2Pac "Changes" Blog Post #1

3/7/16           Mathew Galvao

Blog Post #1

Music has had a tremendous impact on society as a whole. Artists have a tremendous amount of power in what they are able to portray to the world through their music. In the 90’s hip-hop was a way getting the word about topics they felt were prevalent at the time. When you look at the body of Americans. They try and promote equality through their lyrics and promote a sort of change through music. This song is talking about how the songwriter 2Pac feels that back in this time racism was really big and he wanted to make sure that he spoke out about change

The song that seems the best fit for hip hop promoting change back then is the song “Changes” by 2Pac. This song really dives deep into the world back then and how 2Pac wants to promote change with the topics he discusses throughout the song. During the song 2Pac discusses the world around him and how he feels things need to change. In the song there’s a lyric, “I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.” In this line he says that being african american was worse than being poor because he is african american. In this era he felt that being colored was something that was seen as lower than everything else. The song also goes onto say, “I see no changes. All I see is racist faces. Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races we under. I wonder what it takes to make this one better place… let's erase the wasted.” 2Pac is describing his displeasure with society being racist towards African Americans. He explains how he feels the hate towards African Americans seems to be “misplaced” or really without reason and he’s not sure why it is that way.

The song really does tell a tale about a man (2Pac) and his struggle with the way the world works in his time which was back in the 90’s. He looks around and sees violence towards African americans and hate from the people outside and how things could be so much better in the world if people changed the way they acted towards one another.

The song “Changes” definitely discusses certain stereotypes like African Americans selling drugs, “Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.” That line also gives the stereotype of African Americans living off of government assistance. The song talks about the stereotype of African Americans not usually having things that are worth a great deal of money. Back in the 90’s cell phones were just coming into the world and 2Pac talks about people looking at him weird for having a cell phone with him. “They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone.” Throughout the song 2Pac discusses different stereotypes during this song.

A lot of the themes that emerge throughout the song really is just racism. It’s really what this song is all about. 2Pac wants people to recognize what is going on in the world around them with racism towards African Americans. There really isn’t any other theme in the story other than the fact that racism was a very big topic at the time this song was written. 

"Minorities in particular perceive any degrading, restricting, or harassing practice as objectionable (Reiss, 1968), and a number of studies provide evidence that the police disproportionately employ these practices against them. For example, the use of abusive language, including racial slurs (Anderson, 1990; Skolnick, 1975; Westley, 1953,1970), the incidence of field interrogations (Bogomolny, 1976), and the likelihood of being frisked or searched (Black and Reiss, 1967; Piliavin and Briar, 1964; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1970) have been related to race." (345)

This seems to be something to look into. When you see these types of incidents in the news many of them seem to be geared towards people who are minorities. I think it may not be on purpose but it something that could definitely be looked at.

Racism in 1995 according to cnn.com was thought to be of a problem by many people. "In 1995, on the heels of the O.J. Simpson trial and just a few years after the Rodney King case surged into the spotlight, 41% of Americans described racism as "a big problem." 
The song "Changes" was a cry out for help from 2Pac and definitely had much relevance at the time and still does today. He wanted us to make changes to our lives and to be better people and I think we have done that but we sill have some work to do to get to what he explains in his song. 

                                                         Works Cited

Schoichet, Catherine E. "Racism Is a 'big Problem' to More Americans, Poll Finds." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/24/us/racism-problem-cnn-kff-poll/>. 

"Changes" 2Pac Song 

Holmes, Malcolm D. MINORITY THREAT AND POLICE BRUTALITY: DETERMINANTS OF CIVIL RIGHTS CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS IN U.S. MUNICIPALITIES MALCOLM D. HOLMES