There is no doubt about the impact that Tupac Shakur had on music. In addition to his intense charisma and charming personality, something he used to devastating effect,2Pac was capable of some of the most amazing versesthan the rap world has ever seen. While much of his output came after his shocking death in the mid-1990s, we like to think of his best work while he was alive.
There are few artists who can boast of the massive impact 2Pac has had on his audience, and to a large extent he has done so with a plethora of massive songs. It is in these songs that 2Pac became a legend, and with these songs we still pay tribute to the late great rapper, arguably the greatest of all time. Next, we select ten of the best lyrics of the rapper.
Shakur has never considered himself the most technically gifted rapper or even the most lyrical. But what 2Pac did was commit to his craft and deliver songs that were obvious reflections of the life around him. His charisma and attitude were as important as his work on the microphone. But still, despite being considered far from the best in his class, 2Pac quickly rose to the top of the list and refused to be knocked down. During his lifetime, there was no rapper bigger or better than Shakur.
He used his songs to deliver a series of vignettes about his life, and looking back, the collection of tracks listed below offer a remarkable account of the artist's life. Whether he was trying to reach the inner Pac or really affect the world in general,Shakur never gave up the challenge of expressing himself.
Here, we take Tupac's top ten lyrics of all time as a reflection of the rapper's legendary status.
Top 10 Tupac Shakur Lyrics:
'Brenda had a baby'
Now Brenda has to go her own way.
She can't go with her family, they won't let her stay.
No money, no babysitter, couldn't hold a job
She tried to sell crack, but ended up getting robbed
So now what's next, there's nothing left to sell
So she sees sex as a way out of hell.
He's paying rent, so he can't really complain.
Whore, found dead, and her name is Brenda, she has a baby."
While gangsta rap was popularized around the intrigue and flashy nature of guns, girls, and exciting chains, 2Pac operated outside the ghetto in a new way. While the rapper has never been afraid to speak out on the streets, he has chosen the darker side of life to illuminate himself.
Her 'Brenda's Got A Baby' rhymes showcase this style perfectly, as she offers an empathetic retelling of a tried-and-true story. A single verse allows Pac to wade through the progressively sad narrative with a poisonous flow. It would be some of the rapper's darkest moments, even as they light up all of us.
'Changes'
"I see no change, all I see are racist faces
Misplaced hatred brings misfortune to the races
We down, I wonder what it takes to do this
A better place, let's erase the waste
Remove evil from people, they will be doing good
'Cause both the white and the black are smoking crack tonight
And the only time we relax is when we kill each other
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
One of Pac's most famous songs was released after his death. Such was Tupac's power that a single like "Changes" can still affect the world he left behind. The words Pac spits out not only highlight the direction his star was headed (socially aware and ready to fight), but also the leaps and bounds we still have to make.
following theinauguration of barack obama, the world languished with the joy of chanting the famous line "we're not ready to see a black president," but now, in the post-Trump world, it still seems like there's a long way to go before it's necessary. the song subsides.
'Hello if you hear me'
"clench your fists if you feel me, holla if you hear me
Learn to survive in Nine-tre'
I make rhyme pay, others make crime pay
Whatever it takes to live and stay
Cause no one else will give a fuck
So we live like caged beasts
Waiting for the day to release the rage
I'm still me until they kill me
I love it when they fear me.
Black poverty and racial injustice pervade all of Pac's best work and on "Holla If Ya Hear Me," the rapper unleashes some serious anger in the most perfect way possible. Throughout the song, he points out the imbalances that black people must face in life, and calls on his audience to join his resistance movement.
The video is a chilling reminder of how far we have to go in our society, as it shows Pac training a boy (revealed to be a girl at the end of the video) to become a militant member of the team.
'Live and Die in LA'
“It wouldn't be L.A. without the mexicans
Black love, brown pride and the decorations again
Pete Wilson trying to see us broke
I'm on some shit for all they owe.
He may very well be considered the king of the West Coast, but Tupac Shakur was actually an East Coast native. However, his adopted home of Los Angeles quickly became a perfect vehicle for his rhymes, and on 'To Live & Die in L.A.,' the rapper shines.
