I was out buying shoes today at some Hot Topic type store and they were selling Notorious B.I.G. action figures


Am I overreacting or is this weird and kind of racist? Biggie was a real person, not a movie character. It feels crass to sell an "action figure" of any real person, but especially someone who actually grew up around a lot of violence and ended up being murdered. I think this is linked to the phenomenon of rap as a modern-day minstrel show where rappers are marketed not as human beings but as characters (specifically, comedic caricatures of black culture) designed for the consumption of a predominantly white audience. OTOH you can say all rappers are playing a character to some extent, and selling an action figure of Christopher Wallace as Biggie Smalls is no different to selling an action figure of Daniel Craig as James Bond. IDK

nah. these hard

rap is wrestling

I was about to say the difference is that rappers actually die and wrestling is pretend, but they still sell action figures of Owen Hart so maybe you're right

As long as the royalties straightened out to where the family eats I don’t see the issue

No, I'm playing with my Carti action figure right now.

They can be hard

I found out Ja Rule Funko Pops exist while doing research for this thread (i.e. looking up what action figures of musicians exist). I think it's hilarious . It's different I think because Funko Pops aren't really action figures, they're static pop culture symbols intended for display not play, and there is a long-established trend of releasing Funko Pops of real people. The only real point of owning a Funko Pop is put it on your shelf and show others "I'm a fan of this thing", which sucks, and is embarassing, but isn't connected to the caricaturisation of rappers in any real way. There ISN'T any comparable trend for action figures of real people so it's more egregious IMO. You're right that it might detract from my point though so I'll take the avi off.

Yeah youre overthinking and thinking

The only "weird" thing about it is that biggie isnt alive to reap the benefits

There are many rap figures btw and by alive rappers

Calm down

You need to log off for a sec bro

S*** like this ruins actual serious talk about racism & social issues & makes us look like haters and fake deep whiners

A rap figure that celebrates the person it presents as is not even a top 100 issue nor even a real issue

Stop finding problems where they dont exist when we have actual legit problems with actual reality warping consequences yiu can fight/talk about, not some memorabilia

Been thinking for a while about copping a Bootsy Collins figure from Super 7 actually

racist?