A PoeticBreakdown of Tupac’s ‘Starin’ Through My Rear View’
In todays world of “mumble rap”, words are meaning less and less. The reason for this — I don’t know. But if I was to guess, it would be because our attention span has shrunken shorter and shorter. Every kid I know under the age of 20 smokes weed. Maybe it’s because of that. Have you listened to crappy music while high? Everything sounds amazing. Have you created something emotionally deep while high? Nearly impossible.
My conclusion: Mumble rap is the result of tired-brained weed smoke. You literally mumble. It’s hilarious, really.
I can be proven wring though. I’m a metal head, mostly. I grew up listening to Nirvana and The Melvins, but every once in a while, a lyrical god approached the high-ground creatives. Tupac Shakur was one of those geniuses, taken from us too soon. Yeah, he smoked weed so I’ve been proven wrong. But in my defense, people were smarter then, weed was weaker then, and times were way more tough, thus people were more hungry.
Tupac was lyrical poetry. What I mean is take his music away and read his lyrics (or if you’re lucky enough, listen to his vocal track on solo if you have it) and ot will still make sense. Lyrical poetry.
The song goes:
Multiple gunshots fill the block, the fun stops Niggaz is callin cops, people shot, nobody stop I wonder when the world stopped caring last night Two kids shot while the whole block staring
These first lines are basic poetic forms with rhyming couplets, but breaks away from that as it enters the third line. I’d also like to point out how “multiple gunshots” at the beginning is then mentioned again on the second line as he says “people shot” for a reason. He’d like to emphasize that information rather than put some other filler — as he could have with another rhyming word, but didn’t. He connects the gunshots mentioned with people being affected by it. He didn’t have to do that but he did.
The third and fourth line breaks away from the rhyming couplet and falls into more of a poetic diction of rhythm and not rhyme. He does such a great job with “the world stopped caring last night” as it carries a beat with its syllables. Continuing…
I will never understand this society, first they try To murder me, then they lie to me, product of a dying breed All my homies trying weed, now the little baby’s Crazed raised off Hennesey, tell me will my enemies Flee when they see me, believe me Even Thugs gotta learn to take it easy, listen Through the intermissions search your heart for a plan
This is cleverly done as it known as the “prosody” where the rhythmic aspects of prose are informal. You’ll notice that Shakur’s rhymes are in the center of a line rather at the end (it’s not typed that way here, but if you listen, you’ll see what I mean), yet the story is explained in a simple matter, still. His A, B, A, B, patterns are still there even though it’s closer to a A, B, A — A, B, A pattern. He leaves the lines hanging at the end as sentences are completed at the beginning of the next line.
When I first heard “all my homies trying weed” I initially thought it was filler. However; when you continue to the next line “now the little baby’s crazed raised off Henessy”, it’s pretty genius. The line about the baby actually implies that women smoking during pregnancy — or more specifically, people smoking around babies will result in alcoholic or addicted kids. Not only to touch a subject on genetic predisposition, but he actually puts the kid within the circle of friends using drugs around it. So much power within just a set of words. Continuing…
Now moving back to the standard similar to the start of the track, he goes:
Keys to ignition, use at your discretion Roll with a twelve gauge pump for protection Niggaz hate me in the section from years of chin checking Turn to Smith and Wesson war weapons
I LOVE this stanza as it’s full of incomplete slangs and terms which describe something indirectly. It’s just loaded with them all over. For example “keys to ignition” instead of “keys to the ignition” was used for rhythm purposes. He then says “roll with a twelve guage pump” without mentioning “gun” even though that would have rhymed as well. “Hate me in the section” as in that part of the city, he then says “chin checkin’” for both syllable and rhyming purposes — meaning to keep his enemies in their proper place. Obviously, Smith & Wesson is a gun manufacturer, but again, he fails to mention “gun” and I love that part so much. That entire verse alone, he mentions driving, car, gun, reloading, intimidation and a city block without even mentioning those very words.
Then the world ain’t no trick no more The world is a game to be played So now we looking at the world, from like, behind us Niggaz know what we gotta do, just gotta put our mind to it and do it It’s all about the papers, money rule the world Bitches make the world go round Real niggaz do they wanna do, bitch niggaz do what they can’t Staring at the world through my rearview
Moving along to the end verse, the style here has completely shifted to the “narrative” style lyric/poetry. He’s completely abandoned all syllable rhythm and brought in the “caesura” form where a syllable break would be in the middle of a line rather than at the end of it. As an example, two lines are read, then the break “form like, behind us”. Thereafter, two lines are read and then “make the world go round”. When you recite these verses and listen carefully, you’ll notice a rhythm is makes in itself. Whether he intentionally did this or not is not known (since two voices are being heard over each other at this part), nevertheless, it’s pretty awesome.
This entire track is a tiny example of how Shakur would take many different forms of poetry — be it Caesura, or qualitative, or narrative, or rhythmic, or especially elegy, where the subject matter is always a dark reflection.’
His many forms can be heard from album to album and Shakur isn’t always looking for rhymes. Whenever he is rhyming though, he takes on many forms of it. For example, in the song titled “Hail Mary” Shakur has adopted the form of a Sonnet where the rhyme pattern reads ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG in the verse.
Whether he just sat in his room for months on end and studied these things are unknown. I guess that’s what sets apart an artist with intentions or a natural prodigy. I really don’t know but the proof is there. There are many rappers I admire but Tupac was different. His lyrics may not be of great value sometimes. Sure, they’re at times pretty typical and monotonous as the vocabulary can even be bland. But Shakur’s use of words just like Eminem, is very special and there hasn’t been much of any artist like him since. I think it’s always worthy of posting a subject matter such as this because many forget how great of a lyricist he really is. Maybe one day I’ll cover an Eminem song or maybe a rock track from someone.
Truth is Shakur is often times emulated but never successfully replicated.
