1. If I were to directly compare Mount Rushmore to Rapmore and make my case based upon the similar artists it would go something like this:
George Washington= Kool Herc (although I may sound dumb but I have yet to see Grandmaster Flash in this discussion. At least a shout out about the man who was telling the truth about the ghetto as much as Public Enemy) Other than the parenthetical I have no argument with this agreed upon point.
Thomas Jefferson= Chuck D
As I look at Jefferson I see a man, who at the end of the day, was a true renegade. He was the only presiddent who was publicly anti-Christian (in fact he may be the only president that mattered EVER to be so publicly against the accepted religion of America--good or bad). Not only did he oppose the British, he sometimes even opposed the Americans (This of course is not expert opinion so feel free to put me down. It's like Bill Simmons with music. His argument in this whole thing was almost moot. He is just dumb and uninformed. I am the same way with the presidents).
But Chuck D definitely goes here because he was crackin' on people who are rapping today before they were even born. The same way TJ was raggin' on George W. more than 100 years before it made sense.
Abraham Lincoln=Tupac
There should be a book with the above words as a title because it is just right. There should be no debate about this one. NONE. Their comparison is haunting. They were both great men. They have both been idolized for things that they weren't necessarily trying to be idolized for. And that is the big ticket for me. Abraham Lincoln will be championed as the man who was brave enough to say no to slavery and risk a war. That is how he is talked about in elementary school even up into high school. But he has been quoted as saying that if he thought keeping slavery would keep the union together, he would have done it. His leadership was so influential that he was an accidental (this may be too strong a word) inspiration to the abolishment of slavery. He seriously just didn't care about it. His care was actually in a way greater for the sake of a nation. And he kind of inherited The Emancipation Proclamation along the way.
I feel that Tupac is very similar. Did he come out with the expressed intent of bringing light to the ghetto world? I don't think so. I think he was trying to literally stay alive and his natural oratory skills (like Lincoln) took him where he needed to go. It just so happened that he ended up representing a world, and he was chosen as the representative hero partially because of his untimely death (like Lincoln).
I am serious about that book title. I say it should be co-written by Michael Eric Dysson and Chuck Klosterman. You pretty much certify a best seller when you can guarantee LOL humor in a book about two guys who were assassinated. Maybe they could do it as a conversation-- Dysson as Tupac and Chuck as Lincoln. Ok now I am just getting nuts.
Teddy Roosevelt=Eminem
This was definitely the toughest one. No doubt. It is the toughest one because I believe that TRoos does not belong on Mount Rushmore. He got lucky with timing. I will talk about who should be in the fourth spot in a second.
In the meantime, if we have to use Teddy as a base, I will go with Marshal as my guy. This guy will get a bad rap (no pun intended) simply because he was white. He might even deserve the criticism. But he is far and away the most intelligent lyricist in the bunch. Yeah I said it and I mean it. Tupac would definitely win in a showdown, but he had his limits. Eminem has no limits. He quietly has the best booty rap ever (with exception to Sir Mix-a-lot). This came out a few years ago. Also the rare times he guest spots with singers it is incredible ("Smack That" with Akon, and that incredibly beautiful mashing with Dido-- which was slightly overplayed downplaying the fact that it is a beautiful track). In addition he has some of the most intense music in rap, making you curl in your seat when you listen and pissing people off who never got pissed off at black rappers publicly (the homophobic word issue).
How does he compare with Roosevelt though? This is a bit of a stretch but I am gonna stick by it. Both men were misunderstood. Teddy is considered a working class hero, but he was a friggin' game hunter! That is not working class no matter what century you live in. Eminem has been construed as a whiner just because he is white. Not cool. He is as much ghetto as anyone in the rap industry--with additional prejudices to battle through before he made it big. People forget that, yes he is successful in part because he is white, but think about the journey he had to get there.
Part 9 is coming soon. I go away from the subject quite a bit in Part 9, but it is still somewhat interesting if you have no life.
--QA
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