2Pac Shakur could never be remembered as`just another rapper`Through his music, his lifestyle, his
voice, de embodied the passion, poetry, frustration and energy of an generation. He was real to us. He was tangible. He was
believable.
We loved his beauty and accepted fis scars. We marveled at his insight but understood his naivetè.
We admired his strenhth but acknowledged his weaknesses. 2Pac was reality personified: the perfect
painting that was slightly asymmetrical, the perfect song that was slightly off key, the perfect face slightly marres by blemishes.
He was truly a divided soul, like a man at war with himself and with the world.
He was pure, he was honest, and in his own way, he was innocent-innocent enough to belive that in
the land of the free, he was wise beyond his years and as fearless as any warrior that ever lived, often staring death in
the face and taunting us with his obsession with his own demise, wich sadly, cane far too soon.
You can`t really de nochalant about 2Pac. there`s really no fence-straddling when it comes
to opinios about him.He incited feelings in us so strong that we either loved him or we didn`t . We either belived in him
or we didn`t. We either stood squarley with him or squarely against him. and that`s the way 2Pac was; not lukewarm ,
not indifferent and not wishy-washy. His every word, his every move, his every breath was pronounced and decisive. 2Pac knew
who he was and he knew why he was here.
Today- nine years after his death- we are still fascinated by this man and in some ways, perhaps,
still unsure why he means so much to many of us. All we know is that he moved us, he touched us and he reached us. we
know that his words stay with us. the passing of time has not faded his memory.It has not dulled our senses. We can still
hear his vois resonating through his songs, spewing rhymes in that distinctive style that many have tired to imitate. We can
still see his broad smile and sparkling eyes. We can stillfeel the blunt impact of his lycris. " We belived him then. We belived
him now" I reminisce on the stress i caused / It was hell huggin`on my mama from a jail cell. We felt him then. We feel
him now. I think it`s time to kill for our women/ Time to heal our women , be real for our woman. We embrace him then, we
embrace him now.
To this day, 2Pac`s misic remains some of the most significant of our time. Rhere isn`t a more poignant,
moving, heart- wrenching song than " Dear Mama". there`s not a uplifting, truth-searing song than " Keep ya head up"
and not a more socially- relevant sing than te conteoversial " Brensa`s got a Baby" Likewise there was never a more introguing,
more courageous, more ingenious artist man than 2Pac Shakur.
We followed him through the storms- and there were many. But simehow we never lost faith and neither
did he. Because behind all the drama, and undernaeth all the controcersy, there was always the music. Those irresistible songs,
that unforgettable voic, that undenauble gift. But not everyone chooses to remember 2Pac as a man of introspect and senditivity.
Some remember him simply as confrontational, reckless and volatile. They are content to shackle him
and his memory with their own warped notions of who he must have been because of how de was raised: born in am oakland , CA
jail- the son of two black panther members who separated be4 his birth; reared poverty, growing up with a mother battling
her own demons and drug abuse. His story is widle-known.
2Pac kept on sevrets from us. He wore his childhood scars like so many badges of honor and he relayed
details of his darkest hours with eloquent poetic genius. He wasn`t ashamed of who he was, Wasn`t afraid of what we thought.
He wanted us to see him. He dared us to look at him and not blink or turn away.He paraded sid unclothed life and his triths
be4 us as a vivid reminder of what real people go though everyday in the real world.
But even while he didn`t care what we thought of him, he wanted our understanding. He wanted us to look at him and see his
past and his future. He wanted us to realize that he was a product of life, a product of the world. He wanted us to get to
know him and , in doing so , get to know the millions of young men and women like him. Perhaps he hoped that he could save
them, that somehow he could help the world see them- really see them- and understand them.
Perhaps, he knew behind him stood those nameless, faceless teenagers and youth who grew up the way he did, who cried tears,
endured the same bumps bruises as they stumbled about trying to finde their way in a society that doesen`t want to acknowledege
them. Perhaps he felt that if he made himself transparent the world would see through him and see all those who stood behind
him waiting to be discovered, waiting to de heard, waiting to be seen and understood.
Those who look at 2Pac and only see a troubled young man who carried about voilence, sex and petty beefs have grossly overlooked
his creativity and social conscoiusness. They have not only an injustice to 2Pac but to themselves as well. They have been
deprived of the opportunity to peer inside the mind of a man who was as brilliant as he was tormented. They`ve lost the privilge
of knowing- through his experiences and his music- a man who looked at life from the bottom up and the top down and everywhere
in between.
