Nas, New York State of Mind

Hip-Hop is a memory. The music that operates under its name today speaks to millions but has no sense of origin or responsibility to the preservation of culture and history.

In attempts to resurrect the culture and honor hip-hop"s heritage VH1 produces the annual Hip-Hop Honors while Black Entertainment Television, the network most affiliated with hip-hop, features the programs Beef: The Series and American Gangster.

As a representation of the lives of disenfranchised blacks, hip-hop once spoke accurately on behalf of those who spent their days honing emcee skills and bouncing from house party to party. The afro-centric calls for unity and even the ultra-violent content of gangsta rap rang true in the ears of portions of the disenfranchised population. Today that population is alienated by content centered almost exclusively on consuming extravagant luxuries.

We have become irresponsible consumers; of luxuries and of music. We buy the formulaic, uninspired products that record companies supply instead of demanding quality. We allow rappers too absorbed in their public images and private wealth to dictate trends instead of requiring innovation for our dollars and support. When did we stop controlling our music?

Wasn't hip-hop supposed to be a reflection of its audience? Does hip-hop still know to whom it speaks?

As listeners and more importantly as consumers, we must demand a creative surge in the hip-hop craft in exchange for our money. We cannot mistake trends for innovation any longer if we want the spirit of the culture to thrive. Creativity cannot be emulated and a constant influx of the unique would ensure the prosperity of the music and culture.

Hip-Hop is too stagnant to thrive today and we can only hold ourselves responsible. It can never go back to the way it was and we should not want it to. Originality is the only resuscitator of the music, the narrator of the culture.

So then, perhaps hip-hop has not died just yet, despite Nas' prophetic decree. Maybe there is a bit of creativity left in a few emcees. Perhaps hip-hop still breathes and is only asleep, awaiting an affecting feat of musical genius to stir us, its people out of apathy.

Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, associated with many members of the Black Panther Party, an organization that wanted to feed school kids breakfast and earn civil rights for African Americans. She dropped out of high school, partied with North Carolina gang members, then moved to Brooklyn. After having an affair with one of Malcolm X's bodyguards, she became political. When the mostly white United Federation of Teachers went on strike in 1968, she crossed the picket line and taught the children herself. Then she joined a New York chapter of the Black Panther Party and fell in love with an organizer named Lumumba. They were married, but she was arrested for conspiring to set off a race war. She was pregnant, and made bail, then told her husband that it wasn't his child. He immediately divorced her. Her bail was revoked and she was sent to a women's prison. By the time of Tupac's birth, she had already defended herself in court and been acquitted on 156 counts. Living in the Bronx, she found steady work as a paralegal and tried to raise her son to respect the value of an education.

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 16, 1971. His first name means shining serpent, and Shakur is Arabic for “thankful to God.” His real born name is Lesane Parish Crooks. He was the son of political activist Alice Fay Williams, also known as Afeni Shakur.

Everyone called him the “Black Prince,” even from childhood. His mom had no answer when he'd ask about his dad. Tupac says, “She just told me "I don"t know who your daddy is.'”

When he was two, his sister, Sekyiwa, was born. Her father, Mutulu, was also a Black Panther. A few months before her birth, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for a fatal armored car robbery.

No matter where they moved- the Bronx, Harlem, homeless shelters- Tupac was always upset. “I remember crying all the time,” he says. “My major thing growing up was I couldn't fit in. Because I was from everywhere. I didn't have no buddies that I grew up with.”

Tupac moved to Baltimore, Maryland at a young age. In 1986, at age 15, he fell into rap and began writing lyrics. He enrolled in the illustrious Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting and ballet, and finally felt “in touch” with himself. There he left a lasting impression and showed tremendous potential.

In 1988, he quit school to move with his family to Oakland, California. He was 17. There he began to “hang with the wrong crowd.” Over the next few years Tupac lived on the streets and began hustling. Eventually, in the late 80s, he met Shock-G. They teamed up with other Oakland-based rappers to create Digital Underground, a rap/funk music group. Tupac was also involved in other music groups over time.

During his music career, Tupac used several aliases as well. The most known ones are MC New York, 2Pac, and Makaveli (The Don).

In 1992, Tupac broke free from Digital Underground and made his solo debut with the album “2Pacalypse Now,” which was a huge success and went gold.

