Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Happy Birthday Pac

By Manila Ryce
Published Tuesday, June 16th, 2009, 7:30 pm
Filed under: Videos: Political, Society/Culture, Videos

I’ve never seen this interview before so props to Phalary for posting it on her own blog.

Tupac was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Incan revolutionary who led a Peruvian uprising against the Spanish. While early pioneers like NWA may have laid the foundation to put Cali on the map, Pac had a revolutionary spirit strong enough to shape the entire personality of the West Coast to this day.

Fallen Rock & Roll legends are often referred to by their last names by fans as a sign of respect. In contrast, the hip-hop community honors its heroes with affectionate abbreviations like “Pac” or “Biggie,” as if they were close family and not unapproachable gods. So great is this undying affection for Pac that the man and the art are intertwined as two parts of one whole. To love hip-hop and not love Tupac is an unforgivable contradiction.

WPvideo 1.10

While the media described Tupac’s philosophy of “Thug Life” as a call for criminal conduct, it was actually a philosophy of liberation which encompassed many classically liberal principles such as the right to food, health care, education, and self-defense. Tupac was not satisfied with legitimizing a thieving American power structure by asking it for handouts like a slave. Rather, he advocated standing up to your oppressor as an equal and taking what you are entitled to.

“The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing is representative of too many young black men in this country. If we had lost Malcolm X at 25, we would have lost a hustler nicknamed Detroit Red. If Martin Luther King died at 25, he would’ve been a local Baptist minister who had not yet arrived on the national scene. And if I had left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpet player and aspiring composer — just a sliver of my eventual life potential.” - Quincy Jones

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6 Responses to “Happy Birthday Pac”

  1. “Rather, he advocated standing up to your oppressor as an equal and taking what you are entitled to.”

    Unless you were a woman.

    jeffliveshere
    06/17/09 at 8:41 am

  2. @jeffliveshere

    Apparently you’ve never heard “Keep Ya Head Up”

    Manila Ryce
    06/17/09 at 11:38 am

  3. Really like this post. I was young when Tupac was killed and so I did not know that much about him.

    nittany
    06/18/09 at 2:56 pm

  4. @Manila Ryce
    Yeah, I’ve heard it. It’s certainly less misogynistic than some of his other stuff, but it strikes me as hypocritical (just watch the first few minutes of the video, followed by, oh, the first few minutes of “I Get Around”). Not only that, but I don’t go for the “hey! women can make babies, so we need to treat them right!” attitude…

    That said, I understand he was a complex artist, and there are going to be all sorts of themes running through his art. I just think it’s mostly not very positive regarding women and oppression.

    jeffliveshere
    06/22/09 at 1:53 pm

  5. @jeffliveshere

    “Keep Ya Head Up” is one of the first feminist hip-hop songs, and an anthem for women of color. Just because you don’t relate doesn’t mean that it holds no significance to women of color who see themselves as more than just baby-makers. In fact, I’d argue that most female rappers even today exploit the idea of black women as sexually lascivious more than Tupac ever did. Tupac never characterized all women as either “queens” or “bitches”, but rather described a reality in which both existed not only in society but within individuals. “Dear Mama” is one song in particular where Tupac praises his mother as a strong role model and crack addict.

    Those who really remember Tupac have a very positive view of him and the work he did in the community. What you are critiquing is not Tupac, but the media image of who Tupac was: The machismo attitude, the denigrating lyrics, and the wild lifestyle. Rappers today (like 50 Cent for example) try to emulate Tupac by copying those aspects of his personality, which is why they’re completely one-dimensional.

    Lets also not pretend that an artist has complete say in what they put out. Tupac’s negative traits were exaggerated by the record company because, like gangster movies, it’s that persona which moves units. I’m not saying that Pac’s lyrics were written by record company executives, but there were demands put on him by those forces which he found a way to satisfy while getting positive messages out there.

    Hip-hop is an art form born of the slums of America where young men are expected to behave a certain way in order to achieve any level of success. Most are tools of the system and do not have the luxury of being as engaged as men from suburbia. The issue of misogyny and violence has more to do with economics than it has to do with hip-hop or any certain artist.

    Feminism is about fighting oppression, so if we’re talking about oppression then we should recognize that abuse goes both ways. There are surely things within hip-hop which feminists can critique but they do so as outsiders because feminism started out and still is largely a club for women of privilege. Rather than work within communities of color to unite against a common oppressor, white feminists have traditionally chosen to demonize these communities and hold on to their status as oppressors themselves.

    Manila Ryce
    06/22/09 at 9:47 pm

  6. @Manila Ryce

    Things I think you and I agree on:
    – “Rather than work within communities of color to unite against a common oppressor, white feminists have traditionally chosen to demonize these communities and hold on to their status as oppressors themselves.”
    – “The issue of misogyny and violence has more to do with economics than it has to do with hip-hop or any certain artist.”
    – “The issue of misogyny and violence has more to do with economics than it has to do with hip-hop or any certain artist.”

    I also agree that any criticism I put out there about any artist is going to be about what the artist produced, rather than what he or she “was really about”. That said, I can’t imagine that Tupac’s lyrics didn’t mean something to him–he was a poet, after all, and chose his words carefully, so yeah, I’m going to take him to task for some of his lyrics. It’s likely that he had less control over the visuals in his videos, but I’ll still hold him accountable for them. I won’t *only* hold him accountable–there certainly are larger forces at work, institutionalized racism, classism, heterosexism, misogyny–but that doesn’t mean that any one person gets let off the hook for misogyny, either. I’m of the bell hooks school of thought regarding hip-hop reflecting the society within which it lives and breathes, but I’m of the Lynne d Johnson school of thought that calls for more men and women to call out the misogyny where it lives, even if it is “just” reflecting realities.

    Regarding “Keep Ya Head Up”–I can completely relate to it, actually, because it contains a trope of utterly traditional (and oppressive to all genders) masculinity which has been drilled into me since birth: That women can make babies, so they need to be respected. I think that’s a horrible reason to respect women–I think they should be respected for being people. Which isn’t to say there isn’t a lot to take away from that song, I just think it’s cherry-picking to note that song when somebody points out the undercurrent of misogyny in Tupac’s work; which is not to say that he might not be praised for what he did right, just that he could have done more. Just like we all can do more.

    jeffliveshere
    06/23/09 at 9:22 am

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