Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tupac Shakur
“I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing. Through every dark night, there is a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep ya head up... and handle it”(Tupac). A man of heartfelt compassion, strength, and social awareness; or one of anger, hate, and violence? Tupac Amaru Shakur not only influenced all of today’s hip hop world, but also broke deep inside the framework of it’s culture, changing the game forever. Through uplifting songs such as “Changes” and “Keep Ya Head Up”, he pleaded with his fellow man to be better, and take responsibility for there actions. He also related to the gang mentality through violent rhymes such as “Ambitionz az a Ridah” and “Hit Em Up”, a song aimed at his enemy Biggie Smalls, after Tupac was shot 5 times outside the studio where Smalls was recording. Shakur believed that Biggie and the rest of the Bad Boy Family were aware of the attempt on his life before hand. Tupac’s rough and gritty childhood showed brightly in his controversial music, but also in his socially aware pieces. His hard times, and prayers for better days helped him to connect with the world on a personal level unlike any other entertainer before. Tupac became an icon, a symbol of hope, for even as he spoke of blasting guns and smoking weed, he stood for love. Some say his compassion could be heard through the sound of his voice, but his music is a confusing idea to grasp. On track two he speaks of positive change, but yet on track twelve he says, “Little Caesar go ask your homie, how I'll leave you. Cut your young *** up, see you in pieces, now be deceased. You claim to be a player, but I $*$*$* your wife. We bust on Bad Boys, n***** f*** for Life”. There is no compassion in those words. Tupac possessed the deepest of minds and no one will ever know what he was truly thinking, because we only have his music left.
Tupac was greatly influenced by many different black activist groups such as the Black Panther Party, as well as by simple ideals like egalitarianism and liberty. His mother Afeni Shakur, was a Black Panther, and high constantly. At an early age Tupac was surrounded by violence and hate, but he still showed the upmost love for his beloved mother until the day he died. These unfit surroundings would influence his raps throughout his career. In addition, his exposure to Black Nationalism would encourage his hopeful songs, as well as his controversial lyrics referring to the white man as the enemy and the black man as the victim. “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a n****, he’s a hero.” Changes” takes on many socially unjust issues and puts them in simple, truthful terms. Tupac cannot understand why drugs and murder are so prevalent in our society, and why we can’t just unite as one, and stand strong. But yet he brings down the cops he hopes to come together with in that very same song. Taking it one step further, the violence he witnessed as a child is almost positively spoken about in his more hardcore, murderous songs. This is where the mind of the greatest rapper to ever walk the earth becomes inexplicably complicated, but also where he influenced so many who came after him. Every rapper in the game today has studied “Hit Em Up” and “All Eyez On Me”, everybody remembers when Tupac survived two shots to the head, and three more to the body. How he walked out of the hospital three hours after his surgery. Everyone remembers when he brought the entire West Coast together through songs like “Changes”, and dared his enemies to try to murder him. Tupac didn’t influence a handful of today’s rap superstars, he influenced rap as a whole, and most of all, he forced us to think.
Eminem makes rap music, but Tupac Shakur is rap. Tupac made hip hop what it is, and who it is. He turned it into a way of life. If Tupac rapped about nature, then that’s what we’d still be hearing. He was a man who accepted his status as the face of his genre, but all while he strongly resisted stereotypes that he so often rapped and spoke out against. Tupac was his own being, and he was determined to be that being to the best of his ability. He intentionally broke the mold of general rap music in many ways. “I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other. We got to start making changes, learn to see me as a brother, instead of two distant strangers.” This is a plead to the world to come together, and become aware of the people around you. Tupac spoke and lived his life in this manner, although at heart, he was still a kid from the streets. He wrote about killing and degrading women just like 50 Cent or Jadakiss, but if you truly look at Tupac’s music, you realize his rhymes are not what’s important, it’s his heart. He’s not putting down women, he’s asking why they allow themselves to be looked upon as bi****$. In every single song he cares, and in every single one he provokes us to think, and look into ourselves, whether he’s being positive or negative. That is noble in it of itself, and no one can take that away from him.
