Taken too soon, Tupac Shakur preached a lot in his time from ranging ideas. From love for his
mom in “Dear Mama” to beef with Biggie Smalls in “Hit em’ up”. But in the song, “Changes”
which released October 13th 1998, he speaks about a lot of issues that are still prevalent in
today’s society. Starting with,
“Cops give a damn about a negro
Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero”
Sparked by the verdict from George Zimmerman’s trial in the summer of 2013, the Black Lives
Matter Movement started. The Black community and people in general have had enough with
seeing lives being by the cops due to racial profiling. Too many lives have been taken and
rewards are basically being taken away. George Zimmerman received a slap on the wrist while
Trayvon Martin’s mother had to deal with a loss of her child that just wanted snacks from the
7/11. Trayvon is not the only life that was lost. The list goes on and on, sadly.
“I see no changes all I see is racist faces
Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races”
Tupac was referring to the racism that he saw going on in the United states and the lack of
progress against racism.
Many people in the United states like to say or act like there is no racism today. But it is still
alive very much, especially with the new president. According to Huffington post after the
election there was 900 hate incidents nationwide in the 10 days right after the election.
“And although it seems heaven sent we ain’t ready, to see a black president, uhh”
Barack Obama was our first black president and although he created many great things like
DACA and Obama care. He received much hate from white america, minorities were very much
ready for him but there was a great amount of white americans that were not.
“It ain’t a secret, don’t conceal the fact:
The penitentiary’s packed, and it’s filled with blacks”
Shakur refers the astonishing numbers of Black people incarcerated back in 1998. But those
numbers appear to be similar today, even a little higher. Not because Black commit the most
crime but for wrongful incarceration and petty crimes where judges sentence absurd
sentencing. A Black man will receive a year in jail for parking tickets while a white student will
receive 3 months of community service for a rape. Racial disparities in sentencing is real people.
“You gotta operate the easy way
‘ I made a G today’ But you made it in a sleezy way
Sellin’ crack to the kid. ‘ I gotta get paid,’
Well hey, well that’s the way it is”
In this verse Tupac is referring to those that are in poverty, that are in certain situations where
there is a lack of opportunity to help them get out and they have to pay their bills or put food on
the table, in order to do this they have to sell drugs. Tupac is not condoning selling drugs, he is
saying “that’s the way it is” because it’s what’s necessary.
People are still selling drugs out of necessity.
“We gotta make a change
It’s time for us as a people to start making 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”
This is a call to action and that’s what we are doing today. We stand together during marches
and protests. We are making our voices heard and improving our ways of living but leaving the
“old ways”. Unity is always great. Unity makes us stronger.
“And still I see no changes can’t a brother get a little peace
It’s war on the streets & the war in the Middle East”
The culture of the United States where violence is virtually everywhere. The war in the streets is
referring to gang violence and there is still ongoing war in the middle east that the united states is
involved in. Places in United States like south Chicago still sound like battlefields becuase of the
intense use of guns in gangs. We are still sending troops to the middle east and bombing certain
countries there too,
“Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs
So the police can bother me”
Like explained above the issue isn’t drugs, it’s about being in poverty and having to sell drugs to
get out of being in poverty. This “ War on drugs” is still going on and has lead to mass
incarceration