Tupac (AKA 2Pac) was only on this Earth for 25 years, but he helped change the world in the short time he was here. He is one of the most (if not the most) legendary and influential rappers of all time. He created at least 150 in the last year of his life and that’s not including the hundreds of songs he created before that. Since he didn’t stop producing music until the day he died, he still had music coming out after he was gone. He even won a few awards for his music, but he wasn’t here to see them.
Tupac changed the world in so many ways with his music—he changed the way people saw young black kids growing up in the ghetto, how they saw themselves, and much more. Here are all of the ways the legendary rapper changed the world.
10 He Changed The Way Rappers Are Seen In Movies
The first movie Tupac starred in, Juice, changed the way people see rappers in movies. He played Bishop, a troubled teenager who turns into a cold-hearted killer and goes against his friends. Not only does the movie show what life was like in Harlem in the ‘90’s, it was the first time a rapper truly gave a great dramatic performance. According to Rolling Stone, “But Shakur, who studied acting while attending high school in Atlanta, commanded the screen with an effectiveness that no rapper-turned-moonlighting-actor had managed before, and few have done since.”
9 He Transformed The Meaning Of “Thug”
For so long the word “thug” had a negative connotation when people heard it. That completely changed after Tupac released his music. He produced the album, Thug Life: Volume 1, with a few other rappers and created an iconic acronym for it—The Hate U Gave Little Infants F*cks Everybody. According to Rolling Stone, “At the time, it seemed like an unnecessary variation on the ‘gangster' trope that dominated West Coast rap at the time. However, his reimagining of a word that the Oxford Dictionary defines as ‘a violent person, especially a criminal’ into an positive attribute resonated. 2Pac’s vision redefined the word ‘thug’ into a man who triumphs over systemic and societal obstacles.”
8 He Was A Master At Storytelling
Tupac had the gift to tell a story into a way that made you feel like you were seeing what he was seeing. According to ABC News, “He also had a real complexity to him. There was a side of him that wanted to just let it all out and cut loose and not care about consequences. On the other side was that social conscience, showing all the facets of what life was life in the ghetto as a young black male, telling stories that hadn't been heard, and speaking out for the black community.” This gift of storytelling helped change people’s perception of young black kids growing up in the ghetto and the way they saw themselves.
7 His Songs Addressed Issues In Society
His song, “Changes,” is one of his most famous songs that addresses issues in society. The song has samples from the 1986 hit, "The Way It Is," by Bruce Hornsby and the Range and re-uses lines from "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" which was recorded during the same year in 1992. According to ABC News, “Hornsby's 1986 track addressed issues of poverty, classism, and racial segregation, all things that Tupac experienced firsthand growing up… But with Tupac's verses calling out racism, war, violence, drugs and police brutality thrust in between, Hornsby's words, re-sung by Talent, start to sound more authentic.”
6 His Powerful Voice Grabbed People’s Attention
Singers and rappers use parts of their body to produce different sounds, such as using their head to produce a high-pitch voice or their stomach so their voice is deep and loud. In the documentary, Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel, one of Tupac's producers said, "Slick Rick rhymed from the nasal palate, Nas from the back of his throat, and Pac from the pit of his stomach, which is where his power came from.” He was inspired by powerful speakers like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X—he always tried to make his voice as powerful as theirs to get people’s attention and create change. His voice got people to listen to the issues he sang and rapped about.
5 He Created The First Rap “Pre-Prison” Album
In November 1993, Tupac was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in his hotel room and had to go to jail in 1995 for nine months. But before he was in prison he finished another album, which showed all of the emotions he felt facing jail time. “Released in May while Shakur was incarcerated, Me Against the World, is arguably his most concise and moving work. It found him making peace with his mother, Afeni Shakur on ‘Dear Mama,’ and ruminating over his mess of a life on ‘Lord Knows,’” according to Rolling Stone. He inspired other artists to use their music as a way to express their feelings about going to prison, such as Lil Kim’s Naked Truth, T.I.’s Paper Trail, and C-Murder’s The Truest Sh*t I Ever Said.
4 His Time In Prison Inspired Him To Create Songs That Would Cause Change
Tupac’s nine month sentence motivated him to make even more music that would inspire change. According to ABC News, “He came out of jail firing shots; he had a lot to say and made a huge amount of music in this time. He dived into a world of gangster rap, formed a new group called Outlawz Immortalz and signed to the notorious record label Death Row Records. In terms of his approach to production, he wasn't focused on the musicality of the songs. Instead he had a real urgency to make music.” He said “we don't have the luxury to spend all of this time doing one song,” so he made some of his songs in only 30 minutes. He was pretty much saying he didn’t want to waste time perfecting the music when he should be concentrating on the part that will inspire people to help change society—the lyrics.
3 He Was The First Rapper That Made People Think He Was Alive Even After He Passed Away
Tupac fans have always had this theory that he’s still alive even after he was shot in Las Vegas in 1996. According to Rolling Stone, “No other rapper has generated a legend as profound as The Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory, the 1996 album that fueled widespread belief that he had somehow survived the Las Vegas shooting. There was speculation that Pac called himself Makaveli to evade his antagonists, much as the political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli had claimed to do in The Prince five centuries earlier.” Conspiracy theorists think he faked his death for about six or seven days since he was pronounced dead six days after the shooting. They also think that somehow he’s chilling on an island somewhere.
2 He Recorded Tons Of Songs
Tupac was one of the very few artists who were talented enough to create multiple songs in one day. He usually recorded about three songs a day and produced 150 songs in the last year of his life. That’s not including all of the other songs he recorded. According to Rolling Stone, “Before Lil Wayne flooded the Internet with his Drought and Dedication mixtapes, and Lil B bragged ‘you’re not a real rapper until you make a thousand songs,’ hundreds of tracks from Shakur’s Death Row sessions appeared on compact disc… Shakur’s posthumous deluge set a precedent that everyone from Weezy to Gucci Mane follows to this day: Stay in the studio, and feed the streets until it bursts.”
1 His Music Is Still Influencing People Today
Even though Tupac passed away in 1996, his music lives on and the lyrics of his songs are still inspiring people now. According to Shifter Magazine, “Today many artists seem to be the product of corporate engineering with their artistic talents taking a back seat. Tupac’s legacy reminds us that creativity and art are important and so is the message. When so many people are worried about their personal brand, he also reminds us to be ourselves and to not let others define who we are. Thanks for giving us a lot to think about, Tupac, even after death.” Tupac is one of the rare musicians who could create music that would last through the generations and his lyrics will always influence people to help change the world.
