R.I.P. Tupac Amaru Shakur

So I suppose you don't like Hemingway, or James Joyce, or Dylan Thomas, or Jim Morrison, or Hank Williams or any other of a million authors and lyricists whose personal lives were terribly flawed?

Artists have to pass some sort of purity test for you to appreciate their work?

Just for three_bags...


Perhaps I was blind to the facts, stabbed in the back
I couldn't trust my own homies just a bunch a dirty rats
Will I, succeed, paranoid from the weed
And hocus pocus try to focus but I can't see
And in my mind I'ma blind man doin time
Look to my future cause my past, is all behind me
Is it a crime, to fight, for what is mine?
Everybody's dyin tell me what's the use of tryin
I've been Trapped since birth, cautious, cause I'm cursed
And fantasies of my family, in a hearse
And they say it's the white man I should fear
But, it's my own kind doin all the killin here
I can't lie, ain't no love for the other side
Jealousy inside, make em wish I died
Oh my Lord, tell me what I'm livin for
Everybody's droppin got me knockin on heaven's door
And all my memories, of seein brothers bleed
And everybody grieves, but still nobody sees
Recollect your thoughts don't get caught up in the mix
Cause the media is full of dirty tricks
Only God can judge me

[Chorus: 2Pac]

[synth voice] Only God can judge me
That's right baby, yeah baby
[synth voice] Only God
Hahahahahahahaha
[synth + Pac] Only God can judge me, only God can judge
[synth cont.] me, only God
Only God can judge me
[synth + Pac] Only God can judge me
And only God can
[synth voice] Only God can judge me, only God
Only God can judge me
[synth + Pac] Only God can judge me
Only God can judge me
[synth voice] Only God can judge me, only God
Only God can judge me
[synth voice] Only God can judge me now

[heart monitor: long beep]
Flatline!

[Verse Two: 2Pac]

I hear the doctor standing over me [heart monitor: beeping slowly]
screamin I can make it
Got a body full of bullet holes layin here naked
Still I, can't breathe, somethings evil in my IV
Cause everytime I breathe, I think they killin me [beeping sound stops]
I'm having nightmares, homicidal fantansies
I wake up stranglin, danglin my bed sheets
I call the nurse cause it hurts, to reminisce
How did it come to this? I wish they didn't miss
Somebody help me, tell me where to go from here
Cause even Thugs cry, but do the Lord care?
Try to remember, but it hurts
I'm walkin through the cemetary talkin to the, dirt
I'd rather die like a man, than live like a coward
There's a ghetto up in Heaven and it's ours, Black Power
is what we scream as we dream in a paranoid state
And our fate, is a lifetime of hate
Dear Mama, can you save me? And fuck peace
Cause the streets got our babies, we gotta eat
No more hesitation each and every black male's trapped
And they wonder why we suicidal runnin round strapped
Mista, Po-lice, please try to see that it's
a million motherfuckers stressin just like me
Only God can judge me

[Chorus w/ variations]

[Interlude: 2Pac]

That which does not kill me can only make me stronger
(That's for real)
and I don't see why everybody feel as though
that they gotta tell me how to live my life
(You know?)
Let me live baby, let me live

Pac I feel ya, keep servin it on the reala
For instance say a playa hatin mark is out to kill ya
Would you be wrong, for buckin a nigga to the pavement?
He gon' get me first, if I don't get him fool start prayin
Ain't no such thing as self-defense in the court of law
So judge us when we get to where we're goin wearin a cross, that's real
Got him, lurked him, crept the fuck up on him
Sold a half a million tapes now everybody want him
After talkin behind my back like a bitch would
Tellin them niggaz, "You can fade him," punk I wish you would
It be them same motherfuckers in your face that'll rush up in your place
to get your safe, knowin you on that paper chase
Grass, glass, big screen and leather couch
My new shit is so fetti already sold a key of ounce
Bitch, remember Tupac and 4-Tay
Them same two brothers dodgin bullets representin the Bay
Pac when you was locked down, that's when I'll be around
Start climbing up the charts, so sick, but they tried to clown
That's why they ride the bandwagon still be draggin sellin lies
Don't think I don't see you haters, I know you all in disguise

Guess you figure you know me cause I'm a Thug
That love to hit the late night club, drink then buzz
Been livin lavish like a player all day
Now I'm bout to floss em off, player shit with 4-Tay
Only God can judge me

 

I agree. He's a great writer, a great artist. But I'm being called a racist because I don't think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Why is that?

... And I stand by my post about character.

 

Didn't do that right. My Block appeared on The Show soundtrack, I believe.

 

Damn, TKO! I had that "The Show" soundtrack in college too. Damn, there was some good stuff on there. I'd completely forgotten about that CD.

 

I'm 28, dude.

