Ever since the emergence of human civilization, music has been an excellent form of entertainment for people worldwide. But aside from serving as a medium for people’s leisure, music has also served as the platform for various campaigns and advocacies by many people who desire for a significant change in the society. One of such people is the famous 90s rapper, Tupac Shakur. Tupac Shakur is amongst the thousands, maybe even millions, of bright minds who used their talents in music and exploited the music arena to send a clear message to a vast audience in hope for a change—in his case, a change in the way African-Americans are treated by the American legal system.
Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known as 2Pac, Pac, and Makaveli, was an African-American rapper and actor (Hombach 6). Born on June 16, 1971, Shakur was the son of Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, two active members of the nationalist organization for the Blacks in New York, The Black Panther Party (Hombach 7). Shakur’s parents together with his godfather, the high-ranking Black Panther member Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, were particularly active in the organization during the 1960s and 1970s (Hombach 7). Tupac Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur’s involvement with the organization caused her to be charged with more than 150 conspiracy cases against the US government and New York State (Hombach 7). One month after her mother’s acquittal from the numerous counts of charges, Tupac Shakur was born (Hombach 7). Growing up in the environment of his parents, Tupac Shakur imbibed the strong inclinations of his parents to advocate for important social changes in favor of African-Americans (Nisker 178). His youth was marked by a culture of strong campaign against the injustices of American legal system towards the African-Americans (Nisker 178). Constant exposures to the many advocacies done by his fellow Black Americans to rectify the injustices of US legal system towards Black Americans later molded Tupac Shakur into an activist fighting for racial equality and justice through music (Nisker 178).
The high rate of incarceration of African-American males and countless stories of police brutality and violence of the legal system against ethnic minorities, particularly the Black Americans, have been the focal points of many accounts that constitute the American history as well as its present records (Nisker 179). To date, USA is now the second-highest ranking country in terms of incarceration, a title to which a large population of Black American males contributes (Nisker 179). Current data also state that approximately 32% of African-American males will be jailed or convicted of a crime in their lifetime (Nisker 179). Furthermore, such statistical finding is supported by the college-to-imprisonment ratio of 2.6 is to 1 for 18-24 years old male of African-American race, significantly low compared to the same ratio applied to White American males of same age which results to 28 is to 1 (Nisker 179). Obviously, the current statistics regarding education and imprisonment for African-American males suggest a dispiriting future for them (Nisker 179). Such data show the far-reaching effects of poverty surrounding African-Americans, particularly those living in inner cities (Nisker 179). From these data, a vivid image of the impoverished lives of African-Americans is easy to imagine and such image may probably be the key inspiration of the artist Tupac Shakur in writing his masterpieces that call for permanent change and reflect his personal campaign for equality and justice.
Being one of the most successful and famous rapper in the history of American music, Tupac Shakur was able to sell 73 million copies of his albums worldwide, 45 million of which was sold in the US alone, making him one of the best-selling artists worldwide (Nisker 177; Hombach 6). Many of his album sales came from posthumous releases which further cemented the artist’s influence in music and prominence, made evident by his recent position as the 8th Richest Deceased Celebrity recognized by the respectable business and lifestyle publication, Time Magazine (Ogunnaike). (Nisker 177; Ogunnaike). Adding grace to his reputation as one of the greatest rap artists of all time, Tupac Shakur was given many awards and nominations even after his death in 1996, including the award of being the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time from the music-oriented publication, Rolling Stone Magazine (Hombach 6). Other nominations include “the greatest rapper of all time” award from VIBE Magazine in 2004 and “number one MC” award from MTV in 2003 (Nisker 177). The fame and success garnered by Tupac Shakur in the music industry undeniably served as proof of the artist’s influence among a vast audience to whom his music appealed and his messages heard.
As a rap artist, Tupac Shakur exploited the hip-hop arena as a stage onto which he openly sent his messages of advocacy for racial equality, particularly with regards to the American legal system. Starting his rap career in 1990 (Hombach 8), Tupac Shakur entered the hip-hop arena while it was on its peak (Nisker 177). The emergence and increasing popularity of rap music in the popular culture of Americans in the 1990s helped rap artists, such as Tupac Shakur, in penetrating the minds of young Americans who were particularly captivated by the genre (Nisker 177). Starting small from South Bronx, New York, hip-hop genre has grown into a large industry that earns billions of dollars, and in the late 1990s it has become America’s best-selling musical genre (Nisker 177). Over the years, hip-hop genre has become successful in entering and influencing the music scene, television, film, and even fashion (Nisker 177). The success of hip-hop music made the modern popular culture in America hard to imagine without it anymore (Nisker 177). Such profound influence of rap or hip-hop genre is attributable to the fascination of the middle-class White Americans with the violent lives and conflicting environments that are oftentimes faced by African-American rappers as conveyed by the lyrical contents of their music (Nisker 177). Furthermore, rap music also serves the purpose of being the honest herald that transmits transparent news regarding the real condition of the society, particularly the real discriminatory cruelty many African-Americans experience because of their race and skin color (Nisker 177). Rap music has become the avenue that most American youths, especially those residing in inner cities, turn to in order to learn the truthful condition of the oppressed members of the society, without the sugar-coating of mainstream media (Nisker 177). This hunger for truth common amongst youths of the 1990s was the very platform onto which artist Tupac Shakur unveiled his messages of advocacies for the oppressed fellowmen from the same race (Nisker 177).
