Tupac Amaru Shakur

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I am going to show you an insight of what happened in the famous rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur’s life. I have written about his background, his first steps his career as a rapper and an actor. You can also read about his movies, his enemies and girlfriends. I have analysed one of his lyrics that I admire the most and that has a very strong message.


Background

Lesane Parish Crooks was born in Brooklyn, NY 1971. His mother changed his name to Tupac amaru shakur after an Indian revolutionary. “ Tupac amaru” means “ Shining serpent” and “Shakur” means “Thankful to God” in Arabic.

His mother Afeni Shakur was married to Tupac’s father William Garland but got divorced by him, and later got remarried with Jeral Wayne Williams, known as Mutala Shakur. Tupac had a half sister Sekyiwa and a half brother Maurice.

When Tupac’s stepfather was sentenced to sixty years for a fatal armed car robbery, things got hard for the family. They moved a lot to,the Bronx, Harlem, and to several homeless- shelters. It was very tough for Tupac because he had no friends that he had grown up with.

By the age of twelve, Tupac realised his great love for acting, writing love songs and poetry. As a young teen his family moved to Baltimore, where he attended the Baltimore school for the performing arts to study ballet. His time at the Baltimore school he showed tremendous potential and the teachers was amazed by his abilities, but unfortunately he had to move with his family to Oakland. And that’s where Tupac began to hang with the wrong kind of crowd.

At the age of fifteen he found his way into rap. He wrote lyrics and rapped. He began to present himself as MC New York and made people thing that he was a tough guy, and not to be messed with. Many people were afraid of him, and barely dared to mention his name.

Things started to go really bad for 2pac. By the time he was twenty, he had been under arrest eight times and even serving six months in prison after being convicted of sexual abuse. Shakur was the leader of his own gang; he started selling drugs and even using them. Once a young boy at an age of six got killed during a gang war between tupac’s gang and a rival group. Nobody got sentenced for his murder.

With lack of education, Pac joined the rap group Digital Underground as a dancer. Starting with amateur rap Pac worked his way up to a professional rapper. The group achieved award-winning success. And Pac released his own album “2pacalypse now”. The hit Brenda’s got a baby launched his career like a rocket. His phenomenal talent gave him a role in “Juice”. His second album was an even bigger sensation. It was starting to go uphill for him; famous moviemakers and other rap groups recognized him. He achieved a lot by backing away from his criminal acts. But he never quitted doing illegal things.

In November 1994 Tupac was shot five times during a robbery. The thieves stole $40.000 worth of his jewellery. Pac Miraculously recovered in time to produce “ Me against the world” (album)



The highlights in Pac’s acting career came when he appeared on “Poetic Justice”. He showed that he not only was a great rapper but also an incredible actor.

His songs were soundtracks of great movies, a few to be mentioned; Gridlock’d, Scary movie, Bad boys, Gang related, Sunset Park and Ringmaster.


His Enemies

Even tough Pac was loved by many people he also had many rivals. To mention a few famous that dissed (a sort of way to make fun of someone) him without any reasons are; Chino XL, LL Cool J, The fugees, and Nas. Tupac wrote songs about them to diss them back.

His biggest enemy is Biggie Smalls, his close friend at a time. It all began in 1994 when Pac got shot and blamed Biggie for it. He heard from many people in prison that Biggies crew set him up and got him to jail after he’d been shot.

While Pac was spending his time in jail, Biggie copied his clothing, his songs and his lifestyle. He began to write songs about things he never experienced, like partying and he claimed to know people that haven’t even heard about him. And when Pac heard about this he
got furious. When he got out of prison he wrote songs dissing Biggie for his pathetic ways. And these two wrote many songs dissing each other.


His Girlfriends

Let’s forget a little about Pac’s criminal acts, rivals and songs and focus a little on his love life. Pac never talked about his girlfriends only mentioning them once or twice to his friends. His Bodyguard Frank Alexander wrote a book about Pac where he mentioned his girlfriends.

