Idi Amin enters the world of gangster rap

I was listening to one Tuapc yesterday, and one of his angriest songs called “Hit Em Up.” Of all the Tupac I’ve heard over the years this is the most violent and profane. He recorded this track right after he was shot in the same studio as Biggie. This track in many ways marks the beginning of the East Coast- Weat Coast Rivalry when Tupac accused Biggie of trying to kill him. However listening to it yesterday I caught something I’d never heard before. He mentions Idi Amin in the song. Here are the lyrics to the section (PROFANITY DISCLAIMER!!!)

You’s a B-writer
Pac style taker
I’ll tell you to face, you ain’t nothing shit but a faker
Soften the Alize with a chaser
Bout to get murdered for the paper
Idi Amin approach the scene of the caper
Like a loc, with little Ceas’ in a choke (Uhh)
Toting smoke, we ain’t no mutha-fuckin’ joke
Thug Life, niggas better be known
Be approaching
In the wide open, gun smoking
No need for hoping
It’s a battle lost
I gottem crossed as soon as the funk is boping off
Nigga, I hit ‘em up

The entire song is about how Tupac is going to kill Bad Boy Records, Junior Mafia (Biggie’s click) and everyone associated with them in the East. I found it interesting that Tupac would invoke the image of Idi Amin as a type of killer who is not unfamiliar with the type of murder Tupac is planning. Not that Tupac was the most conscious artist (though he was at times), I find the idea of aspiring to be as coldblooded as Amin, a dictator who massacred thousands of people rather messed up. In a way however, it shows how African politics and culture bleeds into black American culture in ways one would definitely not expect.