The blunt and explicit lyrics from “2Pacalypse Now” also earned criticisms from moral watchdogs, and Vice President Dan Quayle attacked the album while he was running for re-election. Many politicians believed that Tupac's music was a bad influence on society. Many others, however, favored his songs because of the belief that they actually had meaning; he wrote about things that were important to him.

That same year, Tupac's talent landed him a role in the violent motion picture “Juice.” Over the course of one year, Tupac's profile rose substantially, based as much on his run-ins with the law as his music. In fact, many believe that his legal issues only made him famous. In 1992, he was arrested for being involved in a fight that culminated with a stray bullet killing a six-year-old. The charges against him were later dismissed.

Tupac released his second album, “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.,” in 1993. It was an even bigger success, and became a platinum album. “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.” peaked at number four on the R&B charts and launched the Top Ten R&B hit singles “I Get Around” and “Keep Ya Head Up.” The highlight of Tupac's acting career also came that year, when he starred in “Poetic Justice” with Janet Jackson. The role made Tupac a household name, while also showing the world that music was not his only talent. That same year Tupac was also filming the movie “Menace II Society” when he assaulted director Allen Hughes. He received 15 days in jail in early 1994.

In 1994, Tupac rivaled Snoop Dogg as the most controversial figure in rap, spending as much time in prison as he did in the recording studio. In the middle of a role in the movie “Above the Rim” and the release of the platinum album “Me Against the World,” Tupac's rising career faced other problems. He was brought up on sexual assault charges by a woman he met at a club. Just one day before he was found guilty, he was shot five times while in a recording studio in New York in November of 1994. The shooting was classified as a robbery, as thieves made off with $40,000.00 worth of his jewelry. However, Tupac later accused East-coast rappers including Sean “Puffy” Combs and The Notorious B.I.G. of setting him up.

On February 7, 1995 Tupac was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexual assault charges. During his prison time, Tupac's new album “Me Against the World” spent four weeks at number one on the charts, making Tupac the first artist to enjoy a number one record while serving a prison sentence. The song “Dear Mama” illustrated that Tupac was capable of sensitivity as well as violence. He spent eight months in prison until Death Row Records producer Suge Knight paid his $1.4 million bail and also signed him to Death Row Records.

After his release from prison, Tupac released his Death Row Debut “All Eyez on Me,” in the spring of 1996. The record, as well as its single, “California Love,” confirmed his superstar status, and has currently sold more than six million copies. The record also features other Death Row members Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. During the time he became Death Row's most valuable rapper, Tupac also starred in two more films, “Gridlock'd” and “Bullet.”

On September 7, 1996, Tupac and Suge Knight left the Mike Tyson/Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. As they were leaving the hotel, Tupac got into a fight with an unnamed young black man. Tupac and Knight left in Knight's car. A white Cadillac with four people inside pulled up next to them at an intersection and one person opened fire. Tupac was hit four times, and Suge escaped with only minor injuries. Tupac was taken to the University Medical Center.

On Friday, September 13, 1996, Tupac died after six days in critical condition. Tupac Shakur was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m., and his body was later cremated. He was 25 years old. There are many theories surrounding Tupac's death; however there is a suspicion that it could have been the rivalry between the West-coast and East-coast rappers. At the time of his murder in September 1996, there were indications that Tupac was considering leaving Death Row, and maybe even rap, behind.

It has been suggested that the fight Tupac was involved in as he left the MGM Grand was the cause of the drive-by shooting. It has also been suggested that Knight's ties to the mob and to gangs were the reason. Another theory is that the Notorious B.I.G. arranged the shooting as retaliation for Tupac's comments that he slept with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans.

Many people believed that Tupac's death would end the much-hyped East-coast/West-coast hip-hop rivalry and decrease black-on-black violence.

However, six months after Tupac's death, the Notorious B.I.G. was murdered under similar circumstances.

Though his death was a shock to his fans and the music company, Tupac himself often said he expected he'd die by the sword before he reached 30.

As Tupac's notoriety increased in the wake of his death, a series of posthumous releases followed, among them: “Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” (issued under the alias Makaveli in 1996), “R U Still Down? (Remember Me”) (1997), “Still I Rise” (1999), “Until the End of Time” (2001), and “Better Dayz” (2002).

Tupac questioned, devoted, and wrestled with God in his lyrics. Even his titles, “Only God Can Judge Me” and “I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto,” Tupac touched on divinity. He asked, “will God forgive me for all the dirt a nigga did to feed his kids,” on the song “Picture Me Rolling.” Tupac seemed to be testing divine forgiveness, but he was sincere about the realization that God's word justifies “thug life” behavior. He says, “you make a pact with God, and ask him to forgive you and move on, because sometimes you get put in the path to kill … I feel I'm in cool standing with God” (211).

