went platinum.
125. She has been a sporadic and reluctant public
figure ever since.
126. Question: Have you ever had an affair with a
co-worker? How did it turn out?
127. Movie Scene: Set It Off. [Directed by F. Gary
Gray Action, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller. Starring Queen
Latifah, Jada Pinkett, and Vivica A. Fox]
128. Rotten Tomatoes, Critics Consensus: It may not
boast an original plot, but Set It Off is a satisfying, socially
conscious heist film thanks largely to fine performances from its
leads.
129. Emanuel Levy, Variety 11-1996: Influenced by
"Thelma & Louise" and "Waiting to Exhale," F. Gary Gray's "Set It
Off" is a well-crafted girls-n-the-hood actioner, with an acute
social conscience and plenty of soul. A tale of female bonding and
empowerment, this relevant film boasts a terrific cast, headed by
Jada Pinkett and Queen Latifah in career-making performances.
130. Stephen Holden, New York Times 11-1996: Just
Trying to Get Even While They Get Rich. On the long list of
Hollywood heist movies that make you root for its criminals to
steal a million dollars and live happily ever after, F. Gary Gray's
film ''Set It Off'' is one of the most poignantly impassioned. If
this messy roller coaster of a film often seems to be going in
several directions at once, it never for a second loses empathy for
its quartet of black female bank robbers who grew up together in a
Los Angeles housing project and earn meager wages working for a
janitorial service... A pop psychologist might translate the story
into a fable called ''Women Who Rob Banks and the Society That
Hates Them.'
131. Roger Ebert 11-1996: “Set It Off” is advertised
as a thriller about four black women who rob banks. But it's a lot
more than that. It creates a portrait of the lives of these women
that's so observant and informed; it's like “Waiting to Exhale”
with a strong jolt of reality. The movie surprised and moved me: I
expected a routine action picture and was amazed how much I started
to care about the characters.
132. Kent, Entertainment Weekly 09-2019: Why Set It
Off is an era-defining film that shouldn't be remade. We are
clearly in the age of reboots and remakes, but the '90s heist film
is irreplaceable.
133. Question 1: Remake or Sequel?
134. Question 2: Do we really want more black female
action heroines/stories? (i.e., women of Black Panther, "Breaking
In" movie, Berry, Valkyrie, Guardians...etc.)
135. TV Scene: Moesha
136. Screen Rant: No show lasts for six seasons
without making a cultural impact; Moesha was nominated for 32
awards and won three: two NAACP Image Awards and one SHINE Award.
The series was syndicated, and still airs around the world. Netflix
picked up streaming rights to the series in 2020, which became
available to US subscribers on August 1, 2020. As new viewers will
discover, however, despite how influential the show was, it ends
abruptly after a significant cliffhanger for the main character in
the season 6 finale. Despite the recognition, the show steadily
declined in ratings, leading to its cancelation.
137. Moesha Mitchell went through quite the journey on
Moesha. At the beginning of the series, Moesha was still dealing
with her mother's death a few years prior and learning to come to
terms with her new stepmother, Deirdre "Dee" Mitchel (Sheryl Lee
Ralph) — who just happened to be the vice principal at Moesha's
school. The final season sees Brandy experiencing the trials and
tribulations of being a young adult, complete with an engagement to
long-time on-again, off-again boyfriend Quinton "Q" Brooks (Fredro
Starr) and attending college. The final episode ends with the
reveal of a positive pregnancy test in Moesha's dorm — who it
belongs to, however, is a mystery. Since the show never got another
season, the storyline was never resolved.
138. According to EW, at the time, UPN's plan was to
address the pregnancy cliffhanger in the spin-off series The
Parkers, which premiered on the network in 1999. The Parkers
followed Moesha's "boy-crazy" friend Kimberly Ann "Kim" Parker as
she navigated attending college with her mother, who has decided to
enlist at the same time as her daughter. For unknown reasons,
however, the planned resolution never took place, despite The
Parkers running until 2005. With there being reports of a possible
reboot series in the works, perhaps this Moesha storyline — as well
as the question of what happened to Moesha's brother Myles, who
disappeared in the finale — can finally be laid to rest."
139. Question: Is it reboot worthy? / Is any classic
black TV show reboot worthy?
140. Vote: Best/most important/favorite pop culture
item from 1996?