Happy 58th birthday to my brother @Speech__!! 🎉🥳🎂 A true legend of Hip-Hop, but more importantly, a wonderful human being and someone I’m blessed to call a friend 🙏 It’s been an honor sharing this musical journey with you over the years, and I’m excited for everything that’s still to come. Here’s to many more years of life, love, blessings and timeless music! The best is yet to come!! 💫🔥 #Speech #ArrestedDevelopment #Polaris #HipHop @ADtheBand

R.I.P. to DJ Mark the 45 King 🙏🙏🙏

I’d go with 2Pac, Ice Cube, Ice-T and Too $hort. Four artists whose influence helped shape the identity and direction of West Coast hip-hop. Eazy-E, E-40 and Snoop all have serious claims too.

No shit, Sherlock. Lol. And you do know Pac became synonymous with the West Coast, right? Nobody’s placing him on a New York Mt Rushmore, despite him going by ‘MC New York’ as a kid in Baltimore. You’re confusing birthplace with cultural identity. California Love. To Live and Die in L.A. Throwing up the Westside sign. These weren’t just songs and gestures. They were expressions of cultural identity.

And if we’re talking cultural impact rather than merely technical ability? Who are we still discussing, dissecting and debating on a daily basis 30 years after their death? If we’re judging purely on technical ability, then a Mount Rushmore could easily feature Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch, Gift of Gab and Aesop Rock. But that’s clearly not the criteria being applied here.