A Poetic Analysis Of Tupac Shakur's Keep Ya Head Up

2pac (Tupac Shakur) is known as one of the most influential rappers of all time and his music expresses transcendentalism. In the song Changes he raps about how the world needs change and that its corrupt. People need to change and treat others with respect instead of with hate. In the song it says "It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.-Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live-and let's change the way we treat each other." 2pac wants the people to become something better and make an effort to help and treat others with respect. He is advocating a movement. A movement that is dedicated to peace. He had a hard life in New York with a drug dealing father and a missing mother. Although he had an awful life he was optimistic and hopeful this is shown in all of his music. In the song "Keep Your Head up" 2pac raps about being yourself and doing what you believe is right. He wants to start a movement that influence people to act for themselves. A movement where people will be influenced to change and treat others better like his song

Shakur was an amazing artist of his time and still is. There are an exceeded amount of reasons why I decided to write about Tupac Shakur. He’s had a crazy life and I can’t imagine living the life he’s lived. He’s a very interesting person to research about. There are a lot of different stories, theories, experiences and lessons you can learn by learning about one person. He has a unique life nobody could ever relive. He started from the bottom and lived life like nobody else. Shakur can show you how you can start with a life with nothing, but work your way up to the top. This is just a couple of the reason’s why I chose to read, research and learn about a rap legend. Tupac Shakur had a wild life and a one you can really learn from. It’s really interest me about him, just how he’s lived. Shakur is my most favorite rapper. Everything about him, his music, his life is so unbelieveable. You really can’t even think about a type of life

Throughout the song, Tupac gives an inside look on the social problems affecting African-Americans and suggests possible solutions. In the first stanza of the song, Tupac first talks about how certain social issues are linked together; he makes a correlation between his skin color and being poor. Tupac says “I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.” Then he explains how poverty causes crime by saying “My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.” And finally, he demonstrates the relationship between police brutality and race by saying “Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.”

Tupac Amaru Shakur was a very influential person who overcame many difficulties. Tupac was a rapper of truth that spoke about the things that go on in the “Hood” and the unjust police. He was treated differently because he was black and was even arrested for jaywalking. After he was arrested he was beaten by the cops who wanted him to “learn his place”(Joseph 29). This shows how bad Tupac had it because he was African American. Tupac died an early death at 25 because of a brewing rivalry between the East and West Coast rappers. Shakur was a person who would stand up for what he believed in no matter the cost and died fighting for that. He never let anyone win a battle that he was determined to win and always knew what he was fighting for. His mother was the same, as a loyal member of the Black Panther Party, a group that protected all African Americans from police brutality. Tupac was literally born to be a fighter and carried on his mother's legacy. Despite his rough life, Tupac Shakur became one of the most influential rappers of all time.

Everyone knows a guy by the name of Tupac Shakur, but how do people know Mr. Shakur? Maybe it is by the hardcore gangster and obscene rap lyrics directed towards people, more so aimed towards his east coast rivals. As years went on, more and more people viewed a handful of Tupac’s music as a true work of art, containing strong messages along with stories from his troubled childhood and young adulthood. Later on in both Tupac’s life and career, he began to realize the demise of the African American culture as a whole. During his last stint in prison, not only did he realized all of this wrongdoing throughout this life, but also the negative influence rap and hip hop had over the young African American community. What happened during his incarnation,

Tupac was born to parents of The Black Panther Party, a revolutionary party standing for the rights of African Americans. Having being born into a family of poverty and black activists, Tupac was well aware of the importance of the issues that he highlights in this song as he himself had experienced them first hand.

Independently, Shakur’s lyrics suggest the inequalities he has experienced throughout his life and of his race in general. In the first verse, Shakur expresses his upbringing without a father and the struggles with the racial tension in his neighborhood. He implies that he has been pushed into a world of violence and crime because of his low socioeconomic status. He states that peace can only be attained if the African Americans are offered a place in the society. The second verse focuses upon the broader oppression of the black body where he addresses the police violence and inequalities of the system. His lyric analyzes the violence in the streets and the fear of police officers that are willing to shoot him because he appears threatening. Finally, the third verse expresses that he is still waiting on things to change, yet the answer is not present. The greater meaning to his

After going to serve his sentence, Tupac’s Me Against the World came out and the song Dear Mama became a hit. Later on, Marion “Suge” Knight the CEO of Death Row Records- record label that Tupac would sign to later on, posted $1.4 million dollars in

He pulled out his pistol, but dropped it in the melee. Someone picked it up, the gun fired. It hit a six year old bystander that instantly died. Tupac Shakur was not charged for his death. October 1993, Tupac shot and wounded two off-duty police officers after one of the officers threatened him with a stolen gun.

Tupac Shakur released the song “Keep Ya Head Up” first in 1993 on his album “Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z.”, then as a single in 1994. Tupac’s “Keep Ya Head Up”, one of his most notable and recognizable singles, received acclaim upon its release and continues to do so. The record centers on the social climate in the 90’s, and Tupac’s own experiences from his youth. Around the time of the song’s release, Tupac’s indictment in a rape case colored the reception of the song although it remained mainly positive. Tupac speaks on multiple issues through his lyrics, making it effective as a critique of society; moreover, the other creative devices he uses – phrasing, rhythm changes, and samples – make the song effective as an artistic project and back up his social message.

Shakur's music is still iconic and forever living in society because of how he speaks of issues plaguing America.

Tupac’s stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, spent four years on FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list that started during 1982. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and got jailed for the robbery of a Brinks armoured truck in which Mutulu killed two police officers and a guard during 1981. Tupac's godmother tried to escape from a prison in New Jersey in 1979. She had been imprisoned on 1977 for murdering a state trooper in 1973. Shakur had an older step-brother named Mopreme Shakur also known as Komani, and Sekyiwa, his half-sister. In 1986, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts. There he studied ballet, jazz, poetry, and acting. Shakur and one of his friends, Dana Smith also known as “Mouse” was a beatboxer, they won many rap competitions and they were " During his time in art school, Shakur became part of the Baltimore Young Communist League USA. He began dating the daughter of the director of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Shakur and his

This song had a large impact on women in the year of 1993. It talked about the wrongdoings that African American men have done towards women and how we need to stand up and protect our women. This song was very effective, and led to the decrease of violent relationships in black communities. Because of Tupac, people got to see and realize how he felt on the subject of women. Tupac felt that black communities needed to come together to end this in their own community.

In 1996, Tupac released his last album All Eyez on Me. The album was the beginning of his career with Death Row. In an MTV interview with Tupac, Kurt Loder, a journalist from the source said:

Tupac love his mother and appreciated everything that she did for him and his