Here’s Why Tupac Shakur Needs To Be Inducted Into The 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has unveiled the nominees for the 2017 class and hip-hop fans have a lot to be happy about. In addition to iconic bands and singers being nominated, none other than West Coast’s own Tupac Shakur has been officially nominated to join music’s most elite class.

Rolling Stone reports those who receive the highest number of votes will be announced in December and then officially inducted in April 2017 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. For the 5th year in a row, fans will be able to vote for who they want to see enter the Rock Hall. Starting now until December 5th.

On top of being one of the best rappers in history, he was an artist of many talents and a committed man. Besides being an emcee, he was also an actor, a poet, a philosopher, a lyricist and a political activist. All of this before leaving us prematurely at the age of 25, on the 13th of September 1996 in Las Vegas, 20 years ago.

With each passing year, Tupac’s legacy only grows stronger, but these days it’s easier than ever to see why. Tupac didn’t just make music, he made literature and stirring music out of universal ideas and ever-relevant emotional urgency.

Pac got himself a future by fighting hard to become the bestselling artist in hip-hop history, with 75 million albums sold (of which dozens of millions of copies were sold after his death in the form of posthumous albums). The real life spitter was an institution where music was only one of the features. He spoke on behalf of a whole community, becoming an activist for social equality. Tupac was also committed to women’s rights, and the rights of mothers, disabled people, and the ill.

There’s no need for words to understand this legend; his work says it all. In “Changes” he talks about a society that never changes, and which is not ready to change, with so much poverty, murders and racism. The song shows that Tupac was some sort of a visionary, since the situation he described remains pretty much the same two decades later.

After all, it’s only right to have another one of our own be inducted into such a prestigious group, so this is why we must  help and vote Tupac Shakur into the 2017 Rock Hall over at Rolling Stone.