“I’m doing this for the kid who truly lives a ‘thug life’ and thinks it’s hopeless.” – Tupac Shakur
By | Renee Ellis
Rap music has continued to grow throughout the decades and has only become a bigger and even more influential genre of music. However, despite all the changes rap culture has faced, one person has solidified himself as one of the greatest to ever grace the genre. Tupac Shakur is considered by many one of the best rappers of the 20th century. His music has continued to impact the culture decades after his songs were released, and music lovers have supported Tupac even after his death. Likewise, his poems related to the real world in ways people weren’t able to express. Throughout his music, Tupac speaks on the struggles African Americans and women face even today. Having an artist as impactful and popular as Tupac Shakur, speak to these issues brings awareness to them and helps people rethink how they view the struggles of the Black community and of women.
Born, Lesane Parish Crooks, Tupac (2pac) has changed rap. He was born in New York, New York in a Harlem neighborhood to an awe-inspiring mother. Afeni Shakur was a political activist and a member of the Black Panther Party. She was arrested in 1969 for allegedly coordinating attacks on the New York City police. While out on bail, she found that she was pregnant. When Lesane was 1 year old, his mother changed his name to Tupac Amaru. Later, Tupac took his last name from his sister’s father, Mutulu Shakur. Tupac’s mother worked as a paralegal but soon developed a crack cocaine addiction. The family struggled to make ends meet and lived off welfare. Tupac’s father lost contact with him when he was 5, and they didn’t reconnect until he was 23 (Biography.com). Not having a father in his life created an emotional void. According to Biography.com, “‘I thought my father was dead all my life,’ he told writer Kevin Powell during an interview with Vibe magazine in 1996.” While living in Baltimore, his family lived in an area surrounded by crime, so the family moved to Marin City, California. On the same street where his mother brought crack, Tupac began to sell the same drug, but music helped him turn away from crime. In 1991, he made his record debut with “Same Song.” Eventually, Tupac’s manager, Atron Gregory, helped him land a deal with Interscope Records. After landing the deal, Tupac released his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now.
But, despite many challenges including his arrest, his infamous shooting of two off-duty police officers, his widely broadcasted rap beef, and his sentencing to jail for sexual assault, Tupac has remained iconic in the eyes of society. Through his fame he was able to reconnect with his mother after they had a falling out and remained close to her for the remainder of his life. He was able to impact the lives of millions of people and has continued to make waves through society even after his murder in 1996.
Tupac lived a life that many of us wouldn’t want to see. He did have the fame, money, and freedom that is glorified especially in today's age and on social media, but he went through so much to get to his prime. He saw the horrific side of humanity and even participated in actions that contributed to the problems that were present then and are present today. However, I admire his ability to captivate people with his art. Artists, to me, are special people who fill an unseen but necessary part of society; they connect us to who we are emotionally. To be able to take the feelings, memories, and emotions of others and package it all up into a work of art that can be shared and passed down from generation to generation while still being relatable is a gift. Tupac has done wrong, and I don’t suggest him as a role model, however, listening to him express life in general through music is something worth appreciating.
For example, in one of Tupac’s most well-known songs, “Keep Ya Head Up” released in 1998 Tupac speaks on the economic and gender disenfranchisement that women face. In the third verse he says, “I give a holla to my sisters on welfare/ 2pac cares if don’t know nobody else cares.” Having to live off the aid of others is incredibly difficult and people who must live off welfare have to deal with being treated as less than human, as lazy, or must worry about being taken advantage of amongst other things. Tupac wrote a song to connect with and show solidarity to the low-income, and impoverished communities around him and around the country. He knew the struggles that many families like him had to face (Bio). This song is almost a letter of empathy from Tupac to the community he once knew and related to. Later in the song, Tupac touches on the struggles that women face due to their gender. Women have had to fight for their basic rights and their place in society. Also, the threat of rape and sexual assault is high for women all over the globe. “Keep Ya Head Up” is a love letter to those who are low-income, and for all women.
Additionally, Tupac was never afraid to speak truth to power. Tupac was very critical of the government and the systems that govern people in this country. In his song, “Changes” featuring Talent, Tupac does not hold back on his views. In the lyrics he rhymes, “It’s a war on the streets and a war in the Middle East/ Instead of war on poverty/ They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” The wars in the Middle East and in other parts of the world most negatively impacted marginalized communities while also causing other groups of people to become marginalized. However, in the United States, some do consider the drug problem in communities a war against the families involved, and a war against the government. The way that our country has addressed the drug problem in our country has been met with criticism, and Tupac was not afraid to hold back. Police brutality, systemic racism, and other political issues he addressed in his music, and discusses how the handling of problems in this country has led to people becoming marginalized like the wars overseas.
Throughout his music, he rapped with a truth about reality which was often controversial. The discussion of who Tupac was and the legacy he left can be a hard discussion. He has a dark past, and his music is radical. But his legacy is undeniable. He even wrote a book titled The Rose That Grew From Concrete. The book is filled with poems about love and loss that don’t fit into the stereotypical cool, gangster, bad-boy aesthetic that society views him to be. In an article written by Leah Donnella and published by NPR titled, “Realizing Tupac wasn’t Cool, 20 Years Later”, Leah explains that Tupac made it known that you could be “uncool”, Black, and still survive. He made it safe to discuss polarizing topics, to write poetry about hurt, and to care about the struggles of others and of women and still be respected in rap and in the culture. Tupac has helped many people, especially African Americans, find their own version of cool (Donnella). And I fully agree. He was an artist. That is the attraction and brilliance of Tupac Shakur. He taught people that beauty, which is often our expectation of art, can come from many different places. Our experiences in life are a part of who we are and deserve to be told through the art that surrounds us. We get to define what cool is. Tupac was profoundly real. His work is seen as beautiful despite the messiness surrounding him and his opinions because it is vulnerable. More importantly, being able to communicate perspective through music redefines what art should be. In the Black community, he is a symbol of authenticity. That is not to say that the things he did in his life were right or justifiable. However, that is to say, he gave the Black community a blueprint on how to show up in the world and express their true self while surviving.
Sources
“2Pac - so Many Tears.” Discogs, 1 Jan. 1995,
“Bio.” 2PAC, 24 July 2023, www.2pac.com/bio/.
Donnella, Leah. “Realizing Tupac Wasn’t Cool, 20 Years Later.” NPR, NPR, 14 Sept. 2016, www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/09/14/493014365/realizing-tupac-wasnt-cool-20- years-later.
Editors , Biography.com, and Colin McEvoy. “Tupac Shakur: Biography, Rapper, Actor.” Tupac Shakur, A&E Television Networks , 20 July 2023,
Galindo, Thomas. “The Painful Meaning behind the Song ‘Changes’ by Tupac.” American Songwriter, 9 June 2023,
Ryan, Chris. “How Tupac Shakur Ruined a Generation.” Audio Fuzz, Audio Fuzz, 15 Oct. 2017, www.audiofuzz.com/read/how-tupac-shakur-ruined-a-generation/.
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