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News > Culture

Tupac Shakur's Message Is Global and More Relevant Than Ever

  • Nuno (L) talks to Sergio Rodrigues

    Nuno (L) talks to Sergio Rodrigues "Sorriso" next to a graffiti of murdered rapper Tupac Shakur in the Cova da Moura district in Lisbon December 6, 2007. | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 June 2016
Opinion

Honoring the rapper, performer, and poet — and the message he left behind — on his 45th birthday.

Regarded as one of hip-hop’s most influential cultural icons, Tupac Shakur would have celebrated his 45th birthday on Thursday.

Twenty years after his murder, his music and legacy only grows stronger. From the Sowetos of South Africa to urban communities in La Paz, Bolivia, Tupac’s music and identity has become a symbol of anti-establishment politics.

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The legendary rapper, who was named after the leader of an Indigenous uprising against the Spanish empire, was a product of revolutionary Black politics, with both of his parents belonging to the Black Panther Party.

Tupac was born almost a week after his mother, Afeni Shukur, had successfully defended herself in a U.S. federal court, where she was acquitted of 156 counts of conspiracy against the U.S. government.

Afeni Shakur would go on to be a source of inspiration for her son’s music, notably in the 1995 song "Dear Mama", which narrates the turbulent and powerful details of their relationship, including his mothers addiction to crack cocaine.

“And even as a crack fiend, Mama/ You always was a black Queen, Mama"

Shortly after the song's release, the record went on to top the Billboards Hot Rap Singles Chart for five straight weeks. The song would later be added to the National Recording Registry for preservation by the Library of Congress for its cultural importance.

Many of Tupac’s songs contained lyrics that included honest depictions of the structural inequalities faced by Black and brown people living in the United States, prompting fierce national debates around the the plight of minorities.

His music expressed multiple and contradictory facets of Black people's experiences, including a visceral analysis of police brutality in Black neighborhoods. In his single titled “Trapped” Tupac writes:

They got me trapped/ Can barely walk the city streets/

Without a cop harassing me, searching me/ Then asking my identity/

Hands up, throw me up against the wall/ Didn’t do a thing at all/

I’m telling you one day these suckers gotta fall/ Cuffed up throw me on the concrete/

Out of the generation that grew up listening to Tupac’s music emerged hip-hop activists whose grassroots organizing focuses primarily on ending the prison-industrial complex and police brutality.

Many of Shakur’s songs remain relevant, perhaps even more so today, as Black and brown communities continue to face widespread social and economic inequalities.

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