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the Life of Tupac Shakur

the Life of Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971. Named after an Inca Chief, Tupac Amaru means “Shining Serpent” referring to wisdom and courage and Shakur meaning “thankful to God”. Shakurs mother, Afeni Shakur, was a leading member of the Black Panthers, a radical wing of the civil rights movement, with support for hardcore ghettos as well as white patronage. When Tupac’s mother was pregnant with Tupac she was spending time in the Woman’s House of Detention in Greenwich Village for conspiring to bomb several public places in New York City. All growing up his family lived in homeless shelters and run down town houses. Many times his family could not even afford lighting in the house. The only fond member he ever told of his childhood was of a diary he kept. In this diary he recorded his first attempts at poetry, this is where it began. A big moment in Tupac’s intellectual life occurred when he was twelve. At the age of twelve his mother enrolled him in 127th Street Ensemble, a theater group in Harlem. Even at an early age his mothers political views where confusing, and intriguing him. As he told the January issue of VIBE magazine in 1994, “ She was trying to make me live in the white picket fence lifestyle, but yet we ain’t got no money and no good food and no lights. You want me to go to school? They tellin me all this stuff about fighting the system but they pushin me in the system.” Meanwhile Tupac’s father was serving time in prison, when released Tupac and his mother had moved to Baltimore. Before Afeni Shakur could contact him, he had died of a crack induced hart attack. While in Baltimore, Tupac auditioned for, and was accepted into, the Baltimore School of Arts. This success gave Tupac a goal and ambition. It also exposed him to white people who cared about his life. However, before Tupac could finish high school at this school of arts, his family moved to Marin City, California.. Because of this move, Tupac never did finish highschool. Marin City, at the time, was nicknamed “the jungle” because it was mainly project housing and had high crime rates. This is the point in Tupacs life where he claimed he “got off track”. Tupac began selling crack to all the ghetto inhabitants and was soon thrown out of his house. During this time, however, he did receive a positive brake, he was hired as a roadie/dancer for the hip-hop group Digital Underground. After spending a few years with the group and learning the ropes of the entertainment industry he landed a starring role in the movie “Juice”. At this same time he released his debut solo album, 2pacalpyse Now. With the release of his first record, he also got his first arrest. As one Tupac fan once put it, he never had a record until he released a record. The first of his many offences was in 1991, when he was arrested for jaywalking and resisting arrest. Claiming police brutality he filed a public suit against the police department. In 1992, during a confrontation with old acquaintances at a festival celebrating Marin City’s fiftieth anniversary, a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head. No criminal charges where filed, but there was a civil suit. During the same year a Texas women filed a civil suit against him claiming that the young black male who killed her husband, a cop, had been influenced by Tupac’s music. Also in 1992, Tupac arrived at the FOX Studios to tape a segment when he claims his “limo driver disrespected my homeboy, screaming at him like he was less than a man. The limo driver went to his trunk, we didn’t know if the guy was getting a gun or what (Tupac Shakur(1992) ).” Tupac and his friends jumped out of the car and allegedly attacked the driver. Charges where later dropped. The next charge to come was in 1993 when Tupac was engaged in a fight with directors Albert and Allen Hughes over the loss of a role in “Menace 2 Society”. Also in 1993, on Halloween, Tupac was arrested for shooting at two off-duty, white, police officers. The police where in the midst of a traffic related argument when Tupac and his entourage pulled up. What happened next is unclear. The police say Tupac fired first. Most witnesses say the officer pulled the gun first. Tupac was charged with two counts of aggravated assault. On the day of Tupacs hearing the officer Whitewall was arrested for aggravated assault on another young black male. The D.A then dropped all charges against Tupac. Probably the worst and most influential charge filed against Tupac was in 1993 when he was arrested for the sexual abuse of a young woman. This charge would be the only one to ever stick. When convicted he was sentenced to 4-8yrs. in Rikers Island Maximum Security Prison. The biggest event in Tupac’s life was, by all accounts, a shooting in 1994. While awaiting trial on the sexual abuse charge he went to record a song at his close friend’s Christopher Wallace’s recording studio. In the lobby four robbers approached him. During the robbery Tupac went to pull his gun from his belt. However, before Tupac could get his gun the robbery shot him 5 times. Two shots hit him in the chest, one in the abdomen, one grazed shot to the head and one shot to the testicles. After shooting him, the robbers began stomping his face. Tupac believed to his grave that the robbery was a cover-up for a failed assassination attempt over