Allen Hughes has praised 2Pac as a pioneer of “female-centric songs” from male artists in the rap community. “Brenda’s Got A Baby” came out when he was 20. He wrote it when he was 18. To this day, point me to one male rapper who ever consistently wrote female centric songs. When you look at ‘Brenda’s Got A Baby,’ what makes it unique is it’s one long verse. It’s storytelling at its finest. He’s singular in that he’s got like eight to 10 songs that embody a female perspective, experience, disposition, heart or mind—and that’s the thing he had. If you knew him behind closed doors, you’d see other sides of him that were almost demure and soft, and they’re always very sweet. He was really in touch with his feminine side,” Hughes told Hits DailyDouble last month.
Furthermore, Hughes said never Pac never lost that edge. “Even when we start talking about toxic masculinity and maybe the trap he may have fell into later, he wasn’t afraid to cry, he wasn’t afraid to be sensitive or write poetry. And by the way, he was always reading. He always had a book in his hand. To Hip-Hop at the time, that was like kryptonite ’cause who reads?” Hughes added.
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Allen Hughes Calls 2Pac “Delusional” But A “True Artist”
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 25: American rapper, songwriter, and actor (1971-1996) Tupac Shakur poses for a portrait during the 1994 Source Awards on April 25, 1994 at the Paramount Theatre in New York, New York. (Photo by Bob Berg/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in August 2023, Hughes called “delusional” but a “true artist”. “The thing that I discovered on Dear Mama was he truly is an artist. He’s a poet. He don’t see the world the way normal people see the world. He don’t see danger the way normal people see danger,” he began.
“I got in trouble with the [Shakur] family when I said this, but pure artists are delusional. Yeah. That’s part of what makes them great artists: they’re delusional. They’re sharing their delusions with us. But they don’t think they’re delusions: it’s real to them. So they don’t see the reality of things. They see the dream of it all. They’re living in a dream. That’s part of what made him so special. Tupac was subjecting us to his fantasies, but they weren’t fantasies to him,” he continued.
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