thehaitianqueen, “If you are kicking that shit from your heart,...

Notes: 1 / 2 months ago
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“If you are kicking that shit from your heart, then you can go wherever your heart wants you to go”
-Tupac Shakur

Recently I spent some time contemplating the life of Tupac Shakur. I watched Thug Angel (The Life of an Outlaw) and thought about his words, his life and his message. I truly believe that the day he died, we lost a prophet, and a potential future leader of my generation.

“The one thing Pac taught me is just be yourself…and the rest, it will come”
-Shock G, Digital Underground

I am struck by how foolish older black folk seem in retrospect. So focused on “the glorious days of protests in the 60’s”, they failed to recognize the reality of which Tupac spoke. They failed and still fail to recognize the richness of the black experience in America. For better or for worse, we all experience “different Americas”, and none of those should be discounted. We cannot fear to speak out on what we know and see, because it flies in the face of some tradition,doesn’t encourage black unity or it’s just too rude.

What I loved about Tupac was his contradiction. He had his poetry and his gansta rap. He had love for females, but at the same time perceived some to be “bitches” and “hos”. He was violent, young and “didn’t give a fuck”, but at the same time, he cared about people in his community, and he reached back for brothers and tried to show them a better way. Nothing in a human life is strictly linear, and if you try to restrict your life in a linear manner, then you are not really living. He made it ok to be a contradiction, life itself is a contradiction.

He had so much to say. He wrote so many songs and so much poetry, it’s astounding to me sometimes that he only lived to see 25.

Tupac makes me try to listen to the hip-hop of today, try to hear the message that youth wish to impart upon us. Sadly, I perceive much of it to be empty, mindless, materialistic drivel. What am I missing? Is this today’s black youth’s only focus in life? Most importantly, did Tupac’s death scare off or stop the development of other prophets?

I really don’t know what the answer is. But Tupac inspires me to be true to myself, to hold onto my innermost thoughts and feelings and expose them to the light. To hold myself and my opinions as having value in the world, as needing to be heard. To not be afraid to be who I am, people be damned. If you don’t like it, well, there’s not much that I can do for you. Cause I’m kicking that shit from my heart, and therefore I can go where ever my heart wants me to go.
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