Respect, love, compassion, unity, and heart are words that merely scratch the surface of what Tupac was trying to communicate to the world. This world was personal to him, and even as he spoke of killing other men, a sense of hurt and anger was always present, for he was disappointed in his fellow man, and possibly himself. “And I ain’t never did a crime I ain’t have to do, but now I’m back with the facts giving them back to you.” Tupac, despite his roots and his tendencies was always pushing to be better, and make us better along with him. This shows that although it may have been too late for him to learn from his mistakes, he hoped his listeners would consider his music and learn from him. Through revealing the idea that some believe needing the money is justification for selling drugs to children, Tupac brings forth socially accepted phenomena that needs to be dealt with. Taking these issues head on shows that he was a very brave man because there wasn’t another rapper doing this like he was. “I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself, is life worth living should I blast myself?” Tupac wanted better from himself and his peers, and when this was not achieved, he felt as though he had personally failed. In the midst of his last trial before his death, he told his interviewer that he didn’t want his people’s last image of him to be in a cell, he believed they deserved better.
“That’s the sound of my tool, you say it ain’t cool? My momma didn’t raise no fool. As long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped, and I never get to lay back. Cause I always got to worry about the pay backs.” This line is a typical and basic Tupac rhyme that is a perfect example of how his music can be taken by individuals listening to it. There are two ways you can understand this line. You may believe he is advocating using gun violence, knowing he may be killed due to his past, or you may see how sorry he is that it has to come down to this. He doesn’t want to kill a fellow man, but because of his mistakes, he may be in danger, and he must face it head on like a man. This idea is what should be taken from Tupac’s music. All he was attempting to do was open up people’s eyes, and then maybe there hearts would follow. Did this message get through to everyone who listened to Tupac? Probably not, because brothers continue to shoot at each other, but his positive presence remains with all the lives and minds he touched. “Rat- a- tat- tat- tat- tat, and that’s the way it is.”
Tupac was a character of epic proportions that changed the face of hip hop forever with his indescribable love and undeniable talent. Poetically, no one of this era may be able to match him, and as a person, no one could have overcome hurdles the way he did. Tupac will never be forgotten, for his music is stuck in your head for life, and his messages will seep into your soul. He foreshadowed his murder many times in his lyrics, as if he knew when he was to die, and when he finally did, its possible that he died knowing he did his best for the world, because he didn’t just attack the police or the white man, he tried to reveal everyone’s flaws, in hopes that we would embrace them and enact change. In the words of the man himself, “Don’t it make you get teary, the world looks dreary, but when you wipe your eyes you see it clearly. There is no need for you to fear me, if you take the time to hear me, maybe you can learn to cheer me. It ain’t about black or white cause we’re human, I hope we see the light before it’s ruined.”
Tupac was greatly influenced by many different black activist groups such as the Black Panther Party, as well as by simple ideals like egalitarianism and liberty. His mother Afeni Shakur, was a Black Panther, and high constantly. At an early age Tupac was surrounded by violence and hate, but he still showed the upmost love for his beloved mother until the day he died. These unfit surroundings would influence his raps throughout his career. In addition, his exposure to Black Nationalism would encourage his hopeful songs, as well as his controversial lyrics referring to the white man as the enemy and the black man as the victim. “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a n****, he’s a hero.” Changes” takes on many socially unjust issues and puts them in simple, truthful terms. Tupac cannot understand why drugs and murder are so prevalent in our society, and why we can’t just unite as one, and stand strong. But yet he brings down the cops he hopes to come together with in that very same song. Taking it one step further, the violence he witnessed as a child is almost positively spoken about in his more hardcore, murderous songs. This is where the mind of the greatest rapper to ever walk the earth becomes inexplicably complicated, but also where he influenced so many who came after him. Every rapper in the game today has studied “Hit Em Up” and “All Eyez On Me”, everybody remembers when Tupac survived two shots to the head, and three more to the body. How he walked out of the hospital three hours after his surgery. Everyone remembers when he brought the entire West Coast together through songs like “Changes”, and dared his enemies to try to murder him. Tupac didn’t influence a handful of today’s rap superstars, he influenced rap as a whole, and most of all, he forced us to think.
