TOTALLY AGREE WITH EIGHT.
And after the other vids with Jada and Tyrin and Mo, all the pieces connect to make sense now.
Pac was an well read poet, a temperamental actor that rapped, he was attractive and well spoken enough for white folks to embrace and hood sensitive enough keep it black for us.
Pac was a diva. He was on that Hollyhood, Pro black, educated black man and street thug shit - all at once. It was a plan so he can build up his image on all fronts. He was as good as a politician but as confused and misunderstood as many of the great artists and genius minded folks that came before him. I went through this same shit at 20 - like I was five different people wrapped in one and eventually I figured myself out. Really, we all did.
Fact is the story of film is the story. Pac wanted to be a screenwriter so he thought his input had merit but it didn't. He thought his standing had more weight than it did too - as did The Hugh bros themselves. The plot serves the story, the characters serve the story and flashbacks are a big no no in filmmaking. Some folks get away with it, some screenplays permit it but Menace wasn't written that way and the bros were too novice to fuck with their big shot. They cut out fight scenes and a prison riot and editing down gunfights, changed the epilogue - aint no way they were gonna add a flashback for a second tier character to reissue the standing of the actors already doing their shit right.
O-DOG was written to offset the role of Kaine. It made him more of the protagonist and set O-Dog up to be the potential antagonist (if need be - like Juice) but that face off never happened. The script stuck close to its Goodfella roots and it paid off.
In fact Dog was SO convincing that people didn't even know Larenz was an actor, nobody remembered his lil ass from TV. It was never written to be Pac but our mindset of Thuglife just pushed that rumor on - even till this day.
Nicholson headlining Keaton in Batman= great. Ahnuld did it for Batman Returns= dogshit. Janet called all shots for Poetic Justice= meh, lackluster shit. Denzel self dialoguing Training Day= Oscar award. Christian Bale show out for Terminator= fuck outta here son. Sometimes, playing diva works but most often it fucks everything up.
I love Pac still. The man was a talent we will never see again...
oNE