 

Totally, The Show was as uneven of an album as you can find. But some of those songs on there were classics.
The Dove Shack's song was excellent
I never liked Bone much, but their song on that album was great
Warren G had a nice joint
Meth and Red's How High premeired there, I think.
The bad songs, though, were BAD

 

My favorite Tupac anecdote.

I was driving a bunch of Jr. high school girls to a basketball tournament. One of them asked me to put in a Tupac CD. It was full of what would be called "dirty lyrics" and I had not heard him before. I am too old (one of Clubbers old farts) to understand the allure of that kind of music, so I asked the girls,"why do you like this stuff"? They told me that the music spoke to them. That it was about their lives.

These were all middle class kids from a town of 15K.

I don't think it really spoke to their lives.

But it made me laugh. I am a big believer in being able to listen to, watch, or read, anything you want. As a matter of fact, whenever I read about some school district somewhere banning a book, I always buy a copy for my kid. She doesn't always read them, but she can, and I think that's important.

But Tupac's life experience and those of my daughter and her friends were nowhere near the same. I am not sure who he was speaking too...but it wasn't them.

 

Forgive me, too. I get the same idea.

 

Some great songs and lyrics discussed hear already.

If you haven't heard Ludacris reading Pac's poem "In the Depths of Solitude" off The Rose, Vol. 2: Music Inspired By Tupac's Poetry, check it out. It's some deep shit, even though I'm not a big fan of Ludacris or his voice. I also like "Life Throug My Eyes" with Memphis Bleek from that album, although it’s not what you would expect and not a lot of Pac.

Of the lyrics that haven't been posted, here are some of my favorites:

So Many Tears

"I shall not fear no man but God
Though I walk through the valley of death
I shed so many tears (if I should die before I wake)
Please God walk with me (grab a nigga and take me to Heaven)

Back in elementary, I thrived on misery
Left me alone I grew up amongst a dyin breed
Inside my mind couldn't find a place to rest
until I got that Thug Life tatted on my chest
Tell me can you feel me? I'm not livin in the past, you wanna last
Be tha first to blast, remember Kato
No longer with us he's deceased
Call on the sirens, seen him murdered in the streets
Now rest in peace
Is there heaven for a G? Remember me
So many homies in the cemetery, shed so many tears

Ahh, I suffered through the years, and shed so many tears..
Lord, I lost so many peers, and shed so many tears

Now that I'm strugglin in this business, by any means
Label me greedy gettin green, but seldom seen
And fuck the world cause I'm cursed, I'm havin visions
of leavin here in a hearse, God can you feel me?
Take me away from all the pressure, and all the pain
Show me some happiness again, I'm goin blind
I spend my time in this cell, ain't livin well
I know my destiny is Hell, where did I fail?
My life is in denial, and when I die,
baptized in eternal fire I'll shed so many tears

Lord, I suffered through the years, and shed so many tears..
Lord, I lost so many peers, and shed so many tears

Now I'm lost and I'm weary, so many tears
I'm suicidal, so don't stand near me
My every move is a calculated step, to bring me closer
to embrace an early death, now there's nothin left
There was no mercy on the streets, I couldn't rest
I'm barely standin, bout to go to pieces, screamin peace
And though my soul was deleted, I couldn't see it
I had my mind full of demons tryin to break free
They planted seeds and they hatched, sparkin the flame
inside my brain like a match, such a dirty game
No memories, just a misery
Paintin a picture of my enemies killin me, in my sleep
Will I survive til the mo'nin, to see the sun
Please Lord forgive me for my sins, cause here I come...

Lord, I suffered through the years (God) and shed so many tears..
God, I lost so many peers, and shed so many tears

Lord knows I.. tried, been a witness to homicide
Seen drivebys takin lives, little kids die
Wonder why as I walk by
Broken-hearted as I glance at the chalk line, gettin high
This ain't the life for me, I wanna change
But ain't no future right for me, I'm stuck in the game
I'm trapped inside a maze
See this Tanqueray influenced me to gettin crazy
Disillusioned lately, I've been really wantin babies
so I could see a part of me that wasn't always shady
Don't trust my lady, cause she's a product of this poison
I'm hearin noises, think she fuckin all my boys, can't take no more
I'm fallin to the floor; beggin for the Lord to let me in
to Heaven's door -- shed so many tears
(Dear God, please let me in)

Lord, I've lost so many years, and shed so many tears..
I lost so many peers, and shed so many tears
Lord, I suffered through the years, and shed so many tears..
God, I lost so many peers, and shed so many tears"

 

I was n ot gonna get involved...I can't stop myself

I do not find his pigmentation offensive. I find his lyrics about killing people, drinking a lot and treating women badly offensive.

I would find them just as offensive if they came out of the mouth of Vanilla Ice.

I am honestly not trying to start something as I got slapped around pretty hard in another thread about rap a couple months back.

But just because I don't like what you are saying does NOT mean I don't like the color of your skin.

I am a 43 year old white man, so flame away.