Some of them are famous artists we already know a little about others are unknown girls from his “Hood” (neighbourhood). Jada Pinkett was his girlfriend at a time; they grew up with each other and lived in The Bronx at the time. But it didn’t last for so long. He got together with Madonna at a time, they got to know each other at the shooting for Gridlock’d, but things ended as fast as they started. And she got pregnant by Carlos Leon.
We all know Faith Evans, Biggie smalls Wife. Pac went to bed with her for the cause of revenge so she isn’t a girlfriend mainly like a trophy of the pain he caused Biggie smalls.

Pac was very loved by his girlfriend and treated them good. The most of them has very good memories of him. Others hate him. There isn’t more to tell about them, he never made them into an important topic accruing to Frank.


His killing

Poet, movie star, revolutionary, Tupac Amaru Shakur was the most popular rapper in the world. No one symbolized the violence at the heart of gangster rap more than Tupac, and he ultimately fell victim to that violence .On September 7th Tupac got shot by unknown men on his way to meet his girlfriend and died on September 13th, 1996 at the age of 25. To this very day things remains a mystery of what really happened on that day and the reasons why it happened.

After his death Tupac’s label released his album “ the don killuminati”. His movies Gridlocke’d and Gang related, got released January the 1st 1997.

Death Row is said to have several unreleased albums in store for the future. Some people think that he is still alive and Biggie wrote a song to diss him called “dig him up” for the ones that believed he was alive. The seventh day theory is said to be his plans for the future, to take a seven years break and then make a comeback. He was expected to be back 13th September 2004, but that never happened.


Analysis

Why I chosen to write about him is because I admire him for his ability to make it big even though he had a lot of problems. I think he is a phenomenal artist. He writes great songs and has a strong massage. I like his ways of expressing himself, the fact that he doesn’t think about not to curse. He is using his précis word as he wishes.

The thing that amazes me is that he has accomplished so mush at the age of 25. Even after his death people mention him, and remembers him. He also has songs in store for the future, which shows how creative and talented he was. I know by reading articles about him that he didn’t give up working on songs in the studio if he hadn’t at least five or six songs done by the end of the day. It’s interesting to research about him; he has done so much and been through so much in his life. I can only imagine how my life would look like if I even experienced half the things he has. From my view he is a strong person that believes in mankind and knows that by helping each other we can change the wrongs in the society and for that I love him.

Changes by – 2pac
We need a change. Is life worth living the way things are now? Or should we kill ourselves? Our young ones are taking drugs and wears guns, where is the world heading? There are too much racist faces and that is one of the reasons why the penitentiaries are full with black people, because both blacks and whites is doing illegal things. Why isn’t the society doing anything about the poverty? If that doesn’t change we will always keep on snatching purses and selling drugs to put food on the table. I know that if they trust us to let us work instead of living of welfare we would stop selling drugs and stealing purses, it would be a better place. That is a few of his thoughts with this song. I think everyone should listen to it and have a look at the text and really try to understand the meaning of it. We, every one of us in different ways, cause all the problems in the world. Listen to 2pac and make your own opinion about him.


Sources :
www.tupacfans.com
www.goggle.se
www.tupac.se














Changes
By: tupac amaru shakur


-1-
Come on come on
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 and 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 ugly mouth on the welfare
First ship ´em dope and 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 change, and that´s the way it is

Chorus:
That´s just the way it is
Things´ll never be the same
That´s just the way it is
aww yeah
(Repeat)

-2-
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, let´s erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they´ll be acting right
´cause both black and white is smokin´ crack tonight
and the only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain´t yet, to see a black President dead, uhh
It ain´t a secret don´t conceal the fact
the penitentiary´s packed, and it´s filled with blacks
But some things will never change
try to show another way but you stayin´ in the dope game
Now tell me what´s a mother to do
bein´ real don´t appeal to the brother in you
You gotta operate the easy way
I made a G today But you made it in a sleazy way
sellin´ crack to the kids. I gotta get paid,
Well hey, that´s the way it is

Chorus:
That´s just the way it is
Things´ll never be the same
That´s just the way it is
aww yeah
(Repeat)

Talking:
We gotta make a change...
It´s time for us as a people to start makin´ some changes.
Let´s change the way we eat, let´s change the way we live
and let´s change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn´t working so it´s on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

-3-
And still I see no changes can´t a brother get a little peace
It´s war on the streets and the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on pove...