‘How Long Will They Mourn Me?’: Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., and the Hauntology of Hip-Hop

Abstract

This essay asserts that a specter is haunting Hip-Hop. The history of the genre contains frequent ghostly references to the tragic deaths of numerous artists. More than 25 years after their untimely, and forever linked, deaths, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) are the two most prominent of these ghosts. Their spirits continue to release tracks, appear in movies, and perform ‘live’ as holograms with living artists. In the spirit of this special issue, the author argues the ongoing presence and obsession with the lyrical narratives of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. are characteristic of a hauntology. To illustrate how they function rhetorically as ghosts, the author draws upon lyrics from each artist involving their much-publicized feud as well as their own obsessions with death. This essay concludes with a discussion of the ongoing cultural, historical, and rhetorical work these narratives perform, and how they remain present in ongoing struggles for racial reckoning in the United States.