I’m a huge hip-hop head, specifically when it comes to the ’90s, and I love gangsta rap from that era. I own a ton of gangsta rap records and genuinely love that shit. But one thing I’ve never understood is why Tupac gets singled out so much with the “fake gangster” or “fake thug” criticism.

If we’re being real, a lot of the gangsta rappers who emerged in the ’80s and ’90s weren’t actually gangsters living the life they rapped about either lol. Ice Cube was a straight-A student, studied architecture in college, had good parents, and wasn’t out here living some hardcore street life. Dr. Dre wasn’t a gangster either. Jadakiss went to private school and grew up in a two-parent household. Nas named himself after Escobar, but he wasn’t some major drug dealer and was a relatively good kid growing up. Even groups like Mobb Deep weren’t literally living every single thing they portrayed in their music.

And that’s the point, rap has always involved personas, exaggeration, storytelling and entertainment. You don’t necessarily have to literally live every bar you spit for the music to be authentic or impactful.

So I’ve never really understood why Tupac gets so much more scrutiny for this than other rappers from the same era. If we’re going to apply the “fake gangster” standard to Pac, you’d have to apply it to a huge portion of ’90s gangsta rap. I just don’t understand why he seems to get singled out for something that was extremely common in hip-hop at the time

Why does Tupac get singled out for the “fake gangster” label when most 90s rappers weren’t actual gangsters either?