It has been a very long time since Tupac Shakur passed away and yet, it seems like yesterday to those who really felt a connection. Makaveli was able to connect to each of us at different levels in different ways. For many of us, we saw different angles of Tupac, and that is something we simply do not see any more, not just in hip-hop, but in music as well. Gone are the days of multifaceted individuals who are not cookie-cutter marketing gimmicks but true legendary individuals who influence the masses with complexity, passion and spirit.

A question for the masses; do you think that in your life time you will find someone (any individual) who fits this description? Perhaps not even related to a genre or industry but someone close to you? There is a level of psychology at play here; we see it everyday in sports, music and even on the big screen; can you identify it? We’ll touch more on this in a future post but consider this because we believe that 2012 is a good year for people to start creating their own paths and sometimes our paths are not the same as our co-workers, friends and family. If you could make a change right now, this very day, what would you do?

Aliases have been used since communication (written and verbal) was discovered. A pseudonym like Makaveli was a genius idea by Tupac simply because he attempted to assume the connection to Niccolo Machiavelli, if by name only and not necessarily because of the individual himself.  In hip-hop, its no secret that aliases create a marketing channel. After all, 50 Cent would reach the market much more than Curtis Jackson, Eminem over Marshall Bruce Mathers, etc.

We discuss daily the need to do this for the obvious reasons however many artists do it when their careers have started to decline or they hit a wall and are not reaching the same audience at the same levels. Reinvention is common and we can consider stage names such as Makaveli, Pac, 2pac, or just Shakur (HoB, 1996) as a good example.