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Gender and sexuality is a controversial theme in Tupac’s music. There is no clear classification of his music based on his view of women and sexuality. From one point of view, Tupac can be described as a person who adores and respect women, and from another view; he is a wicked person who has no respect for women. It easy to understand why Tupac fits into both extremes based on a closer look at his personal life. He had a double-edged personality; as a person of high moral standards advocating for the right of less fortunate black Americans, adored by thousands of Black American youths, on the other extreme, he is an outcast, living a thug life, fighting the system and always on the wrong side of the law, all this aimed at personal glorification.
In his best-selling book on Tupac’s life, ‘Holler when you see me’ Michael Dyson notes the conflicting personality portrayed by Tupac through his music, he writes this about the artist ‘Tupac has torn his entire short life about what he wanted and expected from women. If his heart was bruised at 17 because of the bad-boy archetype trumped his nice-guy image, he vigorously compensated for its defeat in the few years he had remaining’ Dyson also notes this on Tupac rap music ‘In his haunting voice can be heard the buoyant hopefulness and the desperate hopelessness that mark the outer perimeters of the hip-hop culture he eagerly embraced, as well as the lives of the millions of youth who admired and adored him’.
During his short life, Tupac’s music career was a success. He has sold the highest number of records in rap music history, during and after his death. His first successful single, “Brenda’s Got a Baby” was the first song where Tupac addressed issues relating to women.
In the song, Tupac is crying out for the sake of a young girl going through lots of crises in a society that does not seem to recognize the pressing needs of young women. The young girl, Brenda, is helpless with no parental support as Tupac informs to us that young girl ‘never really knew her moms and her dad was a junky…………the girl can hardly spell her name, that’s not her problem; that up to Brenda’s family….’ It is important to note that in this song, Tupac does not use any undignified words towards women. He is the perfect Tupac who adores and supports women going through a crisis.
“Keep yah Head Up” is another inspirational song to black women, it is a call for black women to stand firm and believe in themselves and not allow men to put them second in the social order. He advises women to “Forgive but don’t forget, girl keep ya’ head up, and when he tells ya’ you ain’t nothin’, don’t believe him’. Tupac’s past life and seeing her mother go through an abused relationship with men influenced greatly the writing of this song. Dyson writes in his book ‘Tupac conjures an image (about women) from his recent past, lamenting the mistreatment of young women by his male counterparts.
According to Dyson, “In black America, mother love is second only to the love of God – but just slightly in the song,” Tupac exemplifies Michael Dyson stand through his song ‘Dear Mama’. In this song, we again encounter a Tupac who understands the plight of a single black woman in America. He acknowledges his mother’s effort in bringing him up “Mama always workin’ tryin to make ends meet”; Tupac shows a lot of respect to her mother for struggling to successfully raise him.
Tupac notes that “for a woman, it ain’t easy tryin ta raise a man” especially when that young man happen to be Tupac who is always on the wrong side of the law and always “Runnin from the police”. He also acknowledges the need for a discipline like the way her mother disciplined him “Momma catch me, put a whoopin to my backside, and even as a crack fiend mama, ya always was a black queen mama”. This of all songs is the most acclaimed song worldwide for paying tribute to black women especially single mothers.
To those who don’t understand hip-hop and how the message is carried through this music genre, some songs spell doom and shame because of the unkind and demeaning words coming from Tupac, a good example is a song titled “Wonder why they call you bitch”. But to those people in the society who understand Hip hop, they have no issue with Tupac’s use of words like ‘bitches’, ‘hoes’ in reference to women. His use of such seemingly undignified words as per the expectations of the society that Tupac lived in. Tupac as an artist had nothing personal against women and according to Dyson, “the bitch-hoes nexus in hip-hop is but the visible extension of mainstream society’s complicated and often troubling, gender beliefs.” Black American women also seem to enjoy being referred by rap artists through these words, largely due to the fact the “women always have this kind of ‘bad-boy’ thing, where they want the aggressor, the tough guy who has the heart of gold” as Dyson notes.
Besides the seemingly supportive women who stand by rap and Hip hop artists like Tupac despite the unkind words in their music, the ” poor black urban culture seems to nurture femiphobia- the fear and disdain of the female, expressed in the verbal abuse and protracted resentment of women”, as Dyson notes. The society especially men is not ready to face and take women issues head-on but prefer to hide behind rap music where they feel comfortable throwing all kind of salvos to their female counterpart. This is in cross-reference to the fact that only in very rare cases that men stand by their female counterparts to air their concern on the use of foul language on women.
Gender and Sexuality theme in Tupac music has positive effects on women standing in society. He is one of the few successive artists who openly supported the plight of poor black women in the world, from songs like Brenda got a baby, Dear Mama to Keep your head high. Society and the culture greatly influenced and supported his use of demeaning words when referring to women. Women on the other hand seemingly enjoy being associated with artists who define them in the wrong way; hence it is no wonder that rap and hip-hop continue to portray women as sex objects, without any considerable protest from women and their male counterparts.
Reference:
Lucy Morrison (2001) Tupac Shakur Legacy. Web.
Michael Dyson (2003) Holler If You Hear Me: searching for Tupac Shakur, Basic Civitas publishers, United States.
Tupac Shakur, (1994, 1995, and 1996) Interscope Records (1991) Thug Life, Me Against The World, All Eyez on Me.
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