On September 13, 1996 on of the greatest rappers of all time, Tupac Amaru Shakur died. Even though Tupac no longer roams the earth, he and his songs are known by people young and old. His songs just like many other artists are still relevant to American society. I listen to and analyzed Tupac’s song changes. The lyrics are powerful and have influenced the rap industry to this day. Most Rap songs talk about everyday life, and the song “Changes” talks about racism, poverty and police brutality and how it affects the life of African Americans. This song was released in 1996. Even though the song is considered old, it still pierces the heart of people who are affected by the evil of racism. The first line of the song is “I see no changes.” …show more content…
All I see is racist faces,” this is the start of the second stanza. The line conveys the same message as the first line of the song. Not many changes have been made, and people are still as racist as before. “And although it seems heaven sent. We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh.” What Tupac is saying in this line is true, even though we had an African American President we were not truly ready. Most of the African American and other minority communities were ready but not the Caucasian, Republicans or the Government. “It ain’t a secret don’t conceal the fact. The penitentiary’s packed, and it’s filled with blacks.” Tupac tells us that the majority of the people in jail are African Americans. The reason why is because they keep doing the things that will put them in jail. ““I made a G today” But you made it in a sleazy way Sellin' crack to the kid. “I gotta get paid.”” African Americans are not entirely at fault because they need money to live and the government is helping them so they make money the easiest way they can, which is selling drugs. Tupac realizes that this is the reason African Americans were failing. He states this at the end of the stanza when he says “Well he, well that’s just the way it
Tupac Shakur could possibly be the most effective and irresistible of all rappers. What made Tupac (aka 2Pac, or Makaveli) so distinguished and legends was his abundance of talent, his spotlight amiable appearance, and the feeling that he was “real” and expressed himself freely, while backing it up with his actions. But Tupac just didn’t rap he was also a poet which set him apart from other artists and made his life much more than just rap and music. He was a person fighting for change; from having a revolutionary mother, breaking away from poverty through poetry, and even though he was “fed up” he kept his “head up.” Tupac did not whatsoever
“Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice” he uses symbolism in his song Keep Ya Head Up to have the listener understand on his own way. “Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots” this part is how the song starts and from the very beginning it hooks you up and you think to yourself what does tupac means by this is you pay attention to the song you will understand what he encourages blacks to be proud of their race and
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,
When most people hear the name Tupac, they think of a tattooed thug, a gangsta rapper killed in a tragic shooting who only got what was coming to him, a man who lived by the gun, and who died by the gun. However, those people probably have never taken a chance to look beyond what their eyes tell them, past the ignorance and into the depths of the man who really was Tupac.
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.
Tupac’s America was a nation terrified of changes. He wrote, “It’s time to fight back, that’s what Huey said, 2 shots in the dark, now Huey’s dead” (2PAC LYRICS). He believed the government assassinated Huey Newton, the Black Panther leader, a militant group that employed violent means to protect black people from the police. In verse number three, Tupac compared the America’s war in Iraq to the violence in the high poverty neighborhoods (2PAC LYRICS). He then described government policies relating to “war on drugs," which resulted in mandatory arrest policies, harsh drug laws on crack cocaine, and the explosion of the African American population in penitentiaries. Tupac tried to convey to the listeners the society must change, but it will most likely change for the worst.
“There is an undoubted race element, too. In 2010, black people were five times more likely to be incarcerated, and those figures are unlikely to have improved since then” (Holder).The war on drugs have affected mostly poor black communities of color even though black people are just as likely as whites to sell and use illegal drugs.
The 1960s can be seen as a transitory period from the America of the oppressive to the America of the equal and free. Hundreds of years of oppression which had veiled the lives of blacks were finally beginning to be readily uncovered from this veil of oppression. World famous Motown singer Sam Cooke’s song “A Change is Going to Come” symbolizes this intermediary period of hope compounded by the residual deep seeded fears of the past and the future. This songs’ lyrics bring about questions of how Cooke felt of the Civil rights movement and how it would benefit his people and the nation as a whole. “A Change is going to Come” wrestles with the questions of this doubt, uncertainty and hopefulness for Cooke in this period. All results of the
The first step talks about expressing an unpleasant personal experience. Tupac definitely expresses this several times throughout the song. He narrates the murder of his “brother” and therefore questions the existence of god. Tupac does not only questions god, but he starts to question himself and the purpose of life. Which falls into the third step category. The very first lines of the song talk about Tupac contemplating suicide because of the unpleasant environment he is surrounded by, feeling hopeless because there is only so much he can do. He later explains that people who speak up, and fight for equality are often silenced. “It’s time to fight back that’s what Huey said, two shots in the dark now Huey’s dead” (line 12). Huey Newton was a black activist, co-founder of the “Black Panther Party.” The BPP was a political organization promoting self-defense. We were able to see this in the documentary “The Black Power Mixtape.”
To help understand Tupac’s poem, you must grasp yourself around the image of a very young boy, who has no father, grew up in the rougher parts of New York, and was barely supported by his mother.
He was a general political rapper he rapped about the social issues confronting the American culture and his own issues. The melody Changes has a quick rhythm to clarify his disappointment towards racialism, police fierceness, destitution, and segregation.
He describes each and every moment of his life briefly starting from the time since he was a kid and how he was brought up, also the all the things he had done from that time. Throughout the song Tupac preaches his mother for raising him by herself as a single mother but at the same time takes a step back into his childhood and later moving on to his early life describing every aspect slowly and concisely. He described his mother having an addiction problem and for that reason he never really liked her. He experienced the norms of the inner city ghetto cultures where there was enormous amount of drug abuse, gang violence, and poverty. He states that “Over the years we was poorer than the other little kids”. This truly illustrates a visual of the places he lived in, and how poverty had a major impact not only on him but his entire family. Tupac gives little details that vividly describe his message through the song. The song starts off by showing his mother, where she tells about having a son and how he grew up. The lyrics convey a precise message while also bringing in several other factors in the video. The song sings, almost in a sough, the scenario of his childhood on the streets, living in poverty, and his struggle to forgive his mother. He states that “Suspended from school and scared to go home, I was a fool with the big boys, breaking all the rules”.
Changes - Tupac Shakur Changes by Tupac, is a song about the struggles and racial issues of African American people living in the poverty stricken areas or ‘Ghetto’s’ of America. Tupac sings about the injustices for his people living in poverty and how people need to stand up and make a change for the better, as the way things are going are not helping to
Tupac is just one of the many artists that talked about social justice issues. He along with many others gave a voice to people that were scared whilst expressing themselves. Even though Tupac did not have the best life he still found a way to express himself through music. Social justice issues are something that we can left untouched that is why artists talk about them throughout