Tupac Analysis

          The theme Tupac Shakur is implying through his song “changes” is how society has designed a system around the black community to keep them down, and the only way for them to get out of this cycle is for the black community to make changes from within. Tupac first starts the song by commenting on the downtrodden black male, and in the bigger picture the black community. As seen the quote from the first line of the song ““Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?” I’m tired of bein’ poor and even worst I’m black.” Tupac comments on how the black community has been suppressed by a system to a point where being black is worse than poor. Additionally, he exhibits the mentality that the black community has at the time that he is writing this, where it seems that there is no hope for the them to escape the cycle. Tupac Shakur then goes on to express that the only way to get out of their current state, is by collectively coming together from within to make a change. This is seen in the following quote “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.” The use of personal pronouns in “us as a people” shows that Tupac is addressing the black community and himself to make a change. As relayed back to the theme, Tupac is attempting to express how the only way the black community can escape the position they are in is by changing how they treat each other and support one another. It is ironic that while Tupac identifies the optimal solution, he seems to believe it unachievable bases on their current state and accepts that “some things will never change”, the final verse of the song. Coming back to Tupac’s theme that the only way of over coming the system designed keep the black community down was for them to unite from within and make changes. These changes focus on treating each other better, like brothers and stop trying to kill each other.  However, this appears to be far off dream that even Tupac does not believe can come true.

          Tupac uses a style of AAVE and other methods in order to connect more with black community’s youth, in the attempt of enlightening them towards change in the community. The  AAVE style of English utilized by Tupac in “Changes” connects with the black youth because he essentially speaking the language of the “streets”, the same language they speak. As seen in one of many quotes “First ship ‘em dope and let ‘em deal to brothers.” Tupac replaces the word “them” with the word “’em”, which is a common change from “formal” English seen in AAVE. Additionally, instead of saying some thing along the lines of “other black males” he uses the word “Brothers”.  This also acts to drive home the theme of unity in their community, with brothers aligning with the idea of family. These two style choices were purposely chosen by Tupac a fellow black community member in a way of connecting to the black youth. As people will have a better connection to a language that they were taught by their mother, more than any other language they will learn. Tupac Shakur uses the constant repetition of the word “Change” throughout the song in an effort to relay the overlaying message of the song. This can be seen in the quote “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.” The use of repetition is used to better reinforce the theme of having a collective change in the black community. He uses the word in many different contexts including murder and drugs, in a way showing the many aspects that the black community can change in. To conclude Tupac uses a style of AAVE and other methods like repetition in order to connect more with black community’s youth, in the attempt of enlightening them towards change in the community.