Midterms Hurray!
Today is a day you have been anticipating with bated breath. Your assignment is to write a 3-5 (three to five) page essay on 1 (one) of the many essays questions I gave you earlier this week.
Please include an introductory paragraph where you tell your audience what you plan to talk about. State your thesis. Make sure that this sentence is clear, specific, and unified. Remember a good thesis is not a title, an absolute fact, an announcement or the entire essay (Writing with a Thesis handout). Please include a works cited section of your paper (see Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers).
Your primary source is Michael Eric Dyson's book, Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. Use evidence from this book to support your claims. Use three citations, one per paragraph: 1 block quote, 1 paraphrase, and 1 other citation. I also want students to cite Tupac's work--his poetry or lyrics to a song. Minimally you will have 4 paragraphs with 4 citations, 1 per paragraph. Students need to have a works cited page and a bibliography. Use the COA database to find one article to read for background information about your topic. Do not quote from this source. I want this to be cited in your bibliography.
This essay is similar to the practices we have done in the past; the only difference is that you are writing the entire essay.
You will begin your essay here and finish it over the weekend. We will meet in the lab Monday, October 29 so that you can give me the essay, your essay planning sheet, and your outline, electronically along with all your chapter notes. These notes do not have to be typed.
Homework is to finish the essay. Bring your book on Afeni Shakur to class on Monday, October 29.
Sabir Essay Questions for Midterm 2007
Choose one
1. Was Tupac really the thug he personified himself to be or did he get stuck playing a character in the longest role of his short lived life?
2. Do you think Tupac was capable of truly loving a women knowing that at times, he found it difficult to love himself?
3. Was Tupac happy with the notoriety he received from his Hip-Hop career or do you think he would have rather gone through life unnoticed?
4. Do you think that Tupac’s reference to God in his music was a cry for help or salvation?
5. Do you think that Tupac over-exaggerated his misogynistic lyrics to mask the sensitivity that he actually had for women?
6. Talk about Tupac’s success after death. What does Dyson attribute this to?
7. Tupac grew up fatherless. And even though he had many role models—good and bad, his bitterness is evident in some of his songs. Do you think Tupac was able to fill this void in his life? How did he reconcile this, if at all?
8. Would you say that Tupac had lived the American dream? What is the American dream?
9. How does Tupac's mother influence his life as he was growing-up? How does she influence him about people of all races?
10. Why did you think Tupac was transformed into a different Tupac after he was arrested and sentenced to jail? How does that change his hip-hop career?
11. Who were some of the important adults in Tupac’s life that both boosted and helped him develop his hip-hop career?
12. Do you think Tupac has two-faces? If so, what are they?
13. Was Tupac a "real n***a", and if so why did he feel he was one of the realest in the rap game?
14. Did Tupac really feel he was true to being a "Thug" or was he putting on another act?
15. If Tupac were alive today would he be trying to make a change in hip-hop, and urban America or would he be following mainstream rap, and send disses to other rappers like everyone else?
16. Why did Tupac set himself up to be a scapegoat for black youth?
17. Why did Tupac feel he needed to pursue and continue the gangsta lifestyle/image?
Today is a day you have been anticipating with bated breath. Your assignment is to write a 3-5 (three to five) page essay on 1 (one) of the many essays questions I gave you earlier this week.
Please include an introductory paragraph where you tell your audience what you plan to talk about. State your thesis. Make sure that this sentence is clear, specific, and unified. Remember a good thesis is not a title, an absolute fact, an announcement or the entire essay (Writing with a Thesis handout). Please include a works cited section of your paper (see Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers).
Your primary source is Michael Eric Dyson's book, Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. Use evidence from this book to support your claims. Use three citations, one per paragraph: 1 block quote, 1 paraphrase, and 1 other citation. I also want students to cite Tupac's work--his poetry or lyrics to a song. Minimally you will have 4 paragraphs with 4 citations, 1 per paragraph. Students need to have a works cited page and a bibliography. Use the COA database to find one article to read for background information about your topic. Do not quote from this source. I want this to be cited in your bibliography.
This essay is similar to the practices we have done in the past; the only difference is that you are writing the entire essay.
You will begin your essay here and finish it over the weekend. We will meet in the lab Monday, October 29 so that you can give me the essay, your essay planning sheet, and your outline, electronically along with all your chapter notes. These notes do not have to be typed.
Homework is to finish the essay. Bring your book on Afeni Shakur to class on Monday, October 29.
Sabir Essay Questions for Midterm 2007
Choose one
1. Was Tupac really the thug he personified himself to be or did he get stuck playing a character in the longest role of his short lived life?
2. Do you think Tupac was capable of truly loving a women knowing that at times, he found it difficult to love himself?
3. Was Tupac happy with the notoriety he received from his Hip-Hop career or do you think he would have rather gone through life unnoticed?
4. Do you think that Tupac’s reference to God in his music was a cry for help or salvation?
5. Do you think that Tupac over-exaggerated his misogynistic lyrics to mask the sensitivity that he actually had for women?
6. Talk about Tupac’s success after death. What does Dyson attribute this to?
7. Tupac grew up fatherless. And even though he had many role models—good and bad, his bitterness is evident in some of his songs. Do you think Tupac was able to fill this void in his life? How did he reconcile this, if at all?
8. Would you say that Tupac had lived the American dream? What is the American dream?
9. How does Tupac's mother influence his life as he was growing-up? How does she influence him about people of all races?
10. Why did you think Tupac was transformed into a different Tupac after he was arrested and sentenced to jail? How does that change his hip-hop career?