a business deal gone wrong. Two hours and forty-five minutes after receiving life saving surgery for his wounds, against doctors orders, Tupac checked himself out of hospital for fear that his life was not safe in the public hospital. Twenty-four hours after getting shot Tupac checked himself into a different hospital, under an assumed name. It is now believed that the Gambino crime family provided him with protection while in this hospital. After leaving hospital he was sentenced to jail and he left for prison. On October 15, 1995 everything would change in Tupac’s life. “Suge” Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, entered the prison on a mission. Approaching Tupac in his jail cell with a hand-written contract and a bail bond for 1.4 million dollars. The contract stated that Suge would pay the bail, but Tupac had to record three records for Death Row. The deal was done and Tupac was now alive on Death Row. This deal was probably also a contract on his life. Death Row at the time, and even now, is best known for the fact that to deal with any other record company beside Death Row, you will be placing your life on the line. Subsequently this is what Tupac did. Tupac then went on to produce a quadruple platinum double CD This CD was a relentless 28-track assault on whoever it was that shot him, although this was his best selling record ever, it contained little insight or violent revolutionary lyrics that his music is known for, but rather a loud spitting of venomous gangster mentality. His next and last CD would also go quadruple platinum. This album contained much more thought and contained many songs that talked about religion in a modern day viewpoint. For example, in the song Hail Mary Tupac whispers, “ They say Jesus is a kind, well he should understand, times in this crime land, my thug nation”. This dramatic thug lifestyle ended on Sept 6, 1996. In a black BMW, Tupac Shakur and “Suge” Knight left the Mike Tyson/ Bruce Sheldon fight. While driving down the Las Vegas stripe a white Cadillac with California plates pulled up along side their car. The assailants shot Tupac 4 times in the chest. He would die 7 days later on Friday the thirteenth. A tragic end to a revolutionary man. He was only twenty-five. Tupac’s biggest influence was by far his mother. His mother showed him love, showed him hate, and showed him that you shouldn’t adjust to society, and things you don’t agree with. Rather you should try and change what you don’t believe in, a theme that would hold true through all his life. Probably the next biggest influence in his life was his lack of a father figure. Many raps where filled with hate, resentment and longing for his father. His most touching songs where of his lack of a man in his life. He once rapped in a hit called Papa’s Song (1992), “Had to play catch by myself what a lonely site, a pitiful black, so I prayed on a stormy night, Please send me a pops before puberty the things I wouldn’t do to see, a piece of family unity.” He even stated on occasions that because of his lack of a father he was societies child, and what he did was reflect societies faults and good points. The saying that we are a product of our environment, was a motto to Tupac. Raised in insanity, a product of the projects and his poems and rhymes screamed that at sometimes deaf ears. Had he been raised in a higher class of living he probably wouldn’t have been a gangster rapper, however he would have shined through a different window. The crime he saw and acted out in the ghetto formed his views, laced his rhymes and gave him the point of view he had. He was/is probably the best product of environment example ever to be seen in the public eye. Tupac’s lyrics, as well as his life, have had many affects on society. His words and his attitude raised strong emotions in all he touched, whether it be passionate love, or destructive hate. His lyrics preached of death, murder and scandalous living on top and political and religious revolution under the skin.. His lyrics of disobeying the police where even said to have caused a young black male to shoot and kill a police officer in Atlanta. The black male stated that such lyrics as, “they try to pull me over and I laugh, remember Rodney King then I blast on his punk ass.” And, “When they come to me they find a struggler, to my death, take the breath from their juggler (referring to when the police come to get him to go to prison again)” . Another civil suit influenced by his lyrics was by C. Delorous Tucker who sued Tupac claiming his women bashing lyrics made her sex life terrible, claiming she felt dirty after listening to Tupac’s songs. One other public outcry was by the, at the time, Vice-president Dan Quayle who wanted Tupac’s albums off the market. However much pain came from his words, just as much if not more good came from them. A recent course is now available at Harvard University. The course is a study of modern society and is a must for anyone mastering in psychology. The course studies Tupac life then studies his lyric to try and explain how society has shaped him, how he reflects it in his lyrics, and how his lyrics change society. In the final term paper you must read one of his songs/poems and then write a 3 000 word essay on how this song reflects his life and the society in which he lives. Another positive effect of his lyrics was that it gave people in the ghetto, and people