Through his lyrics, Tupac Shakur relayed his messages, awakening the minds of his listeners and supporters to the real conditions faced by the oppressed African-Americans. Labeling himself as an “outlaw,” Tupac Shakur showed great repulsion, deviance, and contempt for the legal system of America (Nisker 176). Marred by the violence he experienced himself even at a young age, Shakur’s songs contained lyrics that portrayed profanity and brutality in an aim to depict the brutality and hostility of the legal officers towards African-Americans (Nisker 178). In his 1998 song “God Bless the Dead,” Shakur rapped about the justice system of America, drawing attention particularly to the incarceration of countless African-Americans (Nisker 178). Imprisonment of Black Americans was seen by Shakur as an act of racial discrimination as he believed, worse punishments for simpler or less-violent crimes were easily given to African-Americans compared to Whites (Nisker 178). The lyrics of the song: “Fuck the police and all the courts same way they fucked us/ And why the hell am I locked in jail/ They let them white boys free, we be shocked as hell,” show Shakur’s disapproval of the legal system in US which seemingly cherry-picks its convicted felons and consider only the misdeeds of African-Americans (Nisker 178). Other songs that revealed Shakur’s deep sentiment for the inequality experienced by his imprisoned fellow African-Americans were the 1996 song “16 On Death Row” and the song “Still Ballin’,” posthumously released in 2002 (Nisker 179). His 1997 song, “Staring Through My Rearview” highlighted Shakur’s outlook on the inequality that molds that fate of countless African-Americans in the hands of US legal system (Nisker 179). The lyrics: “Now ever since a nigga was a seed/ Only thing promised to me was the penitentiary,” shows Shakur’s belief that the inequality among African-Americans predisposes them to imprisonment or incarceration which continually tarnishes their culture and social identity (Nisker 179).
Aside from the deep contempt Shakur has for the US legal system which, as he believed, particularly attacked the African-Americans, the artist also showed great resentment against police officers that always showed brutality and inflicted discriminatory lawlessness among the African-Americans (Nisker 179). Shakur’s 1991 song “Trapped” best exemplified his contempt for the police officers (Nisker 179). With lyrics that denounce not just police brutality, “Trapped” also shows the artist’s disdain for the racial profiling done by police authority whenever deciding whether or not a violator gets charged (Nisker 179).
In addition to African-American incarceration and police brutality against Black Americans, Shakur also drew attention towards what is known as the “War on Drugs” (Nisker 180). War on Drugs is defined as a government-funded movement targeting underprivileged Americans, particularly the African-Americans and Hispanics (Nisker 180). War on Drugs was one of the many social problems and forms of African-American inequality that heavily inspired Tupac Shakur’s lyrics (Nisker 180). His song “Words of Wisdom,” released the same year “Trapped” was release, primarily conveyed Shakur’s concern for the War on Drugs which he thought was another form of injustice and hypocrisy as there were other more serious and detrimental social issues that needed to be addressed, but those which were not addressed as the government was more busy discriminating and punishing African-Americans on grounds of race (Nisker 180).
The numerous songs that Shakur wrote and sang in the name of all his fellows African-Americans, as well as some Whites, to whom the injustices he too often talked about applied undoubtedly made the artist one of the modern heroes in the eyes of the oppressed. His controversial lyrics unfolded a man’s political advocacy to change the society. But his death on September 7, 1996 after being shot five times in a drive-by shooting in one of the streets of Las Vegas cut Shakur’s career as well as his advocacy short (Nisker 185; Hombach 14). Severing his lung through one of the gunshots, Shakur died at the young age of 25 (Hombach 14; Ogunnaike), leaving behind him a bright career that was just beginning to shine brighter and an unfinished advocacy that remained unanswered. Singing the inequalities that marred his environment as an African-American, the unsolved murder of Tupac Shakur became another example of the lyrics he too often sang about when he was still at the peak of his career (Nisker 185). The government’s failure to solve and look for clues, despite a number of witnesses and evidence on the day of Shakur’s murder, served as a strong proof of all the things Shakur has sang about when he was still alive.
Undoubtedly, Tupac Shakur was one of the most important elements of music that used his gifts of talents for the purpose of opening the eyes of many people to the real social problems that desperately need change. It can never be denied that Tupac Shakur was not just another misunderstood rap artist; rather he was an important political symbol that once fought for the rights of his oppressed fellow African-Americans. Shakur’s lyrics, despite seemingly perpetuating violence, unquestionably opened the minds of public and raised awareness regarding important social issues that need to be addressed (Nisker 181). As one author puts it, Shakur laid the groundwork for others to also step forward and initiate the movement for the establishment of permanent change and equality for the African-Americans (Nisker 185).
Works Cited
Hombach, Jean-Pierre. Tupac Amaru Shakur. Lulu.com, 2010. Shop My Book. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
Ogunnaike, Lola. “FILM; Tupac Shakur: Dead Man Talking.” The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2003. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Nisker, Josh. “’Only God Can Judge Me’: Tupac Shakur, the Legal System, and Lyrical Subversion.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 14.1 (2007): 176-196. University of Albany. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