11. Who were some of the important adults in Tupac’s life that both boosted and helped him develop his hip-hop career?
12. Do you think Tupac has two-faces? If so, what are they?
13. Was Tupac a "real n***a", and if so why did he feel he was one of the realest in the rap game?
14. Did Tupac really feel he was true to being a "Thug" or was he putting on another act?
15. If Tupac were alive today would he be trying to make a change in hip-hop, and urban America or would he be following mainstream rap, and send disses to other rappers like everyone else?
16. Why did Tupac set himself up to be a scapegoat for black youth?
17. Why did Tupac feel he needed to pursue and continue the gangsta lifestyle/image?
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 9:36 AM
6 Comments:
Rapper, film actor, and poet Tupac "Amaru" Shakur, also known as "2Pac," was one of the most influential and greatest rappers of the 1990s, who launched his rap career when he appeared in the Digital Underground's "Same Song" video in 1991. After the video aired, rap fans across America were asking who the young man was in the African outfit with beads beaming down his chest like an "African King." Critic Armond White has noted that it was after his appearance in the Digital Underground video that Tupac Shakur "first realized the thrill of putting a rhyme on tape and getting it to the public." As a solo artist, Tupac Shakur burst on the rap scene with 2Pacalypse Now (1991), a 13-rap-song album that was destined to change the face of rap music in America and the world over. Through this album, Tupac Shakur vowed to use his poetic power to tell those stories from the streets and the ghetto that the mainstream media refused to talk about, including the plight of black males and other African Americans in America, police brutality, and poverty. In the rap song "Rebel of the Underground," Shakur foreshadowed the conflict between him and the police/media by arguing that they cannot stand the reign of a man like him "who goes against the grain." Furthermore, not only did he characterize himself as "cold as the devil" and "straight out of the underground," but he called himself "the lyrical lunatic, the maniac MC," and asserted that "the most dangerous weapon" is "an educated black man."
Themes of police brutality, black-on-black crimes, the American Dream deferred, black males in America, and the African-American struggle and survival permeate songs like "Trapped," "Soulja's Story," "I Don't Give a Fuck," and "Words of Wisdom." While in "I Don't Give a Fuck" and "Soulja's Story" Shakur rapped that he does not give "a fuck" about the police and other American officials and institutions who oppress African Americans, in "Words of Wisdom" he charged America with the "crime of rape, murder, and assault" for "suppressing and punishing" his people. Additionally, he accused America of falsifying black history and of falsely imprisoning black males by keeping them "trapped in the projects." He concluded the song by warning America that it reaps what it sows and that he is "2Pacalypse, America's nightmare." The rough side and revolutionary stance of 2Pacalypse Now are what later misled music and popular culture critics to label Tupac Shakur a "Gangsta Rapper" and his music "Gangsta Rap," thus blaming the messenger for the message.
Critics who labeled Tupac Shakur a "gangsta rapper" and called him controversial and confused failed to see that his music always contained two sides: a tough side bristling with the realities of the ghetto life and a didactic side endowed with positive messages. Such was the case with "Brenda's Got a Baby" from 2Pacalypse Now, one of Shakur's best known rap songs. The song described the carelessness of a cousin who impregnates Brenda, the ignorance of Brenda who tries to throw the baby in the garbage can, and the callousness of the community that fails to realize that Brenda's plight affects the whole community. Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993), Tupac Shakur's second album, contained a song called "Keep Ya Head Up" in which he both debunks some black men for their misogyny, sexism, and irresponsibility, and advises black women to keep their heads up no matter what the situation is. Furthermore, Tupac Shakur showed his softer side yet again on Me Against the World (1995), with "Dear Mama," a tribute to his mother, Afeni Shakur. Autobiographical in nature, "Dear Mama" chronicles the Black Panther days of Afeni Shakur and how she struggled to keep her family together. Also, Shakur reminisced about the stress he caused a mother trying to raise him while struggling with drugs, and how, in the absence of a father, he turned to the streets in search of love and fame.
In 1996, the music scene changed when Tupac Shakur became the first rapper to release a double album, All Eyez On Me; it reached number one on rhythm and blues and Pop charts and was certified seven times platinum within ten months. In the late 1990s, All Eyez On Me remained the best selling rap album of all time. The most notable and famous song on the album was "California Love," Shakur's single, a song which, according to Armond White, "certi-fies a level of achievement, of rap triumph, and American commercial bliss." Both Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur create "a sense of belonging that neglects rap protest, preferring an affirmation that is vaguely patriotic." Other work of Tupac's include two posthumous albums, Makaveli the Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996) and the double album R U Still Down? [Remember Me] (1997).
Shakur influenced the Hollywood film industry by starring in six films in five years: Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), Above the Rim (1994), Bullet (1997), Gridlock'd (1997), and Gang Related (1997). Except for Poetic Justice, a film in which he starred beside Janet Jackson and which shows his romantic and soft side, all the other films look like they were written out of Tupac Shakur's tough lyrics; they exploited and contributed to his "gansta" and "thug-life" image. Though his life was cut short on September 13, 1996, Tupac Shakur has become a legend—some people still think he never died—and his legacy will live forever through his released, and still to be released, records and poems.
Alexander, Frank, with Heidi Siegmund Cuda. Got Your Back: The Life of a Bodyguard in the Hardcore World of Gangsta Rap. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Scott, Cathy. The Killing of Tupac Shakur. Las Vegas, Huntington Press, 1997.
Vibe magazine editors. Tupac Amaru Shakur, 1971-1996. New York, Crown Publishers, 1997.
White, Armond. Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur. New York, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1997.
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