Tupac isn't dead

Changes, by the late Tupac Shakur

Come on come on
I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself,
"Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?"
I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.
My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.
Cops give a **** about a negro, Pull the trigger, kill a *****, he's a hero.
Give the crack to the kids who the cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers.
Give 'em guns, step back, and watch 'em kill each other.
"It's time to fight back", that's what Huey said.
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead.
I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other. We gotta start makin' changes.
Learn to see me as a brother 'stead of 2 distant strangers.
And that's how it's supposed to be.
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids,
but things change, and that's the way it is.

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]

(Come on, come on) That's just the way it is. Things'll never be the same.
That's just the way it is. aww yeah...
[Repeat]

I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.
Misplaced hate makes disgrace for races we under.
I wonder what it takes to make this one better place...
let's erase the wasted.
Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.
'Cause mo' black than white is smokin' crack tonight.
And only time we chill is when we kill each other.
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
And although it seems heaven sent,
we ain't ready to see a black President, uhh.
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact...
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks.
But some things will never change.
Try to show another way, but they stayin' in the dope game.
Now tell me what's a mother to do?
Bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you.
You gotta operate the easy way.
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way.
Sellin' crack to the kids. "I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is.

[Bridge]
[Talking:]

We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

And still I see no changes. Can't a brother get a little peace?
There's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East.
Instead of war on poverty,
they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do.
But now I'm back with the facts givin' 'em back to you.
Don't let 'em **** you up, back you up, crack you up and *** smack you up.
You gotta learn to hold ya own.
They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone.
But tell the cops they can't touch this.
I don't trust this, when they try to rush I bust this.
That's the sound of my tune. You say it ain't cool, but mama didn't raise no fool.
And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped & I never get to lay back.
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs.
Some buck that I roughed up way back... comin' back after all these years.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat. That's the way it is. uhh

[Bridge 'til fade]
Some things never change.



My apologies for the *'s. I wasn't sure what would offend who. I think what Tupac is trying to say here is that even though the world is full of horrible things, there's no reason people can't accept the reason those things exist, or try to make the world a better place. There's two main ways he does this. First, every criminal act mentioned in the song is paired with the same person being victimized in some way, which is an appeal ot sympathy. Second, he never glorifies the violence (as happens in most rap songs), but he makes a consistent appeal to ending it with forgiveness and personal change - which appeals to the more conservative, more quick-to-judge sector of humanity.

With lines like, "my stomach hurts" and "hungry mouth on the welfare", together with the general theme of people being killed and children getting involved with drugs, Tupac makes victimization a constant theme. By prefixing the more sinister side of his song with such a pathetic scene, he prevents the reader from forming a judgemental opinion and forces them to reconsider their preconceived notions.

An equally central line is, "only time we chill is when we kill each other. It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other". Tupac effectively demonstrates the pointless nature of this vicious cycle. He uses consistent use of intimate vocabulary to foster a feeling of fraternity. He specifically encourages people to forgive, let go of the past, and build instead of tear down.

Ultimately his goal is to make the world a better place - an especially inspiring motive considering his reference to being ready to see a black President.