Many fans thought the image and those words were speaking out for this Black man, but people soon noticed something was off. The "Gotham" being mourned did not seem to be a place name.
English grammar was rather strict. When Gotham was treated simply as a place name, there were specific prepositions and sentence structures for it. If Biggie had meant "we mourn this day in Gotham forever," the grammar would not have matched what he had posted. If he had meant that they should never forget the tragedy that happened on Gotham soil, the difference would have been even greater.
The sentence sounded more like they would forever mourn a person named Gotham, because only with a name in that position did the sentence make relatively good sense.
If someone else had posted those words, many people might have assumed they were uneducated and had casually written a grammatically broken sentence to ride the hype. But Biggie was, after all, a famous rapper. Rappers were Masters of lyrics; he would not make such a basic mistake.
Then there was the fact that the two biggest figures of the East Coast and West Coast had both changed their backgrounds to black and posted messages at the same time. They were Black themselves, so speaking up for Black rights was normal, but they were currently in Gotham. Could it be that they knew some inside information?
Opinions flew everywhere, and public debate exploded. Right then, 2pac recorded a video and posted it on the Web.
He sat in his hotel bedroom, pointed the camera at his face, and looked utterly grief-stricken. He remained silent before the camera for a full three minutes before saying, "I deeply regret that a friend has left us forever, while the world never got to truly