everywhere, who feel cheated lonely and at times afraid a person who they could relate to. It people a mentor, a person who done the best he could with what he was given. It showed people that you could raise up from the slums and make it into fame. He provided hope to all the ghetto youth and crack fiends. He moved people to want better, not many other musicians have ever insighted this type of feeling in followers. Summarization of a critique done by journalist Rob Allen In this critique Mr.Allen criticizes Tupac on a couple of points about his music and personality. He begins the article by discussing Tupac’s as it relates to creativeness. He states that Tupac’s music often glamorizes “the THUG LIFE mentality.” Such lines as “To all my Nigg*s in the pen here we go again, ain’t nothing separating us from an exit” and “ We all soldiers in God’s eyes.”. The gangster lifestyle which Tupac preaches as natural, Allen believes is only the fake dreams of a child not yet grown into a man.. The next thing he has troubles with is the fact that so much of Tupac’s music is a contradiction. Tupac often preaches of loving women, and caring for them, yet so often he also tears them down, using obscenities to describe their lives, and hate filled words to describe his relation to them. This Allen sees as another showing of Tupac’s immaturity . Allen’s final problem with Tupac is that his music is no more than the normal. HE says Tupac’s music is no different than all the other products on the market. HE says it preaches about ideals that have been preached by people since the dawn of time. He states that the gangster role he uses to describe his views is nothing more than a hip-hop scarface movie. Finally he says that if it wasn’t for Tupac’s devastating good looks he would be a nobody, instead of an icon. In this poem Tupac says that his life is full of misery and hate. He tells about how scandalous a life he has to put up with, but that is what it took to succeed. He asks for no sympathy from anyone because this is the way it is. He believes that with hope you can make it, and he screams to people to have hope and goals. He asks for nothing from people but a smile, because this is the life he is given. This poem works on many levels and uses a lot of figurative language. The first thing used is imagery.Imagery is when something is described to create a mental picture and/or mood. Tupac uses such phrases as “Some see me in this land of hell jail and crack sales”. The descriptive phrase gives us an image of him stuck in hell, a burning inferno, trying to survive and avoid damnation. The next piece of figurative language is the use of hyperbole. Hyperbole is exaggeration. Making something seem larger or bigger, etc. than it actually is or was. One phrase in particular is “Sellin’ my soul for material wishes, fast cars and bitches.” This idea that the things he does to get money and ladies is sending him to hell to causing him to give himself, eternally, to the devil is clearly an exaggeration to get his point across that he is living a rough life. The final piece of figurative language is a simile.A simile is when you say one thing is another thing. Comparing the two without like or as is a simile. In this poem Tupac refers to people who criticize him and conflict with him as being “back stabbing vultures” He does not say they are like back stabbing vultures, but rather that they are, making it a simile. The theme of this poem is basically summed up in the second last line of the poem, “ Born with less but you still precious” . The poems theme is that nomatter how little you’re born with, you can still rise, it may cost you everything, but you can succeed. The literal meaning of this poem is that today is hard. There is a lot of violence and anger and hate. People have done wrong and disgraced themselves. All day long it is that way. However, tomorrow is going to be different. We can build a society on truth if we work towards our dreams. Figurative language is used less in this poem than many others of his however it does contain some. Personification is when an object that is not leaving is given features of something living. Personification is used when he says that the pressures of all his problems are “knawing at my sanity” as if it where a rat or other animal. Hyperbole is an exaggeration, when something is embellished. Hyperbole is also used. At one point Tupac says that the children are “bred with ruthlessness” This exaggeration makes it sound like they are bred for certain traits, like animals, bred to be hartless and without feelings. This is an obvious exaggeration as that no person is actually bred to be without feelings. The final piece of figurative language is irony. Irony is almost a sort of mockery, or a satire. What I mean is, for example, if a person feared flying all their life, but finally decided to fly, and died in a plane crash. Irony in this poem is when he writes “scared of being outcast , afraid of common fate.” In this he says that people are afraid of being different than everybody, yet they also scared of being the same as everyone. This is irony. The theme of this poem is that although things may be bad , if you keep your head up, and fight everyday for what you believe in, then you can achieve and make the future better. You must leave the past behind you, and you will achieve what you want in the future. Bibliography:

Word Count: 2947