“Only God can judge me/ Nobody else/ Nobody else/ All you other mutha
*censored*as/ get out of my business,” said by Tupac Shakur at the beginning
of his song, “Only God Can Judge Me.” Tupac was a gangster rap artist who
practiced what he preached. Because of his profanity and lyrics, people say he
should be censored. He has the right to rap about whatever he wishes, because
it’s his way to expressing his feelings, it’s not against the law, and
it’s the truth. Tupac uses a lot of profanity, and his lyrics are
inappropriate for kids. The song “Hit em’ Up” starts off with vulgar
language and has negative content. First off, *censored* your bitch and the
click you claim West Side when we ride comin' equipped with game You claim to be
a playa but I *censored*ed your wife We bust on Bad Boy niggas *censored*ed for
life His music is for young adults, not for young kids who are easily
influenced. Kids won’t know what Tupac is really rappimg about anyway, but the
more they hear it and grow up with it, the more it will become a apart of them.
The lyrics to most of his songs are about death about life in the ghetto. Even
though all of it is reality, kids should not be exposed at such a young age.
Tupac expresses his feelings by letting it flow onto the paper and then into
music just as a poet expresses his or her feelings through pencil and paper,
thus creating art. His feelings towards life are depressing, but by letting it
all out, he is not repressing himself. Tupac’s art is rapping. Different
people express their feelings in different ways; through paint, clay, music,
etc. Tupac is great at expressing his feelings through his music. That’s a
talent that not many Ly 2 people have. Here is a sample of how he expresses his
views towards all the injustices in life. In his song “Changes”, he raps
about prejudice and all the sick aspects of the world. I see no changes all I
see are racist faces Misplace hate make disgrace a racist… Cops give a damn
about a Negro Pull the trigga kill the nigga He’s a hero. His feelings towards
life are what people don’t like. He raps about suicide, because he can’t
handle the daily pressure of life, “It’s gonna take a man of me, to conquer
this insanity.” Tupac went through a lot in his life; numerous gunshots,
locked up in jail, and having people despise him. Going through so much in his
life, he has a lot to talk about. He has so much going on in life he thinks
about committing suicide. “I wake up in the morning and I ask myself, is life
worth living, should I blast myself,” from the song “Changes” he talks
about his life and how he feels every morning. He has a lot of songs are about
death, and how he thinks that dying is sometimes better than living through
pain. If he kept all this pain inside with no way of expressing I, he would be a
trapped man. This is just his way of releasing it all. Why should we take that
away from his? Why should we cover the world’s eyes from his feelings and the
reality that he has to face? Fuck the world because I’m cursed I’m having
visions of leaving here in a hurst God can you feel me? Take me away from all
the pressure and all the pain, show me some happiness again. Ly 3 His feelings
are strong and his style of expressing himself is a great way to let people know
how he feels. His style of art should not be censored. No one is forcing anyone
to listen to Tupac, it’s his or her choice to listen to his music. The United
States is the land of the free. It’s a place where everyone has a choice. The
first amendment allows Tupac the right of free speech; in other words, he can
rap whatever he wants. It states, “Congress shall make no law respecting
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Tupac has the right to
talk about whatever he feels like. He has the right to rap about dying, killing,
suffering, or how he sees the world. Although Tupac has broken many laws in his
lifetime and he raps about them, no one has a right to censor it. Just because
people listen top it, doesn’t mean people are going to go out and do it. Tupac
is breaking no laws in rapping about what he does. We watch the news everyday
and we see stories of how this girl was raped or that boy was murdered. Why
don’t we censor that, what’s the difference between Tupac rapping it to us
and it being exposed to us on the news. It’s not right and we have no right to
censor Tupac’s lyrics. Tupac’s lyrics are reality; life is hard and society
is corrupt. His lyrics are about first hand experiences that he had gone through
in his life, “I suffered through the years and shed so many tears.” In his
song “Keep Yah head Up” Tupac raps about women, but as opposed to his other
songs, which contain negative messages, this song sends out a positive one. Ya
know what makes me unhappy When brothas make babies and leaves a young mother to
be a pappy And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman And our
game from a woman I wonder why we rape our women Do we hate our woman I think
its time to kill for our woman Ly 4 Time to heal our women Be real to our women
Many people would agree that women are neglected and that there are single
mothers who are disrespected, but many choose to ignore the fact. All the upper
class citizens tend to distant themselves from the harsh and cruel world of the
working lower class. They try not to think about all the single and distressed
mothers who don’t have enough money or respect to survive on. He’s saying
that we should treat our women with more respect. The guys who neglect women
should open their eyes and change. Here’s what he says about those guys. That
hate the ladies that make babies And since can’t make one He has no right to
tell a woman when where to create one In the same song he explains how society
is corrupt. You know it’s funny when it rains it pours They got money for wars
but can’t feed the poor Sad there ain’t no hope for he youth and the truth
is there ain’t no hope for the future Reality scares people and people don’t
want to face the fact that there is poverty and war. Tupac is telling us that
today’s world has flaws and that we should try to fix it, but the people who
can fix it, such as senators and governors, think that is wrong for him to be
sending negative messages out and therefore, they ignore it. Why should we
censor the truth? No matter how much one tries to cover it up, it’s still
going to be there, so we must face the facts and tackle the problems straight
on. By censoring Tupac’s lyrics, we are just trying to ignore the problems and
someday, all those problems are going to blow up in our faces. Tupac is not
assuming the world is a big flaw, “I ain’t trying to gash up/ I call ‘em
on how I see ‘em”, he’s just showing us another side of it. Ly 5 Tupac
should be censored. His music should still carry on and have many people see his
point of view on life. His way of expressing his feelings is unique and
different. He isn’t doing anything wrong by expressing himself through music.
We should thank him for exposing us to the harsh realities in life. We can’t
censor Tupac just because some people don’t like the profanity in his lyrics.
There are many people who adore and can relate to his work. Tupac’s style of
art is educating people and letting the young adults know what’s ahead in
life. We can’t spend the rest of our lives hiding from the truth and we
can’t censor everything bad, because it is out there. The injustices of life
can’t be kept a secret as they are depicted in Tupac’s poem, “They could
never understand/ What you set out to do/ Instead they choose to ridicule
you/… This way you could not alter the course of ignorance that they have set
to make my people forget.”