The Revolution Won’t Be Televised: From The Underground To The Spotlight

Tupac Shakur, under the moniker 2Pac, launched his solo career in 1991. After dancing, guest rapping, and touring with the Oakland rap group, Digital Underground, 2Pac decided to focus on his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now. The album covers a variety of topics, with the overarching theme being the urban community culture. The impact of the album was immediately felt, inspiring some, while rubbing others the wrong way. The world’s introduction to the now solo 2Pac launched what would later become a controversial, yet stunningly excellent career, even beyond his untimely death.

The opening song, “Young Black Male,” sets the tone for the rest of the album. 2Pac attacks the beat with an aggressive delivery, and establishes a militaristic mindset. 2Pac raps, “Young black male/ I try to effect by kicking the facts/ and stacking much mail/ I’m packing the gat ’cause guys wanna jack/ and [expletive] going to jail/ ’cause I ain’t no crook, despite how I look.” Through the aggression, 2Pac makes it clear as to why he feels the need to carry a gun, but despite the fact that he’s carrying a gun he’s not willing to go to jail because he looks like a “Young Black Male.”

“Trapped” begins with police sirens layered underneath record scratching, hard-hitting drum snares and kicks. The first two lines of each verse sums up how 2Pac feels about life in the urban community, he raps:

“You know they got me trapped in this prison of seclusion/ happiness, living on the streets is a delusion…They got me trapped, can barely walk the city streets/ without a cop harrassing me, searching me then asking my identity…Now I’m trapped and want to find my getaway/ all I need is a G and somewhere safe to stay.”

2Pac feels that he is so trapped in the urban community that happiness is fictitious; what contributes to this is the lack of freedom he has outside of his home, due to policemen constantly harassing him. However, he is convinced that is he had a thousand dollars, and a safe haven then he would truly be able to escape.

Shock G, from Digital Underground, attempts to encourage 2Pac on the hook, by telling him, “Nah, they can’t keep the black man down”; but 2Pac is beyond optimism, and is convinced that suicide would be the better option as he says, “Thoughts in my mind was the nine and a better life/ what do I do? Live my life in a prison cell?/ I’d rather die than be trapped in a living Hell.”

The theme of being a young black male in the urban communities continues on “Soulja’s Story.” Some of the things Pac raps about in this song are incredibly relevant today as he says, “You got whites killing blacks/ cops killing blacks, and blacks killing blacks/ [expletive] just gon’ get worse.” 2Pac’s beautiful storytelling is on full display here, over a dark-gloomy beat, which suppress the prominence of the drums in exchange for a deep bass and piano which sets the tone for the story. The story is of a man whose dad left and mother is addicted to crack. The man moves out, and turns to drug selling as a means to live, and his younger brother follows him, as that’s his only role model. However in the end, the man ends up shot in the head and his younger brother ends up shot as well, as the younger brother tries to break his brother out of jail.

One of the most upbeat tracks on the entire record is “I Don’t Give A Fuck.” This track also serves as the most aggressive track on the album. 2Pac’s radicalism is at the forefront throughout, as he raps lines such as:

“Bush wanna throw down?/ you better bring the gun, pal/ ’cause this is the day we make ’em pay/ fuck bailing hay, I better spray with an AK/ and even if they shoot me down/ there’ll be another n**** bigger/ from the [expletive] underground.”

2Pac’s feature, Pogo, is just as radical as he claims that the police are the “biggest gang in the city,” and in the following lines he shows that he is open to killing police because he just doesn’t care: “With a badge, I end his future and his past/ with a blast, take his cash before I dash, I bash his head in/ dump him at the dead end and that’s just his luck/ ’cause a n**** like P don’t really give a [expletive].”

“Violent,” is a story Pac tells about how police try to set him and his “homie” up. 2Pac declares that it’s “the police against us;” and that because the police treat young black males disrespectfully due to the prejudice that they are violent, he is willing to give them a reason to declare that they are violent.

“Words of Wisdom,” begins with a poetic type intro, in which 2Pac speaks to the entire black community about his use of the n-word, and the deaths of blacks in urban communities. 2Pac criticizes some of America’s key values, because he believes that these same values were created and up kept in order to keep blacks the inferior race in the nation. Some of the lyrics are incredibly relevant to the current state of America, as he says, “Pledge allegiance to a flag that neglects us/ honour a man that that refuses to respect us/ emancipation Proclamation? Please!… these are lies that we all accepted.”

The war with the police that 2Pac brings to life on “Violent,” is seen on “Crooked Ass N****.” On this particular record gun fire can be heard laced in the beat, as well as police sirens. 2Pac proclaims “cops should mind they business,” and describes a scene where he kills two police officers for being nosey and bothering him. 2Pac says that he keeps his finger on the trigger for police that are crooked, and his feature, Stretch, even confirms this by saying, “2Pac, got the [expletive] Glock cocked, and he’s ready.”

2Pac takes a break from his radical, militaristic message on the track “If My Homie Calls.” This song shows 2Pac expressing his unquestioned loyalty to his “homies,” as he says, “I drop it all for y’all, if my homies call.” While 2Pac still paints a picture of the urban community, he changes up the albums pace with this uptempo track that allows the listener to identify with Pac’s message of loyalty, as we all have someone that we are “down to the E-N-D” for.

“Brenda’s Got A Baby,” is one of the most profound and powerful tracks on the entire album. The story is about a girl Brenda who was molested, and gets pregnant, and has a baby all by herself. Brenda dumps the newborn, and has no one/ nowhere to go to, and ends up becoming a prostitute where she is later murdered. While this is his first song to do so, 2Pac, would later make numerous songs about young women and their struggles. For the majority of the album to be dedicated to males, this is a welcomed change of pace, even if the story brings sadness.

2Pacalypse Now, is one of the least known 2Pac albums, yet one that is essential in his development as an artist and as a person. The album shows you what the mentality of young black males living in urban areas in the ’90s was like and leaves listeners having felt upbeat, angry, saddened, and inspired throughout the duration.