Tupac Shakur Essay, Research Paper

?Only God can judge me/ Nobody else/ Nobody else/ All you other mutha *censored*as/ get out of my business,? said by Tupac Shakur at the beginning of his song, ?Only God Can Judge Me.? Tupac was a gangster rap artist who practiced what he preached. Because of his profanity and lyrics, people say he should be censored. He has the right to rap about whatever he wishes, because it?s his way to expressing his feelings, it?s not against the law, and it?s the truth.

Tupac uses a lot of profanity, and his lyrics are inappropriate for kids. The song ?Hit em? Up? starts off with vulgar language and has negative content.

First off, *censored* your bitch and the click you claim

West Side when we ride comin’ equipped with game

You claim to be a playa but I *censored*ed your wife

We bust on Bad Boy niggas *censored*ed for life

His music is for young adults, not for young kids who are easily influenced. Kids won?t know what Tupac is really rappimg about anyway, but the more they hear it and grow up with it, the more it will become a apart of them. The lyrics to most of his songs are about death about life in the ghetto. Even though all of it is reality, kids should not be exposed at such a young age. Tupac expresses his feelings by letting it flow onto the paper and then into music just as a poet expresses his or her feelings through pencil and paper, thus creating art. His feelings towards life are depressing, but by letting it all out, he is not repressing himself. Tupac?s art is rapping. Different people express their feelings in different ways; through paint, clay, music, etc. Tupac is great at expressing his feelings through his music. That?s a talent that not many

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people have. Here is a sample of how he expresses his views towards all the injustices in life. In his song ?Changes?, he raps about prejudice and all the sick aspects of the world.

I see no changes all I see are racist faces

Misplace hate make disgrace a racist?

Cops give a damn about a Negro

Pull the trigga kill the nigga

He?s a hero.

His feelings towards life are what people don?t like. He raps about suicide, because he can?t handle the daily pressure of life, ?It?s gonna take a man of me, to conquer this insanity.? Tupac went through a lot in his life; numerous gunshots, locked up in jail, and having people despise him. Going through so much in his life, he has a lot to talk about. He has so much going on in life he thinks about committing suicide. ?I wake up in the morning and I ask myself, is life worth living, should I blast myself,? from the song ?Changes? he talks about his life and how he feels every morning. He has a lot of songs are about death, and how he thinks that dying is sometimes better than living through pain. If he kept all this pain inside with no way of expressing I, he would be a trapped man. This is just his way of releasing it all. Why should we take that away from his? Why should we cover the world?s eyes from his feelings and the reality that he has to face?

Fuck the world because I?m cursed

I?m having visions of leaving here in a hurst

God can you feel me?

Take me away from all the pressure

and all the pain, show me

some happiness again.

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His feelings are strong and his style of expressing himself is a great way to let people know how he feels. His style of art should not be censored. No one is forcing anyone to listen to Tupac, it?s his or her choice to listen to his music.

The United States is the land of the free. It?s a place where everyone has a choice. The first amendment allows Tupac the right of free speech; in other words, he can rap whatever he wants. It states, ?Congress shall make no law respecting establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press?? Tupac has the right to talk about whatever he feels like. He has the right to rap about dying, killing, suffering,

or how he sees the world. Although Tupac has broken many laws in his lifetime and he raps about them, no one has a right to censor it. Just because people listen top it, doesn?t mean people are going to go out and do it. Tupac is breaking no laws in rapping about what he does. We watch the news everyday and we see stories of how this girl was raped or that boy was murdered. Why don?t we censor that, what?s the difference between Tupac rapping it to us and it being exposed to us on the news. It?s not right and we have no right to censor Tupac?s lyrics.

Tupac?s lyrics are reality; life is hard and society is corrupt. His lyrics are about first hand experiences that he had gone through in his life, ?I suffered through the years and shed so many tears.? In his song ?Keep Yah head Up? Tupac raps about women, but as opposed to his other songs, which contain negative messages, this song sends out a positive one.

Ya know what makes me unhappy

When brothas make babies and leaves a young mother to be a pappy

And since we all came from a woman

Got our name from a woman

And our game from a woman

I wonder why we rape our women

Do we hate our woman

I think its time to kill for our woman

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Time to heal our women

Be real to our women

Many people would agree that women are neglected and that there are single mothers who are disrespected, but many choose to ignore the fact. All the upper class citizens tend to distant themselves from the harsh and cruel world of the working lower class. They try not to think

about all the single and distressed mothers who don?t have enough money or respect to survive on. He?s saying that we should treat our women with more respect. The guys who neglect women should open their eyes and change. Here?s what he says about those guys.

That hate the ladies that make babies

And since can?t make one

He has no right to tell a woman when where to create one

In the same song he explains how society is corrupt.

You know it?s funny when it rains it pours

They got money for wars but can?t feed the poor

Sad there ain?t no hope for he youth and the truth is there ain?t no hope for the future

Reality scares people and people don?t want to face the fact that there is poverty and war. Tupac is telling us that today?s world has flaws and that we should try to fix it, but the people

who can fix it, such as senators and governors, think that is wrong for him to be sending negative messages out and therefore, they ignore it. Why should we censor the truth? No matter how much one tries to cover it up, it?s still going to be there, so we must face the facts and tackle the problems straight on. By censoring Tupac?s lyrics, we are just trying to ignore the problems and someday, all those problems are going to blow up in our faces. Tupac is not assuming the world is a big flaw, ?I ain?t trying to gash up/ I call ?em on how I see ?em?, he?s just showing us another side of it.

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Tupac should be censored. His music should still carry on and have many people see his point of view on life. His way of expressing his feelings is unique and different. He isn?t doing anything wrong by expressing himself through music. We should thank him for exposing us to the harsh realities in life. We can?t censor Tupac just because some people don?t like the profanity in his lyrics. There are many people who adore and can relate to his work. Tupac?s style of art is educating people and letting the young adults know what?s ahead in life. We can?t

spend the rest of our lives hiding from the truth and we can?t censor everything bad, because it is out there. The injustices of life can?t be kept a secret as they are depicted in Tupac?s poem, ?They could never understand/ What you set out to do/ Instead they choose to ridicule you/? This way you could not alter the course of ignorance that they have set to make my people forget.?