According to Tupac's rationale, since he was not doing wrong toward the innocent, God's grace would fall upon him. He said, “now I've got to accept it like a man and go to God if I get killed,” but, “for many thugs, God is the great accomplice to a violent lifestyle” (211). Tupac realized God's awareness of such violent situations. In “White Man's World,” Tupac said, “God bless me please / making all my enemies bleed” (203). He was touching on Psalms by requesting what Dyson describes as, “divine favor and retribution” (203). Tupac also displayed divine projections in his videos. His song “I Ain't Mad at Cha” was made into a video packed with religious imagery. Tupac was assassinated in the video that incorporated the Pearly Gates, dead black legends, and angels. His mother assumed that it was her son's way of making peace with God.

Tupac was prophetic in a modern sense. From his youth, he was interested in spiritual matters. Tupac's early mentor, Leila Steinberg, says, “he studied every spiritual teacher you could imagine” (204). Steinberg also realizes that Tupac often questioned organized religion, concentrating more on spiritual reality. According to Dyson, “Tupac truly felt that he and others could help transform the world” (205). Like ancient Jewish prophets, Shakur proclaimed the word of God in the form of criticism against the injustices of society. According to The Mystica, classical literary prophets placed more emphasis on the importance of ethical monotheism rather than the performance of the cult and foretelling the future. Prophets are said to show deep concern and love the poor and needy. Tupac did just that.

Steinberg recalls Shakur's idea about the privilege to explore spiritual truth. “If you are a poor person in the ghetto with no money, how can you expound on life? So it's very racist to have the luxury of exploiting your humanness, because when you're in the hood, you don't get to ponder because you're trying to eat” (206). Tupac also suggested remedies for spiritual malaise that represented the experiences of the oppressed. By his own admission, “Tupac was "bitter" about the poverty he was reared in, but only later, through his lyrics, did the world discover just how much he had really suffered. That suffering led him to deepen his understanding of spirituality and of God” (207).

Shakur was revolutionary in his demand for social reform, most notably in the black community. Rapper Big Tray Dee says that Tupac, “had a lot of things on his mind that he addressed through his songs. And I knew he was a real spiritual person, maybe not as far as proclaiming it, but you can hear it in his songs, in his art. He is looking for an answer, trying to find it with his people, through his music” (207). Whether he realized it or not, Shakur developed into an urban poet, telling the truth about poor black life on the streets.

Tupac's view of God as liberator allowed him to anticipate his worldly death. “The readiness to die is characteristic of thug theology, as much because of the intensity of the suffering they observe and endure as the belief that they have squared themselves with God” (212). It is similar to the perspective of African-American slaves, who awaited the heavenly kingdom as an escape from the oppression they experienced on Earth. Tupac trusted in God, but was also discontented during a substantial part of his life. Rapper Mos Def noticed, “Pac was one of the most valuable Americans of his generation, but he was also one of the most flawed and conflicted and really unhappy persons as well” (212). Shakur sensed that his time on Earth would be short, and he was not content in this world. Jail time was even more disheartening for Tupac. He said, “jail killed my spirit, it wore me out. I'm tired now. I don't know if I'm making any difference” (215).

As a child, Tupac thought prison time would educate him even more about the everyday struggle of blacks. Unfortunately, the penitentiary only taught Shakur that he could not change everyone. Jada Pinkett Smith, a childhood friend of Shakur, says of the prison sentence, “I think a part of Pac just died right there, and then he just sold his soul. I mean, the one thing about Pac is that he thought he could work around God and work around the devil. He really thought he had some tricks up his sleeves” (216). Following his jail stint, Tupac began rapping about his experience on the street. He wanted the people to be aware of his condition, similar to that of many minorities stuck in poverty. It wasn't his prison sentence that made Shakur upset at society, it just provoked his cause.

Tupac's music was his salvation, creating an opportunity to express revolutionary ideas to the people. I have always been interested in prophetic actions similar to the workings of Tupac Shakur. Those who are voiceless in the state of oppression deserve to be represented. Tupac provided an outlet for his impoverished brethren. I am impressed with Shakur's intentions during his Earthly existence. Reading Michael Dyson's article only reinforced my passion toward the issue.