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Essay / Analysis of the song "Changes" by Tupac
'Changes' by Tupac is a thought-provoking song about racism and discrimination of people living in low-income neighborhoods and minorities, especially in the 1990s 90. Being a very popular rapper allowed Tupac to speak for his community and this song is his statement on the issues his community faces. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay The song touches on many topics, including drug epidemics, the Black Panthers, discrimination, and money issues. One of the writer's messages is that racism is unnecessary and we should all come together and rather hate the wrong things rather than the color of someone's skin. The theme that recurs often throughout the song is the "crack epidemic" of the 80s and 90s. It was much worse in predominantly black neighborhoods, but due to the many stigmas and blame placed on these communities, this was ignored. Tupac says, "Send them drugs first and let them sell to their brothers, give them guns, stand back, watch them kill each other", which is a reference to what some people believed being the government intentionally distributing drugs to residents. Black community. Tupac also mentions Huey P. Newton, who was the leader of the Black Panther Party saying, "'It's time to fight back,' that's what Huey said: 'Two shots in the dark now Huey's dead,'" Tupac's parents were actually active members. of the Black Panthers, so he has ties to the leader, who was shot and killed by a drug dealer when he was 47. Huey's ideas and motivations were actually different from Tupac's, because Huey wanted a completely separate community for black people, but Tupac thought "We can't go anywhere without sharing with each other." An interesting idea I found in the text is that Tupac doesn't always portray crime in a negative way, even though he thought it was a negative thing. He recognizes that most people don't commit crimes because they want to, but because they need to to survive. Tupac says, "'I made a G today,' but you did it in a sleazy way, selling crack to kids, 'I gotta get paid!' - well, but that's how it is. » He tries to explain to the drug dealer that he is harming children's lives by selling them drugs and profiting from them and that he does not agree with what he is doing. However, he understands that drug dealing brings in far more money than many of the jobs available to him, and that he needs the extra money for different reasons to keep operating. I really found this interesting and it also somewhat changed what I thought about drug crimes and their impact on the different people involved. I never really thought that being a drug dealer could be selfish when you're supplying people who need it, but Tupac describes crack as the "evil" that "good" people can suffer from, and providing that evil around because profit is selfish. One idea in the text that I could apply is that Tupac wants different people to see each other as brothers and sisters rather than strangers because of their differences. I always grew up in an environment where my family was open to people who were different and people of a different race. It would be pretty hard for them not to since my mother is black and my father is white. I have a large Jamaican family living in America and growing up I.