Tupac Analysis and Reading

Analysis of Tupac Shakur's song "My block"

By: Mohammed AL Hammadi

In Tupac Shakur's song "My Block" Tupac addresses many political and social issues present in America: racism, violence and crime, religion, substance use, and poverty. One of the most notable underlying themes presented in the song is the mistreatment of black Americans due to their race i.e. Racism. "The only time they notice a nigga is when he's clutching on a four-five", Tupac is speaking of how black Americans will only get attention when they are holding a "four-five" (gun), which implies when one of them is committing a homicide or robbing a store, this also connects to the theme of violence and crime with black Americans. This verse also connects back to verses "three strikes law is drastic -- And certain death for us ghetto bastards": this verse mentions the "three strike law", a law that sentences the person to harsher punishments if they had already been convicted of 3 felonies. For black Americans, that harsher punishment would be the life sentence instead of being sentenced to a less severe punishment. In these two verses alone "God help me, cause I'm starving, can't get a job -- So I resort to violent robberies, my life is hard", Tupac addresses the violence and crime in black communities, religion, the racism against blacks, and poverty. He quickly mentions the topic of "religion" by addressing "God" to "help" him with his poverty and life. This poverty is present in the black community because they are unable to acquire jobs due to to the media presenting a negative image (refer back to the analysis of the verse "The only time they notice a nigga is when he's clutching on a four-five") of them. And of course, this negative image is presented because of the social racism against the black Americans. This also employs a sort of irony, because he isn't able to get a job, he has to "resort to violent robberies" which is the very thing that developed the negative image towards blacks. But, it is more that he was justifying why a black American would be holding a gun and committing crimes. Furthermore in the verses "Fantasies of a nigga living phat, but held back" and "Pipe dreams can make the night seem hopeless", Tupac again addresses how the racism against the blacks, the very one that presents a negative image about them and causes to go into poverty, is affecting their dreams and hopes. Essentially in the first verse, Tupac speaks how black Americans dream of living lavishly, but the problem is that they are being held back. "Pipedreams" are dreams that are overimaginative and unrealistic dreams, so Tupac is stating that the dreams of living lavishly are unrealistic due to the racism and negative images projected by the media. Which, thereby damaging the minds of the black American community. In fine, Tupac addresses multiple political and social issues that both harms the black American community and their image and these effects are magnified because all these issues addresses are connected in some way.

Tupac utilizes his unique style of jargon, a language commonly used in rap, to address the aforementioned political and social issues to his specific audience and empower his words. The language of rap is one that originates from and utilizes the components of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and this one is no exception. Because the general audience to his song would be people from the black American community, it was best to use rap for a few reasons:  During the time that "My block" was released, rap was part of the mainstream language, therefore one can consider rap as a "prestige dialect" which therefore empowers Tupac's song. And to add to this, AAVE is a type of English is one that is fully understood by the black American community, so in order to address the political and social issues to his audience, Tupac used this jargon rather than Standard English. AAVE Moreover, the use of AAVE also empowers Tupac, himself, and his audience, the black American community, as AAVE has a cultural history behind the black American community. Therefore by using this jargon, Tupac is adding a sense of identity and empowerment. This effect of empowerment and identity is amplified due to the fact that Tupac himself is part of the black American community. To conclude, Tupac affectively uses jargon (rap) to give his song power and to be heard across the black American community to shed light on the social and political issues that are happening against black Americans.