ted rap. Using the hard truth, Shakur lays out the words, Even though you was a crack fiend, Mama/ You always was a black queen mama. Looking at the lyrics of this song against Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet it Is," there is a common bond discovered between these two expressions towards women. Gaye says You've been better to me than I have been to myself. I wanna stop and thank you. Both artists use their music to "stop," acknowledge, and "appreciate" the women in their lives who have made a great difference in their existence; though one speaks of his mother while the other speaks of some beloved female partner. Similarly comes Shakur's song "Keep Yo' Head Up" and Gaye's song "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You." Marvin croons that if he could build the whole world around his "darling," he'd put heaven by her side, pretty flowers would grow wherever she walked. The whole world would be wrapped her. Tupac delivers the lines I think its time we kill for our women/ Time we heal our women/ Be real to our women. Please keep yo' head up. Both artists' expressions are relative to their present times, but both use their words to uplift women. Tupac advocates romance with respect: telling women to keep their pride, men to mind their bedside manners. With a plea in his voice, Shakur combines masculine love with social propriety to make a case for the world to respect Black women. Gaye in much the same respect, delivers lines to the listening audience that glorifies the greatness of women and declares the degrees to which one should go in order to honor that greatness.In the final analysis, what most importantly makes these connections between Tupac Shakur and Marvin Gaye possible is the fact that Marvin's soul music was a preceding foundation for the hip-hop style of Tupac. As Marvin wrote and sang, he spread the panorama of his life experience out before his audience. If he loved, cried, agonized, or examined, it was there for the people to...