Eminem makes rap music, but Tupac Shakur is rap. Tupac made hip hop what it is, and who it is. He turned it into a way of life. If Tupac rapped about nature, then that’s what we’d still be hearing. He was a man who accepted his status as the face of his genre, but all while he strongly resisted stereotypes that he so often rapped and spoke out against. Tupac was his own being, and he was determined to be that being to the best of his ability. He intentionally broke the mold of general rap music in many ways. “I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other. We got to start making changes, learn to see me as a brother, instead of two distant strangers.” This is a plead to the world to come together, and become aware of the people around you. Tupac spoke and lived his life in this manner, although at heart, he was still a kid from the streets. He wrote about killing and degrading women just like 50 Cent or Jadakiss, but if you truly look at Tupac’s music, you realize his rhymes are not what’s important, it’s his heart. He’s not putting down women, he’s asking why they allow themselves to be looked upon as bi****$. In every single song he cares, and in every single one he provokes us to think, and look into ourselves, whether he’s being positive or negative. That is noble in it of itself, and no one can take that away from him.
Respect, love, compassion, unity, and heart are words that merely scratch the surface of what Tupac was trying to communicate to the world. This world was personal to him, and even as he spoke of killing other men, a sense of hurt and anger was always present, for he was disappointed in his fellow man, and possibly himself. “And I ain’t never did a crime I ain’t have to do, but now I’m back with the facts giving them back to you.” Tupac, despite his roots and his tendencies was always pushing to be better, and make us better along with him. This shows that although it may have been too late for him to learn from his mistakes, he hoped his listeners would consider his music and learn from him. Through revealing the idea that some believe needing the money is justification for selling drugs to children, Tupac brings forth socially accepted phenomena that needs to be dealt with. Taking these issues head on shows that he was a very brave man because there wasn’t another rapper doing this like he was. “I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself, is life worth living should I blast myself?” Tupac wanted better from himself and his peers, and when this was not achieved, he felt as though he had personally failed. In the midst of his last trial before his death, he told his interviewer that he didn’t want his people’s last image of him to be in a cell, he believed they deserved better.
“That’s the sound of my tool, you say it ain’t cool? My momma didn’t raise no fool. As long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped, and I never get to lay back. Cause I always got to worry about the pay backs.” This line is a typical and basic Tupac rhyme that is a perfect example of how his music can be taken by individuals listening to it. There are two ways you can understand this line. You may believe he is advocating using gun violence, knowing he may be killed due to his past, or you may see how sorry he is that it has to come down to this. He doesn’t want to kill a fellow man, but because of his mistakes, he may be in danger, and he must face it head on like a man. This idea is what should be taken from Tupac’s music. All he was attempting to do was open up people’s eyes, and then maybe there hearts would follow. Did this message get through to everyone who listened to Tupac? Probably not, because brothers continue to shoot at each other, but his positive presence remains with all the lives and minds he touched. “Rat- a- tat- tat- tat- tat, and that’s the way it is.”
Tupac was a character of epic proportions that changed the face of hip hop forever with his indescribable love and undeniable talent. Poetically, no one of this era may be able to match him, and as a person, no one could have overcome hurdles the way he did. Tupac will never be forgotten, for his music is stuck in your head for life, and his messages will seep into your soul. He foreshadowed his murder many times in his lyrics, as if he knew when he was to die, and when he finally did, its possible that he died knowing he did his best for the world, because he didn’t just attack the police or the white man, he tried to reveal everyone’s flaws, in hopes that we would embrace them and enact change. In the words of the man himself, “Don’t it make you get teary, the world looks dreary, but when you wipe your eyes you see it clearly. There is no need for you to fear me, if you take the time to hear me, maybe you can learn to cheer me. It ain’t about black or white cause we’re human, I hope we see the light before it’s ruined.”
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Hypnopaedia
We are who we are, no one can judge us from afar...unless we let them. Humans are naturally imperfect beings who judge one another based upon a variety of things. Whether deserved, or merely a slight prejudice, the only true judgement comes when the victim allows for the ideas to cause pain. I will judge a book by its cover just as quick as anyone else would, but prevention comes in the form of the individual, not the attacker. We will always pass judgement on our neighbors, its impossible to rid ourselves of that. So in defense of that reality, be one's self, care for whoever surrounds you, and don't look back at those who harshly judge the strong, but nurture the weak. For if that is not accomplished, we will forever be stuck in the quick sand of our fellow man.
Monday, November 17, 2008
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