Tupac And My Non Thug Life

In the article, “Tupac and My Non –Thug Life the author of this article Jenee Desmonc-Harris writes about how a young California girl was so affected by Tupac’s death. She remembers rushing home from school crying about Tupac’s death. She was so influence by him she really loved him and was a huge fan. She knew him on a personal level which may have been way she was influenced. Listening to Tupac made the girl so proud of African American culture. She and her friend were valued Tupac’s music so much, after his death they tattooed a song lyric of his. They mourned Tupac’s death. She felt strongly grateful about his music, as she even mentioned, “his music represents the years when I was both forced and privileged to confront what it meant to be black.” The irony in this article was what really happened is the news was turned on, with coverage of the deadly Vegas shooting. Phone calls were made. Ultimately my best friend, Thea, and I were left to our own 15-year-old devices to mourn that weekend. Her mother and stepfather were out of town. Their expansive, million-dollar home was perched on a hillside less than an hour from Tupac’s former stomping grounds in Oakland and Marin City. Of course, her home was also worlds away from both places. that these girls are white and live in a predominately white area and are very wealthy.

They don’t have anything in common with the people that Tupac sings about in his lyrics but yet they love all his songs. Most of Tupac’s songs are about his own and many other peoples struggles in life. The violence, racism, and even poverty he faced all are common themes of what he sang about. So it is ironic that these white California girls of such wealth are such great fans even though they do not face the same hardships as Tupac sang about. Maybe they just liked the way his music sounded without even understanding the lyrics. A quote that was important to me was ‘’Blackness became something cool, something t which we had brand new access.” Blackness became part of her and her style. The whole ghetto look became cool to these girls. Listening and memories his lyrics made them cool and now other people wanted to do the same as them. This maybe a reason why these girls loved Tupac that much. They wanted to be “cool” just as those who listened to him were.