Tupac Shakur was a rapper who spoke out about current conditions for blacks, but particularly for blacks in the ghetto. He used popular culture to bring problems of the ghetto into the mainstream. He was an intelligent person who spoke with passion about the issues that were important to him. Even though he was murdered 14 years ago, he is still regarded as one of the best rappers of all time and if not the, one the most impactful. He spoke on day-to-day issues and open the eyes of American society of what was really going on.
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A vernacular intellectual is an intellectual who uses popular culture to express themselves and someone who has impact that goes beyond their cultural medium. In addition, a vernacular intellectual cannot hold political office. This differs from a traditional intellectual in the sense that they are purely academic and generally don’t deal with day-to-day issues. Similarly a vernacular intellectual is different from an organic intellectual because they are connected to a class and somehow politically active. Tupac Shakur is a black vernacular intellectual. He can assume this title because he fits all of the criteria for a vernacular intellectual: he used popular culture to express himself, he went beyond his cultural medium, he did not hold political office, and he dealt with current issues in society. Tupac talked about issues within black communities. He touched on aspects of black on black violence, violence in general, treatment of women, life in the ghetto, and white America's perspective to name a few. He mainly used his music to voice his ideas and thoughts; however, interviews are also key in examining him as a vernacular intellectual. In his interviews you can see how conscious and educated he is about the current American society really works. All Tupac encompassed all of these ideas; he can certainly be deemed a flawed black vernacular intellectual as Grant Farred portrays Muhammad Ali in What’s My Name. However, his songs touched millions. He sparked controversy and outcry but more importantly his music spoke to people with such a realness and passion that 14 years after his murdered his is still remembered as one of the best rappers of all time and the most important figure in hip hop.
In examining Tupac as a black vernacular intellectual I first examined his music. I particularly studied the songs “Changes,” “Keep Ya Head Up,” “Dear Mama,” and “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” These songs talked about issues that were current in society. They were issues that white society might not have been fully aware of. He brought these black issues to American society as a whole. Although there are many others that I could have used, these are perhaps the most meaningful and thought provoking. In his song “Changes,” Tupac examines black life in a racist society and the struggles that go along with it. He begins the song “I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself is life worth living, should I blast myself? I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black.” Just in these first opening lines he examines the struggle of being black. It is important to note that he says “I’m tired of being poor, and even worse I’m black” not the other way around. This is important because it shows that the pain that being poor and black leads to. Quite obviously Tupac is calling for change in this song while portraying the racist society that blacks were living in. In a rather powerful line Tupac says, “Cops give a damn about a negro, pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero.” This line examines how the police were extremely racist in this time and how the media in turn portrayed them. Moving away from “Changes,” in “Dear Mama,” Pac tells a story about his relationship with his mother. Tupac had a rather tumultuous relationship with his mother who was once addicted to crack. He showers praise in this song for his mother, and recognize that it was not easy for a woman to raise a man and also that he understands how raising children in the ghetto was no easy task. He highlights his mother’s addiction in a line where he also examines how beautiful she is to him. “Even as a crack fiend, mama, You always was a black queen, mama, I finally understand, for a woman it ain’t easy tryna raise a man, You always were committed, A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it.” Tupac’s music addresses current day-to-day problems in the ghetto. In just these two songs he examines the racist society and also his relationship with his mother. These songs talked to so many people and made them feel that someone was expressing their problems. Similarly, in “Keep Ya Head Up,” Tupac offers support for black women. He offers a bid of support by saying “I give a holler to my sisters on welfare, Tupac cares, if don’t nobody else care.” He goes on to wonder aloud “I wonder why we take from our women, Why we rape our women, Why we hate our women.” For all of the criticism of rap being misogynistic, this offers pretty solid proof that not all rap is misogynistic. However, I said in the introduction that Tupac was a flawed intellectual because while he did have beautiful songs like “Keep Ya Head Up” and “Dear Mama” that offered support and praise for women he also had songs like “I Get Around” where he depicts women as “ho’s.” But his powerful songs like “Dear Mama” and “Keep Ya Head Up” and the more contrite “Brenda’s Got A Baby” outweigh his flaws in “I Get Around.” More so than these other songs, “Brenda’s Got A Baby” demonstrates Tupac’s ability as not only someone who raps about current issues but also his poetry and story telling. In the song he tells a story about Brenda, a young black girl who gets pregnant and has no one to rely on. He talks about how her family won’t support her and neither will her baby’s father. She turns to the streets for income, first becoming a drug dealer then a prostitute. These songs depictions are very powerful in examining the struggle of being a young single black mother. Aside from his music, which blatantly fits into the characterizations for a black vernacular intellectual, interviews with Tupac show his similar, if not more, passionate feelings and ideas about society.
In his interview with Ed Gordon, Tupac’s thoughts are brought to the mainstream. He touches on a number of topics including how the media portrays blacks, the lack of a father growing up, and life and violence in the ghetto. In terms of the media portraying black people Tupac touches on how he is portrayed as coming out of jail with cuffs on. He rebuts this by saying that the media doesn’t show him getting beat up by the police (referring to an incident in which Tupac filed a lawsuit). When he talks about the lack of a father in his life he says “I hate saying this, cause white people love hearing black people say this, Had I had a father, I would’ve been able to help my mother more.” By saying this he shows that he is conscious of white people look at the problems in black family structure. When asked about black on black violence Tupac responds saying, “That is suicide, not homicide. It’s out of our control. He doesn’t want to kill but he doesn’t what to die. It is not as easy as people make it out to be that there are just some criminal ass black kids. We’re living in a war zone.” He goes on to talk about how when murderers and rapists get out of jail they come and live in the ghetto. He says that just because they live there doesn’t mean that black people accept them or are not afraid of them, but there is nothing they can do. He says, “the same crime element that white people fear, black people fear. We next door to the killer. We in the projects where theres 80 niggas in a building. All them killas that they let out are right there in the same building. Just cause we black we like the killers and the rapists? What is that? We need protection too.” This is a powerful statement revealing that white ideas about life in the ghetto are wrong. He shows that blacks fear the same things white people do, but they have to deal with them in everyday life.
Tupac Shakur was from the streets, spoke for the streets, and brought the streets to mainstream society. He says that because rappers like him brought violence to the mainstream, it led people to see the problem. Tupac opened the eyes of American society into the problems of ghetto life. He was able to do this by using his music to force himself beyond his cultural impact. Tupac has a lasting legacy, and he was murdered when he was only 25. It is a shame that we were not able to see his ideas grow as he grew. He had the potential to have a ten times greater impact that he had and his impact is already felt by millions. Tupac’s ability to use music to get his ideas past his cultural medium makes him a black vernacular intellectual. His music was so powerful, passionate, and real that American society was forced to look at and see what was really going on.
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