"The greatest loss in life is not death.

What matters most is what dies within while you're

still living. Never give up" (Shakur). This is only one of Tupac Shakur's overlooked words of

wisdom, presented in a beautiful arrangement that sends a message to thousands of inspired

people. He is today considered as one of the greatest rappers of all time, and his name is

inscribed in the VIP section of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's recognized as a legend with

a gift for writing, but most of the time, just his sick bars about women's disposability, or his hit

raps openly wishing violence on his enemies, or perhaps his lines demonstrating enthusiastic

support for the THUG LIFE . But in today's society, many have forgotten what THUG LIFE

meant to Tupac Shakur. In an interview with the New York Times, Tupac explained that "thug

life" is an acronym for "The Hate U Give Little Infants F—s Everybody." This concept has

nothing to do with drugs, violence, or the "back-alley bad guy that everyone seems to associate it

with. It is a just a voice agaisnt unjustice, a cry agasint repression that was changed by societies

extremist views. This philosphy he created is still used as the core of many acts of activism

fighting agaisnt injustice. This philosophy, which he developed, is still at the heart of many acts

of action in the struggle against injustice. Tupac was actually telling society that "Children are

the future, and so filling children's minds with hate, raising them in an oppressive political

system, and asking them to accept horrifying things like racism, sexism, and police brutality has

a snowball effect, which eventually destroys life for everyone, even the oppressors," according to

Slang Dictionary. These Tupac Shakur's character attributes have been buried under the front

page headlines of his associations with gang violence, the accusations, and his unsolved death.

Behind all of these big headliners is a man who utiliezd rap as a form of protest, a man who used

hip hop to convey his tenacity in the face of society's atrocities. In the following paragraphs, a

lesser-known side of the late rapper will be shown, one that demonstrates how, through his
adolescence, career, and death, Tupac Shakur became a figure who not only inspired others but

also transformed society's perceptions on matters that were previously unconsidered.

Tupacs Shakur: A man who used rap to challenge an America plagued by corrupt

political struggle. Tupac Shakur was born in the post-civil rights era, in 1971. His life would

take him through the American War on Drugs, the exponential rise of the prison population and

all of its dangers, and he addressed these concerns directly to the American political hierarchy.

Though he was not the first to bring rap and politics together, he is one of the most well-known

for doing so. His statements would have been called "radical" in his day and age because, while

he proclaimed the truth, it was a reality that few were willing to hear. He stated the truth about

how, despite the fact that white and black drug users were in similar conditions, poor black

communities "ended up being the battlegrounds – and killing fields – for the war on drugs," as

The Coverstation puts it. He spoke the facts about how the murder rate for black males aged 18

to 24 years old more than quadrupled between 1983 and 1993. He told the truth about how black

men's imprisonment rates have risen dramatically in comparison to white men's. He rapped and

talked with the intention of spreading a political message of resistance to the atrocities that

plagued his people. Unlike other jazz and R&B artists who kept silent on issues impacting black

communities, Tupac made it a point to address the political spectrum from the start. "2Pacalypse

Now," his first album, was released in 1991 and addressed themes like as mass imprisonment,

violence, illicit substances, police brutality, and racism. "I'm tired of being caught in this vicious

loop," he rapped in Trapped(1991), "and if one more officer harasses me, I'm going to go insane”

(2Pac). He talks on how, as an African-American guy, he is constantly harassed by American

cops, a never-ending loop that he has grown tired of. "Changes" (1996) was published five years

later, and it "soon became a lyrical hymn for depicting the African-American struggle in a split
and discriminating American culture," according to The Lion and The Hunter. In this song,

Tupac emphasizes the difficulties of being black in America, describing the American criminal

justice system as fundamentally unjust. In doing so, he casts doubt on the time's political attitude

on drugs and incarnation. “I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself / Is life

worth living or should I blast myself? / I’m tired of bein’ poor and even worse I’m black / My

stomach hurts so I’m looking for a purse to snatch / Cops give a damn about a negro, pull the

trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero / Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? / One less hungry

mouth on the welfare” (2Pac). Tupac's extreme psychological anguish as a result of his constant

poverty, despair, addiction, and police assault is alluded to in these lines. The complexity and

intensity of these problems had prompted him to consider suicide ("Is life worth living or should

I blow myself up?"). " Tupac, by virtue of his promoted culture of resistance, lends a voice to the

Black community, which otherwise finds itself isolated from mainstream discourses overlooked

as passive objects of political narratives that primarily focus on stigmatisation and othering

techniques," as The Lion and The Hunter puts it.

