3PAC (1991-2015), formerly a benign rapper and producer going by the handles Silvaback and Ryan James was an Oakland, CA based satirical rapper, focusing on making music bad enough to make your ears bleed, primarily in the venerable Swag Rap genre. Outside YouTube, he was a student at San Jose State University and a member of his school's water polo team.
Starting in mid-2012 as the white homage to Lil B, he went on to create his own style and terminology, primarily referring to not giving a hoot (what did these poor owls ever do?) or ending every sentence with "son".
His early videos were widely disliked, with many people taking him at face value and assuming that he really was just a terrible rapper making outrageous boasts. As more people began to see his videos and understand his humor, however, he ended up developing an extremely loyal and dedicated underground fan base. His fans are usually referred to as the 3PAC Army or the Zero Hoots Gang.
In October of 2015, his career was abruptly and tragically cut short when he drowned during a water polo accident. He was taken to the hospital, but was eventually taken off life support when it became clear that he would never regain consciousness. He was 24 years old.
His fans continue to keep his memory alive on the internet. Much of his music and merchandise can be found here
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3PAC's most notable tracks include:
- PUSSY ASS HOES (also referred to as "THE REAL RAP GOD", "EMINEM DISS" or simply "RAP GOD")
- I DON'T GIVE A HOOT (ZERO HOOTS FREESTYLE)
- RICH WHITE MAN MARK CUBAN (WE BOOZIN)
- SWAG LIKE OSAMA
- PEWDIEPIE IS A CHILD RAPIST
- I LOVE MCCHICKENS
- EBOLA IS HOOT(EBOLA AWARENESS VIDEO SON) ** ANCIENT SILVERBACK **
3PAC provides examples of:
- Animal Motifs: He often compared himself to a Silverback, and sometimes got down on all fours and/or beat his chest like one.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: 3PAC STYLE (a parody of Gangnam Style) features faux Korean, while the Nelson Mandela memorial song and "Galapagos Islands" feature lyrics sounding as if written in exotic languages.
- Boastful Rap: If it's a 3PAC song that isn't a DissTrack, it'll be this.
- Caps Lock: Almost all of 3PAC's video titles are written in ALL CAPS.
- Celebrity Song: ROSIE O'DONNEL (sic), BARRY BONDS and RICH WHITE MAN MARK CUBAN.
- Depraved Bisexual: He usually rapped about hoes and chedda mamas, but he also expressed sexual interest in Chief Keef, and claimed to suck his own dick.
- Downer Ending: At the time of his sudden death, he had built up a very loyal and supportive fan base, and his YouTube popularity was steadily increasing.
- Drunken Song: Supposedly this one.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: 3PAC begun with singing deliberately horrible freestyles such as this one and did not bother to flaunt his "chedda", even if purely staged - instead producing all of his videos in his unremarkable green-walled sleeping room.
- Evil Laugh: Occasionally did this on songs that parodied the horrorcore subgenre (see I F*CKED THE BASED GODS BITCH and 2 CHAINZ SUCKS DICK (LEGENDARY DISS)).
- Large and in Charge: In charge of the whole rap game.
- Large Ham: He frequently mentioned "going ham".
- Likes Older Women: If his RICH WHITE MAN MARK CUBAN and RICH WHITE MAN CHEVY CHASE videos are any indication.
- Limited Lyrics Song: Be prepared to hear any combination of "son", "chedda", and "hoot" in any given song.
- Frequent overuse of certain phrases and rhymes, such as "cheddar/better/wetter", "rich white man/I got the plan", or even "boss/Rick Ross".
- Loudness War: RAP GOD.
- Lyrical Tic: "Yeah", "boy", "son", etc.
- Messianic Archetype: Once called himself the rebirth of Jesus. He also compared himself to Buddha, MLK, and the like.
- Mighty Whitey: How he sarcastically portrays himself in the EBOLA IS HOOT video.3PAC is a hero3PAC is JesusHere to save AfricaWith all of my chedda!
- N-Word Privileges: He comically assumed he had this, and made full use of it.
- Patriotic Fervor: On a few tracks, but most noticeably on F*CK NORTH KOREA (LEGENDARY NATIONAL WAR ANTHEM).
- Politically Incorrect Hero: In addition to his N-Word Privileges, he also took an irreverent approach to sensitive topics like Ebola, the Jerry Sandusky trial, and recently deceased celebrities.
- Raised By Silverbacks: Or so he claimed.
- Refuge in Audacity: "Swag Like Osama", as well as his "tributes" to Nelson Mandela and Paul Walker.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot / Gosh Darn It to Heck!: For maximum WTF effect, he often made liberal use of both "real" and "substitute" swear words in the same song.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Part of his shtick. He regularly claimed to "run the whole game", and called himself the Martin Luther King of this era.
- The Stoner: He was very fond of dope, and could sometimes be seen smoking it in his videos.
- Stylistic Suck: Prevalent through almost all of his creative output.
- Take That!:
- PEWDIEPIE IS A CHILD RAPIST SONG can be seen as that, considering PewDiePie frequently pulled off rape jokes in his videos.
- He also called Donald Sterling a glorified slave owner. "Just 'cause they gettin' paid a lot doesn't mean they ain't slaves, son, straight up!"
- More generally, a good deal of his songs consist of diss tracks directed at well-known rappers and public figures. He's even dissed Spider-Man.
- PEWDIEPIE IS A CHILD RAPIST SONG
- Title-Only Chorus: Most of his songs, with small changes/additions to the chorus, as in:Swag like Osama, swag like OsamaSwag like Osama, I don't want no dramaSwag like Osama, swag like OsamaSwag like Osama, hotter than a sauna!
- Took a Level in Badass: Throughout most of his "career", he was noticeably overweight. After joining his college's water polo team in mid-2015, however, he began to get in drastically better shape, and in some of his last videos he looked close to being ripped.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Beat the cheeks" for having sex, presumably doggy-style.
- We Used to Be Friends: Was friends with Dillon the Hacker, until Dillon turned against him over his insults directed towards PewDiePie.note
