Since the age of 14, I have always been interested in rap music. Several times in my life, I would briefly re-evaluate why I kept seeking out and listening to what I now consider (and, back then, still considered) to be some of the most linguistically ignorant music I have ever heard. Sometimes I would cite the energy derived from the beat, other times I would cite my ability to relate (albeit very obtusely) to the lyrics. The latter explanation I would apply (poorly) to the recordings of Notorious BIG, a drug-dealer turned rapper from Brooklyn in New York City. I felt I understood his struggle to do whatever was necessary to make enough money to survive, and to achieve his goals and aspirations regardless of how many people said he would be forever unable to achieve them. Later in my medical career, I discovered the musical styles of a completely different artist; Frank Sinatra.
Sinatra's music was smooth, many of the songs I had heard before in commercials and movies, some of his songs are timeless. When Sinatra was 75 years old, he still managed to draw a full crowd at major concert venues (the same way B.B. King does today). A major difference for me that forced a comparison between these artists from two completely different genres is that I felt unembarrassed to share Sinatra's music with my family, but could not reasonably justify exposing my parents to Notorious BIG. I started to think more about these artists recently, and decided to compare the two of them in order to see to whom I could actually relate more, what made them similar and what made them different.
Christopher Wallace was raised entirely by his mother and he was raised in a housing project in Brooklyn, yet he still attended Catholic school and was at the top of his class for subjects such as English. Sinatra's mother ran an illegal abortion business out of her home, for which she was arrested twice. Sinatra's father (both his parents were italian immigrants, by the way) was a boxer and volunteer fireman. Neither Sinatra nor Wallace graduated high school. Sinatra was expelled for "Rowdy behaviour" in an era when corporal punishment was fair game for schoolteachers. Wallace dropped out of high school to deal crack cocaine. He wasn't in destitute poverty or in need of financial aid for medical bills, he just wanted to sell crack cocaine and make lots of money. He started doing so when he was 12. Sinatra lived through the Great Depression for most of high school. His mother would provide him with money for "expensive clothes" and "outings" but he nonetheless had side jobs as a paper delivery boy and as a shipyard worker.
Both artists cited music as their respective passions in life, but Sinatra began to use his talent at the eight of 8, singing for tips. To add some perspective to this, when Sinatra starting singing for money, the Model T was 15 years old. There was no touch-tone phone, there was barely any government assistance, and there were no photocopiers, fax machines or credit cards. Sinatra began singing professionally when he was 15. At that point, Wallace was arrested on weapons charges in Brooklyn.
I sincerely doubt Wallace would have died had he not made the money he had from guns and drugs, and considering the era in which Sinatra lived, I would be hard-pressed to say Wallace had a more difficult life than him. For what it's worth, both men made leaps and bounds as entertainers and did a lot for their respective genres. Frank Sinatra's music is still very much enjoyed today, and Wallace is considered by many to have been the best rapper that ever lived. I recently realized, though, that if someone were to ask me who I admire more, I'd have to say Sinatra. I can relate more to a man who went after his dream very early on in life (I decided when I was 8 that I wanted to be a doctor) and stuck it out regardless of the problems he faced (Frank's professional singing career essentially began DURING the Great Depression). I started putting together a playlist on a website full of songs recently, and the first songs I went for were blues, clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn .... the next set of songs I went for were from Sinatra's compilation album "Nothing but the Best". I don't have any Biggie on there, and though his music still entertains me on some level despite its profanity, objectification of women, and glorification of crime, it simply doesn't have the same impact it had with me when I first discovered it. It can be argued that I've grown out of it, and into music that was made more than 30 years before I was born.
Addendum: For the one reader from Romania ; Eu Vorbesc Putsin Romanesc, enveutsat de la priete
(I speak a small amount of Romanian, I learned from my friends)
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