As I've written before, music is an important part of my life. From something as trivial as providing the soundtrack for my walks to class to setting the backdrop for heavy ruminations. A little strange for someone who doesn't know the first thing about playing any instruments. But that's another issue altogether.
More relevant is the fact that one of the biggest reasons for this is a man who died fourteen years ago today. If you know me you know I've always been a huge fan of Tupac's music. In my humble opinion, he is the best, most influential musician to ever grace the genre of rap. And I say that knowing full well that he was not the most lyrically complex, nor did he have the best flow and syncopation. And his career path even before his murder was an unconventional one. Going from a revolutionary to thug put people off who branded him as a hypocrite. I encourage those people to pay close attention to his life story. I'm of the thinking that you can't judge an artist's merit without considering the story behind their work. And it's only fair that the self proclaimed "realest" rapper gets that allowance.
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| An old sketch. |
But even with that debate, one thing is for sure, no other rapper can have as big an impact on someone on the opposite side of the globe even after a decade has passed since his death. It's things like that that best define Tupac for me. The intangibles. His words were never complex but his ideas and thoughts were as complex as any of the great minds that we study in our schools and history books. I can say that I've studied Aristotle and St. Augustine. I've spent days reading the life stories of the likes of Malcolm X and Mahatma Gandhi. And yet there is a unique profundity to Tupac Shakur. I define his best attribute as his ability to come off so un-apologetically "human". His songs cover a wide spectrum of moods and issues. From the most hedonistically trivial to the most socially profound. That balance he struck between aesthetic skill and emotive connection with his audience is right up there with the best in any genre of music. There is a reason Tupac is still relevant today, fourteen years after his death. And there is a reason Tupac's music is part of what defines me today.
Tupac Amaru Shakur. 16 June 1971 - 13 September 1996. Gone but never forgotten.
PS: Can't post about 'Pac and not put up some music to demonstrate everything I just said! Here's one of my favorite verses ever from Still I Rise:
(Verse 1)
Somebody wake me I'm dreaming, I started as a seed the semen
Swimming upstream, planted in the womb while screaming
on the top, was my pops, my momma screaming stop
From a single drop, this is what they got
Not to disrespect my peoples but my poppa was a loser
Only plan he had for momma was to fuck her and abuse her
Even as a little seed, I could see his plan for me
Stranded on welfare, another broken family
Now what was I to be, a product of this heated passion
Momma got pregnant, and poppa got a piece of ass
Look how it began, nobody gave a fuck about me
Pistol in my hand, this cruel world can do without me
How can I survive? Got me asking white Jesus
will a nigga live or die, 'cause the Lord can't see us
in the deep dark clouds of the projects, ain't no sunshine
No sunny days and we only play sometimes
When everybody's sleeping
I open my window jump to the streets and get to creeping
I can live or die, hope I get some money 'fore I'm gone
I'm only 19, I'm trying to hustle on my own
on the spot where everybody and they pops trying to slang rocks
I'd rather go to college, but this is where the game stops
Don't get it wrong 'cause it's always on, from dusk to dawn
You can buy rocks glocks or a herringbone
You can ask my man he's a mind reader
Keep my nine heated all the time this is how we grind
Meet up at the cemetery then get smoked out, pass the weed nigga
That Hennessey'll keep me keyed nigga
Everywhere I go niggaz holla at me, "Keep it real G"
And my reply till they kill me
Act up if you feel me, I was born not to make it but I did
The tribulations of a ghetto kid, still I rise
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