It’s the Battle of Los Angeles between two gangsta rap icons.

I took my 20 favorite rappers and put them in head-to-head matchups to battle for their rank in Rap Kumite.

“God bless the dead.”

Two icons of gangsta rap from different generations, 2Pac and Nipsey Hussle, robbed of their lives—2Pac at 25 and Nip at 33—a result of the violent lifestyles they both embraced and rejected. The repped hard for their sets, Death Row and the Rollin’ 60s, the West Coast and L.A.. Their identities are impossible to separate from their hardcore images, and their fates will never be forgotten. They lived uncompromising lives, reckless and dangerous at times, but they aspired to be better.

Nip had the chance to put his words into action and pour his energy and money into creating resources for the economic benefit of his community. He wanted better opportunities for the people in his neighborhood, Crenshaw. He was evolving beyond his image and becoming a positive leader and vehicle for change. He’ll never get to see his vision for Crenshaw’s future, but his family is continuing to run that marathon for him.

2Pac didn’t get to live as long as Nip, and the artist we knew as “2Pac” was not the person I believe he would have grown to become. At the time of his murder in Las Vegas, 2Pac was neck deep in the highly publicized East Coast/West Coast beef, fueled by him and his rival, Notorious B.I.G.—then the two biggest stars in rap music. He was at war; he had a rep to uphold, and he genuinely felt betrayed by his old friend, Biggie. I don’t think 2Pac was in the right head space to think about community development, but what if he had another decade to live? He was a symbol of activism because of the socially conscious lyrics that he spit on a lot of his tracks, but he wasn’t yet as active as he might have been.

We can play that “What If?” game all we want with these dudes to no advantage, or we can celebrate them by rocking their jams and debating who did it better.

2Pac

“And fuck the world ‘cause I’m cursed, I’m having visions. Of leaving here in a hearse, God can you feel me?”

The great contradiction seen in gangster flicks and heard in gangsta rap is committing un-Godly acts on one’s rivals and then later seeking God’s forgiveness and guidance. No one did this better on record than 2Pac, with as much conviction regardless of which message he was delivering. I believe it’s because “2Pac the rapper” was the perfect role for “Tupac the artist”. He was an artist, went to art school, dabbled in different mediums, and found his niche. Step away from his music career and take a look at the roles he played in his most notable movies: Juice, Above the Rim, and Poetic Justice. Bishop, Birdie, and Lucky were on-screen versions of Tupac that he also played on record. It worked well.

He is one of the most influential rappers to ever rock a mic, so much so that he both carried hip-hop’s Golden Era into the mid-90s while also ended it when he (and Biggie, six months later) was killed. There probably wouldn’t be a Nipsey Hussle if there never was a 2Pac. In my world, 2Pac was a living legend, the figurehead of West Coast gangsta rap for anyone hitting high school in 1995-96, and the best rapper on the Death Row roster. It’s impossible to capture what he meant to hip-hop in a couple of paragraphs, and that should be enough to carry him to Kumite victory.

Favorite Track

“Hail Mary” is technically on a Makaveli track, but I think that Hurt-M-Badd beat is the hardest 2Pac ever rapped over. “Picture Me Rollin’” is one of a few flexes Pac made after his release from prison, but it’s a laidback flex. He’s just rolling in his 500 Benz. Whereas “California Love” is another flex, but Dr. Dre wanted to blow the roof off this mother with that beat. “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” is the trunk-rattling introduction to the “reincarnated” 2Pac. Before Death Row, Pac was channeling Malcolm-X standing at the window with an M1, paranoid that his fame and his message was going to get him killed. That was Me Against the World. When he signed with Death Row and posted bail, he put on the black hat and recorded All Eyez On Me in a matter of weeks. But...

“So Many Tears”

... shows us a vulnerable side of 2Pac; he’s broken down from the traumas of his past, and he’s trying to break free of them, but he’s struggling. I compared him to Malcom X on Me Against the World, and even though this is only the fourth track on the album, 2Pac sounds exhausted by the fight he’s putting up with himself. D-Flizno Production Squad flipped a little Stevie Wonder sample and helped make this an underrated and rarely mentioned hip-hop classic.

Nipsey Hussle

“This the remedy, the separation/2Pac of my generation/Blue pill in the fuckin’ Matrix/Red rose in gray pavement.”

In the Menace II Society, Caine is a car ride away from escaping Jordan Downs and the perils of gang life, but he’s shot to death in a drive-by, out of retribution for a diss, and dies as the credits roll. In 2019, Nipsey Hussle was engaging with fans outside of the clothing store he ran on the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson, The Marathon. A dude Nip knew from the neighborhood, Eric Holder, rolled up and bantered with Nip for a minute before he left, feeling dissed. He returned a few minutes later with two guns, walked up to Nipsey Hussle, and shot him 10 times.

Nip’s story plays out like so many other young men in L.A. caught up in gangster shit. You don’t even have to bang to become a victim of the lifestyle. The hardest part of his death to take is that Nipsey had turned away from that life and instead invested his resources back into his community. He was on the brink of major projects to develop economic and educational opportunities for young people in his neighborhood, providing better alternatives to the streets than were being offered. Some dick with a fragile ego took it upon himself to end Nip’s life over words.

I respect the hell out of Nip’s hustle because his level of dedication is where I aspire to be. He wasn’t the gifted rapper 2Pac was; he had to work to refine his skills. You can track the evolution of his style from The Marathon mixtape to Victory Lap. When he raps that he’s been grinding all his life, he’s not bullshitting you. 2Pac created his gangster persona for All Eyez On Me; Nipsey Hussle lived it in South Los Angeles.

Favorite Track

“Last Time That I Checced” is one of those tracks you put on your gym playlist because it’s going to get you pushing up that supermax weight. It’s one of a few tracks the Rollin’ 60s Crip made with rappers who had Blood/Piru affiliations. In fact, it’s one of those collabs that’s featured in my favorite Nipsey Hussle track.

“They Roll (feat. The Game)”

Roll it up. Light it up. Turn this track up, and smoke that shit.

There can only be ONE!

This is Rap Kumite 6, reserved for the 6th spot in my “Top 10”. Styles matter in fighting and in hip-hop. 2Pac had the better flow. He was natural with it, and his talent crossed-over to the silver screen. He was controversial and popular, and he pushed the line from the moment he rapped about Brenda’s baby right up until he was murdered on the Vegas Strip as retribution for a fight he started in the MGM. He’s a legend who exists on a hundred thousand hip-hop Mt. Rushmores. But that’s not what Rap Kumite is about.

In Rap Kumite, combatants throw their 10 best tracks at each other (i.e. the 10 tracks I love the most). For days, on heavy rotation, they battle. When the dust settles, the rapper whose music I felt the most—the rapper with the most FIRE tracks—wins Rap Kumite. Round 6 goes to...

Nipsey Hussle

Respect the grind. The Marathon continues.

Congratulations! The prize is a special place in my heart.

RAP KUMITE CHAMPS

10. Evidence
09. GZA
08. Pusha-T
07. DMX
06. Nipsey Hussle

Next in Rap Kumite 5, Kung-Fu Kenny brings his fists of fury to a dank basement in Detroit for a battle against an OG named Slim.
*Previously on Rap Kumite 7...