mierra

Many people believe that hip-hop is nothing more than bogus hype music that only degrade women and talk about money, but most hip-hop songs actually leave the reader with a new perspective. One of many inspirational songs is “Panther Power.” The composer, Tupac Shakur first recorded the song in the 90’s but it wasn’t released until award nominated documentary, “Tupac Resurrection” was released in 2003. “Panther Power” is an excellent song because it contains imagery, has great sound and has numerous examples of personification, which he uses to change the listener’s perspective.
First, Tupac attracts his listeners with an old skool-groovy beat, the rhyme scheme and repetition that makes the song catchy and leaves you no choice except to be hooked! Tupac uses rhyme to give the song a good sound by basically saying the first verse again as the last verse. Throughout the song, the chorus “Panther Power” is repeated three times, giving the listener the feeling of empowerment! The song also has a catchy rhyme scheme, using couplets throughout the song. For example, “As real as it seems the American dream, ain’t nothing but another calculated schemes.” The sound devices are effective in getting your attention.
Secondly, Tupac uses his figurative language to show clear images in the reader’s head. One simile from the song is “I strike America like a case of hard disease.” He also uses a great metaphor where he suggests that we, as a people are “locked in chains” by the government .In this song, Tupac uses a lot of personification to change the readers mind. For example, “Cause Lady Liberty is a hypocrite, she lied to me.” Also, in the song, he uses one example of imagery, saying that “Panther Power is running through my arteries, try to stop oh boy you’ll be clawed to death, cause I’ll be fighting for my freedom with my dying breath.” In this verse, you actually feel get the sense of “panther power” running through your arteries.
Lastly, the personification used in the poem, gives the listener a new perspective and a new view on the government and the American justice system. For example, “Uncle Sam never did a dam thing for me except lie about the fact in my history,” this is used to show, not that the real uncle Sam lied, but to show that the government is full of lies and that they lie to black people to make everything seem perfect and “peachy” when its really not.
In conclusion, with Tupac’s use of good figurative language and imagery, this song represents one of few good songs still around today. His figurative language makes the listener feel what he’s going through, giving them a new perspective. His imagery makes the listener see what he has seen. This song grabs the listener’s attention because rhythmic flow of his voice, the power he puts behind his words and the imagery, personification, similes and metaphors he puts in the lyrics. From the lyrics, listeners can draw inference that Tupac was trying to say don’t always believe what you hear because most of the time your being lied to.

http://jj_productions.tripod.com/home.htm

http://jj_productions.tripod.com/tppoint2.htm

In this aritcle was written a week after tupac's death. The author breifly talks about Jesse Jackson's quote "This is so, so sad. Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call." In the article, the author is acutally being criticle of Tupac basically calling him a hypocrite.

I aint mad at cha

This was by far one of the most ironic songs but the late Tupac simply because in the video was released three days after he died, showing almost exactly the same way he died. In the song Pac is reminising on how close he and his friend was until he got killed and expresses that he "aint mad at cha" throughroly throughout the song

http://jj_productions.tripod.com/asking.htm

this article talks about the two different sides of Tupac.One was down-to-earth and one was ampd up and rowdy.

Dear Dr.Michael Dyson,
I am a freshmen at Constitution High school in Philadelphia. I’m writing you this letter to greatly express my interest in your book “Holler If You Hear Me: Searching For Tupac.” Well, first off, every year my school participates in the National History Day contest, which is a contest that requires a lot of hard work and dedication. In the contest, you are expected to follow this years theme “Individual In History: Impact and Legacy.” As my first year in the contest I decided that I wanted to do someone that didn’t just have an impact on people socially, economically or just musically, I wanted to choose someone that impacted people in everyway imaginable! So, for this year’s contest, I chose to do a documentary on Tupac Shakur, because, although he had his trouble with the law, he still managed to be a positive influence on a lot of young people (such as myself). As I searched online for a book to annotate, I contemplated on which (besides his autobiography) would be the most useful to my research. Immediately, I began to become interested in your book. At first, I just read the online preview, then I went to Borders book store and purchased your book. I showed great interest in the interviews you included, especially the one with Larenz Tate! I truly believe that if he would have spent more time with Tupac, perhaps he would’ve still been alive! My quest for knowledge has driven me to dig deeper than the surface. I thought if I could possibly interview you about the process of making your book and other knowledge about Tupac, that would be all I need to make my documentary a winner in the contest! I would really like to keep in touch with you, whether it be via, email, phone or in person.
Dr. Dyson, I understand that you have a very busy schedule, so I commend you for taking time out of your day to read my letter. You’ll be helping out a whole lot if you write me back so please write me back.

Sincerely, Mierra Isaac

http://www.taylortheteacher.com/2007/10/14/tupac/

This article was written by an author that was about two weeks younger than Tupac. He explains how Tupac’s music was actually accurate when he talked about the poverty in the ghetto and his mother’s life as a black panther. In any case, I learned that Tupac thought that since his embroil was cultivated in prison, he believed, that’s why the police were attacking him all of his life. This article also discusses Afeni, Tupac’s mom involvment in the Black Panthers. The article suggest “Growing up the son of a revolutionary put Tupac in a paradoxical position.”


http://www.hitemup.com/tupac/lawsuit-tucker.html

This document that I read was the lawsuit case that Tupac had against Deloris Tucker. I learned that the lawsuit was filed against Tupac because he wrote a song titled “You wonder why they call you b*tch” and at the end quotes
“Dear Ms. Deloris Tucker
keep stressen me
f**kin' with a muthaf**ken mind
I figured you wanted to know
you know
why we call them hos bitches
and maybe this might help you understand
it ain't personal
strictly business baby
strictly business”
Also, Tupac mentioned her name again in “How do you want it”, sayin “Deloris Tucker you a fake to me, instead of trynna help a brotha, wanna take his g’s”


http://blackpanther.org/legacynew.htm

This article basically discusses the Black Panthers, which was one of Tupac’s influences. I found out that the Black Panther party was an organization that stood up for African-Americans, encouraging them to fight back. The organization was founded by Huey P. Newton.

http://www.2pac2k.de/readytolive.html

This is an interview with Tupac from Vibe magazine in 1996 titled “Ready To Live.” This interview was developed when Tupac was serving time in jail for an alleged rape case. Tupac goes into vivid details as to what actually happen that night and a few nights before. He also talks about how he was presented with a fair case because of his profession, saying that the media portrays him as a “gangsta rapper.” Tupac quotes “I'm not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me.”

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=9JgKKsx8bAkC&dq=tupac+shakur&printsec=frontcover&source=bll&ots=zz_WXwvb-i&sig=H4T79R9606cG8ngDF3Sti1cHNNA&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=11&ct=result#PPA48,M1

My fifth source is a book by prfessor Michael Dyson, Titled “Holler if you hear me: Searching for Tupac.” This books was ful of interviews from celebrities such as Larenz Tate, Snoop Dogg and many others. This books talks about Tupac’s early life and why he had the mind he had and why he wrote in such ways that made everybody feel they were in the room with him as the things actually happen. I learned that Tupac read well over 200 books, in different variety.