Vincent Bocchino College Writing I Prof. Fisher Music Interpretation Essay 12/3/2011 Changes by Tupac Millions of people in the world listen to music for all different reasons. Most people all over the world listen to different genres of music in order to relax, but not too many people pay attention to the actual lyrics of a song. If you listen to the lyrics of a song you will realize that many songs have important messages or themes to them. An example of this is the lyrics of the song “Changes” by Tupac Shakur. If you listen to this song, you will realize that Tupac raps about not only the problems that African Americans face from society, but also the struggles that poor people in society have to endure and overcome. Many …show more content…
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.” Following the links between the social issues, Tupac makes an interesting observation on why African-American communities have trouble dealing with these social problems. He says in the song “First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers. Give 'em guns, step back, and watch 'em kill each other.” His observation could be interpreted as a conspiracy into eliminating or significantly diminishing the African-American population in the United States of America. However, Tupac does not mention who is behind the plot. Tupac suggests the solution of unity into solving the social issues that African-Americans are facing. According to Tupac, African-Americans should unite together to solve poverty, racism and violence. He shows
In his letter to president Reagan, Snoop Dogg addresses the policies Reagan enacted during his term that attacked the poor and hard-working communities in the United States to benefit the wealthy. In turn, the accomplishment of Civil Rights movement was quickly replaced with the crack epidemic and war on drugs, annihilating hope for the future. All the thoughts of despair and poverty associated with the life of the ghetto is reflected in Hip Hop culture and music. In his letter, communities united together to form a Black America against a common enemy: the president of the United States.
To gaze into the lyrics of both Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur is like living in the ghettos of New York City where violence never stops. Both of these artists grew up seeing and living a life filled with violence. Gunshots and drive-byes, death and murder were a daily occurrence. Although the lyrics of both artists are simply telling their life stories and how hard it was to grow up in their “hoods” they contain vulgar, hateful, and sexual verses that send the wrong message to their listeners. Whether these listeners are teens or adults, white or black, they are continually sending notions of hatred and fear through their lyrics and actions. Ultimately,
This quote was spoken by one of hip-hop’s most legendary idols, Tupac Shakur. Tupac has become an integral icon of the hip-hop culture and will live on eternally through his dynamic lyrics and poems. Most of Tupac’s raps concerned growing up around violence and hardships in ghettos, and racial inequality in the United States. He experienced many of these factors growing up, especially race related
He sees it as contradictory that woman do a lot for us, yet we still do not respect them. Moreover, he calls out African-American men in particular for making it difficult for poor African-American women to live a normal life since they often have to raise a child alone. In part of the second verse, Tupac also discusses the government when he says: “You know it’s funny when it rains it pours They got money for wars, but can’t feed the
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
Points of violence, social division, drugs, and race are touched upon in these verses. He addresses African American's about being pleased to be dark, yet understanding all the difficulty that tails him regular just because of the shade of his skin. He also says family's, especially moms and much all the more so single mothers. Tupac was raised by his mother after his parents got divorced before he was born. His family was at destitution level. However, despite everything he indicates gratefulness towards his mom for all that she accomplished for him and his gang. He understands that it may have not been much but rather it was constantly enough, which is more than other individuals and families out there with nothing. He additionally talks again about his life while tending to the inward battle within him. He had cravings to come up from where he originated from and become wildly successful. Yet, he likewise couldn't maintain a strategic distance from the negative impacts surrounding him in his neighborhood. Tupac sees hopelessness later on if negativity is still promoted upon, and until they're can be a change the individuals who are poor must to stay positive and keep there heads
In the song Keep Ya Head Up, Tupac urges for a difference. He talks about the issues with society; abuse, rape, and poverty. Women are abused and raped, regardless of race. He talks about how everyone comes from a woman and they end up abusing and raping them; “And since we all came from a woman. Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman.
Tupac, like Macklemore also wrote about issues in the world though music. In Tupac’s song “Changes” he wrote “I see no changes/ all I see is racist faces/ Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races we under” (Tupac 4). The meaning of this is that racism is still in the world even if people try to ignore it. More importantly this shows how Tupac wrote about more than some girl; he wanted the world to be changed. Songs like this relate to Macklemore’s music makes because of how they both write about controversial issues even if people disagreed with their opinions.
Barack Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” “Change” by Tupac Shakur talks about change is hard because people stereotype. Although, change is a difficult thing to do, one can change lifestyle if they wanted it to.
Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me. ”(Shakur Line 50-54) In this part of the song the message that Shakur is emphasizing how there is gang violence, police brutality, and black on black crime and racism in our very own home communities but yet there is war going on in other countries, however government and politics have yet to solve the problems here in our very own country. In the song the rapper Shakur also blames his own race for a great deal of the hatred and rage they are fenced by, he blows "I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other.
While listening to this song, it is easy to understand he is upset on how life is difficult in the ghetto and the mistreatment of african americans by police. Within the first few lines it says “im tired of bein poor and even worse im black. my stomach hurts so im lookin for a purse to snatch. cops give a damn about a negro, pull a trigger kill a nigga hes a hero Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.” He has a strong feeling that cops don’t care about african americans due to what life was like during that time in ghetto areas.
For several decades the black community suffered from discrimination, poverty and uncivilized treatment, particularly from police officers. Although in 1964 the government outlawed segregation from whites and blacks in public facilities, jobs and education the progress was barely visible. Therefore the black community got tired of the lack of progress, and began speaking up through music and other sources. The song “Changes” by Tupac falls into the “three step process as part of the blues” since it acknowledges evil and disappointment by “fingering” a variety of brutal, personal experiences that happened in his personal life and community.
We live in world where music and art can express feelings and even express situations such as racism and terrorism. Racism is practically the most talked about issue in songs due to happening every day. One of the most famous speech and influencers in the world was “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. King states in the speech “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. Whites and color people did not get along due to their skin color differences. This made hate each other but many others like Martin Luther King just wanted peace and love. Therefore the following artists Shakur, and Mathers, Bob Marley, John Lennon and The Black Eyed Peas all wrote songs to protest against racism and terrorism to unite the world.
Rap has been an outlet for for many artist to express themselves and raise awareness about the social struggles faced by young African Americans. Rappers like N.W.A, Ice cube, and Tupac have made music that sheds light on issues like police brutality and racial profiling. Like Tupac said,” Keep your head up.” He is telling people to stay positive and keep pushing. Hard times come and go but how you overcome these hurdles is what makes you a better stronger
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