He had spent his life desperately trying to communicate the consequences of a lifestyle that many people in America didn't want to think about. After he was murdered at age 25, it was poetry like this that made him a legend. The impassioned, revealing sensitivity of songs like "Dear Mama" made Tupac a star during his life. That's what he was," says rapper Big Syke. When you put them together, it's like gunpowder.
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He was self-educated despite dropping out of high school, and equally knowledgeable about his family's revolutionary history, spirituality, and literature. Tupac was more effective than probably any artist in history at bringing together his strictly street identity with a highly educated background. According to Karen Lee, his former manager, he turned to her and said, "I'm sorry if my language offends you, but it can't offend you any more than the world your generation has left me to deal with" ( source). One time while he was sitting on a panel in front of a group of activists, an older woman asked him to change his offensive language. Because in his words, "America is the biggest gang in the world" ( source).Ī friend of Tupac's tells a revealing story about his view of language and responsibility.
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To Tupac, being a thug was something we all go through. L.I.F.E.-which stands for "The Hate U Give Little Infants F-s Everyone" in the 2Pac lexicon-was an extension of his, albeit somewhat embittered, pride at having survived his own childhood and become a successful artist. He lived on the edge because he never had high hopes for his own survival. Some say that Tupac lived the life he wrote about to tragic ends and took his attachment to the outlaw lifestyle too far.īut others believe that somewhere inside himself, Pac already knew what he had coming. It may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. He seemed to have prematurely identified the end that awaited him, and wrote about death throughout his youthful career. He was accused of inciting violence and encouraging negativity and misogyny because he used derogatory terms and rapped about murder and drugs.īut after his death, some began to see his words as tragically prophetic. Tupac was a contradictory, controversial, and tortured figure. Before he died, he recorded dozens of tracks, which have since been released on eight posthumous albums. His friends and family believed he lived on because of his broad influence, his spiritual presence, and his lasting work. From star to hero, from hero to martyr, and from martyr to " thug angel" and even " Black Jesus."Īfter he died-murdered in 1996 by a shooter in Las Vegas-people started to say that he was still alive. That question fascinated people during his life while he was alive, but since his death, the status of Tupac's mystery and importance has become continually elevated. He was the success story who kept his heart in the ghetto. This may have ultimately been what killed him, but it's also part of what made him a martyr when he died. He never thought about using his fame to "get away." But according to his friends, he filled his first house in Oakland with street kids and people in the community who were in need. With his newfound success, Tupac had cars, hotel rooms, record deals, and a nice house. "Dear Mama," though it is wracked with hurt over the lifestyle he came up in, celebrates the contradictions of staying "in the life," as seen in the track's lyrics: His friends, or fellow "outlaws," another term Pac tried to elevate and reclaim, were still pimps, dealers, and actual gangsters.
#Youtube 2 pac dear mama series
He dropped out of high school at 17, and, through a series of breaks, got a record deal and a possible way out.īut as his songs indicated, Tupac never left the street life. The move was ostensibly an attempt to escape the violence and horror of Baltimore's streets.īy the time he and his mother made that final move, Tupac was living on his own, crashing with family friends and then living in an abandoned building with other street kids.
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But before he had a chance to finish his studies, the family moved again, this time to Marin City, California. Pac started an AIDS prevention campaign and attended a school for the arts, where he started acting and rapping. So as soon as I got there-being the person that I am-I said 'No, no. Tupac said, "Baltimore has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy, the highest rate of AIDS within the black community, the highest rate of teens killing teens, the highest rate of teenage suicide, and the highest rate of blacks killing blacks. Tupac grew up on the streets of New York, and as a young teen his mother moved him to Baltimore.
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Like all Tupac's other songs, "Dear Mama" is set in the streets of New York, Baltimore, and Marin City, a life in the shadow of wealth and privilege with no visible way out.