Staying Strong Essay Research Paper Staying StrongAlthough

Staying Strong Essay, Research Paper

.Staying Strong.

Although a lot of today.s music deals with problems in society, hip-hop stands ahead of all other forms of music in dealing with social problems. Predominantly black, hip-hop music deals with issues and problems facing the black youth mostly in the inner cities. More commonly known as rap music, artists such as the Notorious B.I.G., Bone Thugs N Harmony, and 2Pac have lead rap music into dealing with social issues. These artists rap about welfare, degradation of women, gang violence, poverty, and the lack of respect that blacks in the ghetto environment experience. 2Pac, although now dead, had the most successful (and possibly longest running) career in today.s mainstream rap music. This could be due in part to his constant attention toward the urban youth. .Hold On, Be Strong. from 2Pac.s 1997 release .R U Still Down. is a fine example of life in the ghetto and the types of problems that people in that environment deal with on a daily basis.

.Hold on, Be Strong. is the thesis of this song. 2Pac is trying to get his point across that people need to endure the hard times, the good times will follow soon enough. This song is all about problems in the ghetto and inner cities. These problems include gang violence, shootings, female-headed households, and liquor and drug abuse.

A reason for 2Pac.s success as a rapper stems from the fact that 2Pac was a ghetto youth. He endured the problems that he raps about. 2Pac isn.t just some artist out there telling stories that have been passed down or taught to him, he actually lived what he talks about. He has personal experience in what he raps about and I feel that his songs and lyrics are more powerful because of that.

The first verse of this song deals with a couple problems that the ghetto youth face. Lines one and two, .I never had much, ran with a bad bunch., .Little skinny kid sneakin. weed in my bag lunch.. Poverty and drugs are major problems in inner cities. Friends, even if they are a bad influence, are vital to anyone.s life. Hanging out with a .bad bunch. and sneaking weed into his school lunch was common to 2Pac.s life and probably that of other poor black youths. With poverty comes a lack of hope and future. The person simply has nothing to use to better himself. Even though his friends might have been a bad influence or troublemakers, 2Pac and his friends made it through the rough ghetto life day by day. The drugs were just a way to entertain themselves when there was nothing else to do. How much choice does one have in choosing their friends or activities in a lifestyle filled with violence and this type of typical behavior. These kids didn.t know of any different lifestyle, this was their normal life in the ghetto.

Another line in the first stanza states ...I was hopeless from the start.. 2Pac felt that by being born poor into a ghetto he had no future. His life was predetermined to be nothing. I think that this is another common theme among urban youths. The resources to be successful and actual emerge from the ghetto into someone with an actual career simply do not exist. The government gives money to the poor and needy, but does the trivial amount given help a kid go to college or leave his home environment. Even if the government did give away more money, why would these kids want to leave the ghetto. This is a lifestyle these kids have been born into. They know nothing else, no other way to live.

Violence in the ghetto is a major problem in America today. Shootings and various other forms of gang violence appear, from what the media tells us, to be rampant in inner city ghettos. Line 4 of verse 1, .And drive-bys robbed my homies of their young lives.. It.s pretty pathetic to me that young kids born into poor cities have to witness their friends being shot. Obviously this made enough of an impact on 2Pac to remember it enough to rap about. Although it.s unknown how many times 2Pac witnessed this type of crime, it is a problem among urban youths. Homicide is the number one cause of death for young, black, inner city males. This is another powerful statement in a song about hope and being strong. This is a buildup of what goes on in the inner-cities and it must be brought to light no matter how depressing it is.

Directly after his line about seeing his friends killed, 2Pac says, .I never did cry.... Not crying even when he witnesses his own friend.s death is a powerful statement about the buffers that 2Pac had for his friends and the environment around him. A shooting here in Charleston would probably make front-page news, especially if a student was involved. Students might even gather in his memory and all mourn together. The media would question why such a senseless act occurred and what could be done to prevent it in the future. Here we have lyrics from a song that blatantly come out and talk about drive-by shootings and no one even cries.

What does this say about our society today. Why is a murder or shooting in Charleston such a big deal and in the inner cities it.s just some sort of everyday thing. It doesn.t even matter enough to the people in that environment to cry about. A crime is a crime; a murder is a murder. Sure, the inner cities do have a high crime rate and this type of thing does happen fore frequently, but the people in that environment are people too. Poor, urban youth have t