Tupac

“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 ------ *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 Ly 2 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 ----- 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? ---- 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. Ly 3 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.”