The entire song is billed as a tribute to the city, but its most pertinent moment comes when he talks about Brown's pride, as well as sharing his love for the multitude of races that make America great.
'The White Man's World'
"The only thing they did wrong was to be born black into this world of white men."
Most of the additions to this list are full verses or four-bar settings, but for 'White Man'z World,' Pac only needs one line to make his point. Throughout the song, Pac paints a picture of a hopelessly skewed society.
A real problem that many black people face in their daily lives is the condemnation that comes with being proud of their race. Pac proclaims that black people should be proud of their race and refuse to change for the white man.
'Ghetto Gospel'
“If I could remember before my hooded days
I sit and remember, thinking of happiness and good morning.
I stop and look at the younger one.
My heart goes out to them, they tasted the stress they were under
And nowadays things change
Everyone is ashamed of youth.
because the truth seems strange.”
Whether or not Elton John and 2Pac would have been friends if Pac had survived the shooting isn't really our concern. As it turns out, Elton's connection to the material only serves to shed more light on Pac's verses.
One of the cleanest comes when he shares reflections on his past as a way to light the way forward for young people. It's another reminder of Pac's direction and why he would be such a vital ally today.
'Beloved mother'
“I shed tears with my little sister over the years.
We were poorer than other children.
And although we had different fathers, the same drama
When things went wrong, we blame Mom.
I remember the stress I caused, it was hell
Hugging my mother from a prison cell.
He may well have been a thief, but he loved his mother. The song was written in honor of his mother, Afeni Shakur, and sees Pac deliver some of his most emotional lines. Ranked as one of the rapper's best songs of all time, the song is one of pure blissful beauty.
In a press release at the time, Pac's team called the song "a moving and eloquent tribute to the slain rapper's own mother and to all mothers struggling to support a family in the face of addiction, poverty and death." social indifference". It's an honest reflection of the struggles Pac has faced and overcome.
'Cornered'
"You know they locked me up in this prison of confinement
Happiness, living on the street is an illusion.
Even an easy criminal must be caught one day.
Shot or shot down with the bullet you bought
Kicking nine millimeters thinking about what the streets do to me
Because they never talk about peace in the black community."
Trap music is the genre of the day. It's been so widely accepted as a part of our culture that it's sometimes easy to forget where you came from and that cheating is, in fact, no place to be. Here, Pac plays on words and shows how operating as a drug dealer is itself a trap.
Pac accurately captures not only the excitement and excitement one can get from working the trap, but also the variety of traps ready to gobble you up if you make one wrong move. In the end, he makes it very clear that the trap only serves to keep people in a cage.
'Keep your head up'
"And since we all come from women,
We took our name from a woman and our game from a woman,
I wonder why we take from our women,
Why do we rape our women, do we hate our women?
We can't exactly call 2Pac a feminist. The rapper has been featured in more than his fair share of misogynistic lyrics, but 'Keep Ya Head Up' sees Pac shine a light on issues of choice, rape culture, and the general issue of gender equality.
Instead of trying to encourage the women, Pac points to the men and asks them to show their actions in the mirror. He asks them to be grateful for being raised by women, and to make sure their own children are equally respectful. Pac was probably in the best position to share the message and while there is a long way to go, action is being taken.
'I wonder if heaven has a ghetto'
"Here on Earth, tell me how much a black life is worth
A bottle of juice is no excuse, the truth hurts
And even when you take the shit
Change county, get a lawyer, you can shake the shit out of
Just ask Rodney, LaTasha and many more
It's been years, there's so much more
When they ask me, when will the violence stop?
When your troops stop shooting homies in the street.
The first posthumous single of Pac's career, the song showcased his new direction towards socially focused songs. The song not only reflects Pac's troubled upbringing on the streets and the idea of systemic black poverty, but also sheds light on the murder of Latasha Harlins, who was shot to death for putting a bottle in her backpack.
The murder was the flashpoint of the 1992 Los Angeles riots and is immortalized in Pac's song about injustice. His warts and the whole "a bottle of juice is no excuse" line seems applicable to a whole series of murders of black people, and upon rediscovering the clue, it seems more pertinent than ever.
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