"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real."
HAPPY 40TH
1971-1996
Yesterday marked the 40th birthday of one of my favorite musicians of all time. Throughout my stay on this planet-Tupac Shakur has been blasted from my speakers and headphones. An inspirational figure for the working class who was raised from the ghetto's of NYC & LA then took over the rap game forever. One of the unique aspects of his music was the lyricism. Pac wrote about the world he was raised in-regardless of whether some might say it was glorifying and provoking violence. He was addressing key themes of racism, gun crime, poverty which all affected the family environment individuals of his generation. Because of these factors, media stereotyping & misunderstandings of the majority of hip-hop music, 2PAC and various other rappers were addressing that these elements were contributing to a day to day warzone supposedly called LIFE!
2PACALYPSE NOW his debut album pointed the blame directly to the White House. Not only were politicians contributing to the failure of black youth's life choices-ignoring instead of helping the underprivileged & the failure to create possible career and leisure opportunities. It felt judging from the music that people were being out-casted by their leader (who were more interested in bombing foreign countries). All of these factors created a resurgence of racism & social unbalance. With never-ending pessimistic headlines in the press black on black crime etc, PAC created a political charged, almost uplifting album for his community urging people to stay focused & not to become sidetracked by negativity & dangerous aspects that could destroy their lives.
Although condemned by politicians & middle class Americans who were only focused on searching for explicit content & avoiding the underlining messages buried within each song-the album was acknowledged as one of the most important albums of all time by music critics and fans. America was indeed scared, especially as Nigga no longer had the derogatory qualities associated from it's past. For 2pac Nigga stood for: Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished.
Words of Wisdom i feel is a great insight & demonstration into both his career and what he stood for-Whilst at the same time creating a historical insight into a character living through a troubled time period in urban life for black American's. I also like to see the song as inspiring the listeners to stay focused & never give up your dreams regardless of the world, your neighborhood or negative individuals that try to put you down! Power to the people i say.
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