Tupac Shakur: a man who challenged traditional rap by speaking to a youthful audience

about social awareness. Tupac was born in East Harlem and raised in Baltimore, cities in whicha

child may witness many of the hardships that the African American community suffers, and as

he grew older, he began to speak up about these issues. He used his skill of writing to go beyond

happy hiphop to address more socially conscious issues that afflicted and continue to afflict the

African-American community, such as adolescent pregnancy, sexual assault, and drug addiction.

Tupac has seen his fair share of adversity faced by young teenage girls in the ghetto as a result of

his upbringing. His songs are on the epidemic of teen pregnancy without parental consent that

has afflicted young black girls' lives. In Brenda's Got a Baby (1991) he raps, “Now the baby’s in
the trash heap balling/Momma can’t help her, but it hurts to hear her calling/Brenda wants to run

away/Momma say, you makin’ me lose pay/The social workers here everyday/Now Brenda’s

gotta make her own way/Can’t go to her family, they won’t let her stay/ No money no babysitter,

she couldn’t keep a job/She tried to sell crack, but end up getting robbed/So now what’s next,

there ain’t nothing left to sell/So she sees sex as a way of leaving hell/It’s paying the rent, so she

really can’t complain/Prostitute, found slain, and Brenda’s her name, she’s got a baby” (2Pac).

Tupac highlighted the awful existence of this adolescent girl and her battles to maintain herself

and her kid alive in a world without help throughout the song. This is the tale of a 12-year-old

girl who was raped by her family, impregnated, and left on the street with no money or shelter,

with no future and only the will to live till tomorrow. It's a song that's both sympathetic and

angry about how unsupported adolescent pregnancy can wreck young girls' lives. Moving on, we

typically see the sexualization or materialisation of women, particularly black women, in rap, but

Tupac broke the taboo by speaking about the difficulties that black women endure and the

respect he has for them. In “Keep Ya Head Up”(1993) he raps, “I give a holla to my sisters on

welfare/And I know they like to beat you down a lot/When you come around the block, brothers

clown a lot/But please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up/Forgive, but don’t forget, girl, keep

your head up/And when he tells you you ain’t nothing, don’t believe him/And if he can’t learn to

love you, you should leave him/‘Cause, sister, you don’t need him” (2Pac). By honouring

blackness, womanhood, and especially black women, Pac promotes hope and positivism in the

face of difficulties. This song had big impact onthe public based on the fact that it is so unlike

his thugged-out work that he defies expectations. This song makes on think if he can persuade

the most vicious felons to respect the strength and beauty of black women, how can society not

confine? Tupac's songs attempt to make marginalised voices heard; in this case, he uses his
words to break down taboos and address the struggles that black women have faced and continue

to face. He says things that others are reluctant to say, and he is a real activist.

Tupac Shakur: A man who’s ideoology and belief continue to fuel the fight against

injustice. BillBoard states, “2Pac has done things worth glorifying and others worth condemning.

But his words have outlived him, and many are just as relevant now as they were while he was

still breathing” and this is as true as any fact in the world. Tupac's ideology and writings continue

to inspire the world around him, as seen by the eye-opening novel The Hate You Give and

demonstrations against injustice in which his lyrics ignite resilience in protestors' hearts, like

Sidhu Moose wala. For those unfamiliar with Angie Thomas' work The Hate U Give, it is a

world-renowned novel that confronts the subjects of police brutality against African-Americans,

and it was partly inspired by Tupac's THUG LIFE motto and advocacy. Many allusions to the

dead rapper can be found in the story, including one where the protagonist states, " Pac said Thug

Life stood for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. T-H-U-G-L-I-F-E. Meaning

what society gives us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out. Get it?" (Thomas 123).

