Devin+Cannon

media type="youtube" key="JlQcJAjYxaI" height="344" width="425"media type="youtube" key="o8Y9-JlSRXw" height="348" width="427" Devin Cannon Professor Kingsley 10 October 2009 En 101 Sec. 8 //Still No Changes //  Tupac Amaru Shakur born June 16, 1971 in East Harlem New York was one of the greatest rappers in the United States. He was named after Tupac Amaru II who was a Peruvian Revolutionary who led indigenous uprisings against Spain. His mother was Afeni Shakur who was an active member in the Black Panther Party which is and African-American Black power organization. Tupacs stepfather was Jeral Williams who was also a member of the Black Panther Party however when Tupac was two he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for fatal car armory. Tupacs songs where written about his life experiences in Projects and ghettos such as Harlem the Bronx and homeless shelters in New York all of his songs are very deep and talk about different social issues in our society such as gang violence, how women are treated and many more. “Changes” and “Keep Your Head Up” are the two songs I chose to write about I picked these songs because after researching Tupacs songs I saw that these two songs talked about very serious social issues and are very good examples for this project.  The song “Changes” which came out in 1995 hits many social problems that still affect us today. The lyrics are very powerful and mean many things here are some examples of the lyrics to “Changes”  “I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself is life worth living should I blast myself? I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch Cops give a damn about a negro pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares one less hungry mouth on the welfare First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other It's time to fight back that's what Huey said 2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other We gotta start makin' changes learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers and that's how it's supposed to be How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me? I'd love to go back to when we played as kids but things changed, and that's the way it is .” The First verse alone talks about suicide, being a minority at this point in America, violence, corruption of cops, welfare, gun control, drugs and gang wars. All of these issues are still a major problem in America today and have been for a while. The chorus of the song mainly just says how his dream of stopping all this hatred and violence will never come true and how change is not going to happen.  Verse two mainly talks about Racism in America. These are some examples of how Tupac describes the Issue of racism. “I see no changes all I see is racist faces misplaced hate makes disgrace to races We under I wonder what it takes to make this one better place]” This line is basically saying that it’s not one group that is racist in every race there are people who have hatred for someone and he ends the line by asking what would it take to change this. “We ain't ready, to see a black President,” <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">When this song was written in the early 90’s we still had a lot of racial problems in the U.S. Tupac was saying that our country being predominantly white was not ready to Vote for an African American President. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">“It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact’ the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks” <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">The last part was talking about of the Federal Prisons in America and how they where home to more African American Men then White men. Those are examples of the lines that talk more about racism from verse two. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2; msotabcount: 1; msothemecolor: text2;"> <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">The next verse hits the social issue of street violence. Due to Tupacs way of life I would say this is one of the issues that Tupac writes about most in his music. Street violence is an issue that should be addressed soon because it can affect innocent people and result in them getting robbed or murdered for no reason at all. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">“And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs” <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">Tupac makes a comparasion to the living on the streets to living in the Middle East because of all the gang wars over territory and drugs. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;"> <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">“And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do”

<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-themecolor: text2;"> <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">Tupac justifies committing crimes such as theft and robberies by saying he has to do them to stay alive on the streets. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;"> “Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">Some punk that I roughed up way back comin' back after all these years” <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">Living on the streets is a rough life and you always have to be ready for what is going to happen next. You never know when your enemies will come back to try and kill you. Tupac is saying through his songs he wants this violence to end but he knows it’s not going to any time soon. As you can see from this verse gang violence is a very serious thing that people are not aware of the full extent of what is going on in this country today. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;"> The next song I am going to talk about is the song “Keep Ya Head Up” which is mainly about women’s right. The song came out in 1994 and really shows how some women were treated in their husbands or boyfriends. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; mso-themecolor: text2;">“Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots I give a holler to my sisters on welfare Tupac cares, if don't nobody else care And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot When you come around the block brothas clown a lot But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up And when he tells you you ain't nuttin don't believe him And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him Cause sista you don't need him And I ain't tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em You know it makes me unhappy (what's that) When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women And if we don't we'll have a race of babies That will hate the ladies, that make the babies And since a man can't make one He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one So will the real men get up I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up” <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;">Verse one mainly talks about how women are treated in society by saying how they are beaten by their men, and how men will degrade them by saying they are worth nothing. Tupac also states how men will get women pregnant then leave them to raise the baby on their own. Tupac says the women should stand up for themselves and leave their men before he harms them even more. He ends the verse by saying we need to change the way women are treated. Women should be respected women created us and raised us and we should not treat them with such disrespect. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;"> The other verses in this song are very repetitive with this verse in talking about the role of women in Society. “keep Ya Head Up” shows Tupacs views on women’s rights and how all women should not be disrespected my men. The song shows you how awful it is to be a women in the projects and how badly they are treated. As you can see the issue of women’s rights is a issue that needs to be respected in society today. <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-themecolor: text2;"> As you can see Tupac’s music is very powerful and meaningful. Mostly all of Tupac’s songs are written about major issues that affect this country today. He exposes so called “thug life” through his music and says he not proud of what he has done but he had to do it mostly to stay alive. Tupac wants change to take place in this country with the way people treat each other he wants peace among the streets and people to stop judging people based on their race but he knows that’s just the way it is. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%;">Work Cited Page //** <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">"Changes." __Tupac Changes__. Ed. Jango music. 13 Aug. 1997. Jango Music. 20 Oct. 2009 <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">[] <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;"> <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">“Keep ya head up." __Keep ya head up__. Ed. Jango music. 18 Oct. 1995. Jango Music. 20 Oct. 2009 <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">[] <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">  <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">   <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">"Tupac Shakur." __Tupac Shakur__. 15 June 2001. Yahoo. 20 Oct. 2009 <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">