Lots of people don't like or appreciate rap music but....

[cannabis_flower]

Tupac was different.

https://genius.com/2pac-keep-ya-head-up-lyrics

2Pac may have been a gangsta, but he had feelings too! This is a feminist anthem from Pac, with references to pro-choice politics and what one might call “rape culture”.

In a 1995 interview with LA Times journalist Chuck Philips, Tupac said:

In a 1995 interview with LA Times journalist Chuck Philips, Tupac said:

I think the shit that I say, no one else says. Who was writing about Black women before ‘Keep Ya Head Up?’ Now everybody got a song about Black women. Who was writing about that when I was writing about that? Who was writing about their own problems? I wasn’t talking [blah blah blah], I was talking my real problems. I was really having problems with police. I was really having problems with life and just being Black and why the hell we gotta get stepped on so much? But then I’m making it, I thought I was successful when I’m still getting stepped on. How come I got a boot-print on my back and I’m successful? I just couldn’t believe that. So instead of me just bugging out and doing a post office move and just shooting everything up and going to jail for a million years, I just said, ‘Fuck it. I’m in here rapping. Why not just rap about some shit that’s really happening?’

The music video opens with an image about being dedicated to Latasha Harlins (Latasha Harlins (July 14, 1975 – March 16, 1991) was a 15-year-old African-American girl who was shot in the head by Soon Ja Du (Hangul:두순자 , a 51-year-old Korean-born female convenience store owner who was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins' death. Harlins was a student at Westchester High School in Los Angeles. Harlins' death came 13 days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Du was fined $500 and sentenced to five years of probation and 400 hours of community service but no prison time for her crime. Some have cited the shooting of Latasha Harlins as one of the causes of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. ). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Latasha_Harlins



There was a follow-up to this song, “Baby Don’t Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)”

[mitch96]

1. Me personally I don't care for hip hop or rap....

But I do have to give them props for the poetry and verse that is in the songs...
amazing stuff They be rhymin' like simin'
m

[NewDayOranges]

2. You're right - Tupac WAS different...

Even tho I can't always understand what he's saying or agree with what he's s saying, his way of rapping was beautiful. He sounded as tho he was SINGING...

Rap is just another method of telling a story or narrative spoken to a beat or music.

That Tupac's speech patterns sounded more lyrical or melodic was a talent that no other rapper has been able to match, as far as I'm concerned...

[Ohiogal]

3. Awesome lyrics

Thanks for sharing this. A few years ago I wanted nothing to do with rap music, but recently I have tried to open my mind to the poetry, movement, and emotion of it. And I have found myself getting into it some. I doubt it will ever be my favorite type of music but let’s just say I have a newly found respect for it. I do try to keep an open mind to all new music and not just wallow in a narrow genre or time and write everything else off.

[cemaphonic]

4. Yeah, Tupac was a pretty interesting and thoughtful writer

In that era, rap was very regimented - Public Enemy did political rap, Snoop and Dre did gangsta rap, and rappers that strayed very far from their subgenres risked being seen as authentic, and losing fans and credibility.

Tupac started out as a genuine living-the-life gangsta rapper, but wasn't too cool to do fun party songs, or songs about his mom. He showed that you can be truly authentic and successful being yourself instead of trying to fit into some commercial mold. Plus he was just ridiculously prolific. If he hadn't died so young, he probably would have ended up like Prince or Zappa with dozens of unreleased albums in his home studio.

[stonecutter357]

5. some of my favs 1979 -1984 OLD SCHOOL HIP HOP BLOCK PARTY MIX by DJ TNT SOUNDS