The allusion to Pac's THUG LIFE slogan is used to illustrate that The Hate [They] Give is still

deeply established in society today and hasn't gone away; society is still growing children who

are nurtured in hatred and who eventually develop a hatred-based faith. " When I when I saw

him explain what it (THUG LIFE) means, it hit me that that’s not just in my book, but that’s

what we see in society. When these unarmed black people lose their lives, the hate they’ve been

given screws us all. We see it in the form of anger and we see it in the form of riots." Angie

Thomas said in an interview with Cosmo, “When these unarmed black people are killed, the

hatred directed against them harms us all. We see it in the shape of rioting and in the form of

outrage." ​ It manifests itself in the form of riots and fury." As Angie points out, the sentiments he
expressed back then are still relevant today, two decades later. His remarks continue to inspire

people like Angie Brown to write stories about racism in order to remind the world that racism is

not a thing of the past, but rather an illness deeply embedded in American culture's beliefs. His

remarks inspired the same perseverance back then as they do now. And now, when his words are

utilised in empowerment speeches during marches and rallies for justice, such as the Black Lives

Matter movement, some active physical dependence on his words may be observed in society.

Moving on, the recently deceased Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, who campaigned against

injustice on the opposite side of the globe, embodies his words today. "Jera bol tha onu thok

thene o"(who ever dares to speak gets shot down), says Sihdu Mosse wala in his song Last Ride

(2022). Sidhu views Tupac as a man who spoke up against the system and was later shot down

as a result. In fact, throughout his time in the spotlight, the Punjabi singer and songwriter

frequently mentioned how much he admired Tupac and how many of his songs had inspired him

to create his own songs dealing with oppression and injustice. ​The irony comes in the fact that

Sidhu was shot and killed while driving through his hometown two days after the release of his

final song, Last Ride. As he died similar to Tupac, he lived a life that was also comparable to

Tupac in that he advocated against the government's prejudice and spoke out against the drug

crisis hurting Punjab's rural populations. Sidhu said, "Han meh respect karda qui ki oh kathe

dareya nehe mauth tho, jaad gaal rakan the audi see," when questioned about his relationship

with Tupac in an interview with PTC Punjabi (Yes I respect him because he never feared death

when it came to saying what he wanted). Sidhu was inspired by him, and he never shied away

from saying for what needed to be said, no matter what the situation. This proves that, like a

great activist, Tupac Skaur's thoughts and legacy continue to motivate people to oppose injustice

even after his passing.

one can still detect advocacy and resistance in Tupac's songs without considering the

preconceptions that surround hiTuapc is a legendary rapper who, in addition to having his own

compilations, always made music that would sway ones body to the beat or spark ones heart to

stand up from their seat. Stand up and oppose the oppression and brutality that have plagued

them for years. The claim that Tupac was an activist was maintained throughout this essay by

careful arguments about how his music confronted corrupt politicians, how it addressed issues in

his own neighbourhood, and how his lyrics continue to inspire millions of people today. To sum

up, Tupac was and still is an activist, both before and after his death.
Citations

“About Us.” The Lion And The Hunter, 8 Nov. 2017,

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Tudury, Leila. “Thug Life Meaning & Origin.” [Link], [Link], 19 Jan.

2021,[Link]

%20explained,raising%20them%20in%20an%20oppressive. Accessed 14 June 2022.

Ruiz, Matthew Ismael. “Tupac Shakur's Most Socially Conscious Lyrics: 10 Times He

Was at His Most Woke.” Billboard, 2 June 2020,

[Link]

s-dear-mama-7573536/. Accessed 14 June 2022.

“Here's How Tupac and Thug Life Inspired the Hate U Give.” Epic Reads, 17 Feb. 2022,

[Link] Accessed 14 June 2022.

Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar Professor of History and Founding Director. “In Tupac's Life, the

Struggles and Triumphs of a Generation.” The Conversation, 3 Sept. 2020,

[Link]

text=He%20created%20a%20plan%20to,1993%20and%20again%20in%201994. Accessed 14

June 2022.