I started listening to Tupac when I met my husband. I didn't usually listen to rap music and this was a new experience for me. (In fact, my students used to laugh at me when I would mispronounce some artist's name on a CD they were showing me. . . .) He was gentle with me at first. He introduced me to some of Tupac's softer music, like Dear Mama, before bringing on the hard-core, full-of-cursing music. But it didn't matter. I liked almost all of it.
Tupac has a unique ability to make you feel what he's feeling, even if you have no clue what it's like to be part of a gang, fatherless, dealing drugs or imprisoned while Mama cries on the phone. You can imagine the pain and the plight. And it doesn't matter if you're black or white, you can understand how he feels about police brutality, discrimination and brotherhood, even if you don't necessarily agree with the reality of those issues. Very few artists can do that consistently. Tupac is one of them. It's too bad he's no longer with us.
2 comments:
Must disagree with the "too bad" part. This is not the story of a man worth admiration and mourning.
It's not his life that I'm saying should be admired and mourned, but the loss of true creative talent. I don't expect everyone to like his music; it can be very hard to listen to. And I definitely don't expect everyone to admire his lifestyle; in fact, no one should admire that. But a person can make positive contributions to the world in addition to negative ones.
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