Tupac Shaku Is Hoping for People of All Color to Get Along in Song, The Changes

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In Changes by Tupac Shakur a black hip-hop artist, now deceased, he rapped about the African American subculture in America. The record label released this song in 1998; it is still popular within subcultures of America. He grew up in the 1980s. The policies of that period had influenced some of his music. I found videos of the song after a quick search on YouTube. The lyrics of this song are found on the internet from Google search of “Tupac, changes”. I have read the lyrics while listening to the music, Tupac emphasized on “that’s just the way it is” (2Pac-Changes). Tupac wanted the African American community to change their behaviors and rise above the social perception, but he believed the perception would never change. The song is very depressing, as Tupac mentioned in the song, when he wakes up he would question whether it is worth living, and wanting to shoot himself (2Pac-Changes). He is desperately wishing the society to transform into a utopia, for people of all colors to get along. He performed in an African American slang, often calls other black individuals “nigga, or negro,” which he used frequently in his music (2PAC LYRICS). The lyrics were coded with messages that would not make sense to individuals not did not live through that period. The alliteration of the last word in every line and the way Tupac enunciated those words made the lyrics rhyme fluidly. By listening to the song, it is apparent Tupac focused on the last word of each line. He wanted the message in the song to sink in to the listeners. . In the song it went, “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero” (2PAC LYRICS). During the 1980s and 1990s, United States still had problems of police corruption and brutality. Whe... ... middle of paper ... ...ever get to law back, cause I always got to worry about payback” (2PAC LYRICS). Kids would grow up to be just as violent and paranoid as the previous generation. The cycle of violence would continue in the economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The policies addressed in song hovers around the failure of War on Drugs, which increased the number of law enforcement abusing powers to harass African Americans. The harsh drug policies implemented under the Nixon administration targeted specific ethnic groups of the American population. Crack was the drug of choice of the African Americans, while powder cocaine was the drug predominately used by Caucasians. The disparity of the two mandatory drug sentencing of crack was 100 times harsher than cocaine. The passing of The Fair Sentencing Act under the Obama administration brought the ratio down to 18 to 1 in 2010 (ACLU).

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