Random Post #1: 2pac: Resurrection

I was once interested in Hip-Hop music. I soon had a chance to know the two legendary musicians-2pac and The Notorious B.I.G. They divided the 90's hip-hop world into two sides: the East Coast(Biggie) and the West Coast(Tupac).

The Notorious B.I.G-Hypnotize

2pac-2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted (Feat. Snoop Dogg)

I found that there was a movie about each one, but as the movie about the Notorious B.I.G is X-rated, I watched the movie about Tupac. The title is <Tupac: Resurrection>.

To introduce a story about these two rappers, they fought each other for because of a gunfire accident that threatened Tupac. Tupac said that it was Biggie's intention while Biggie said Tupac is totally misunderstanding.

In the movie, Tupac Amaru Shakur played as himself. As a documentary film, people can see Tupac's life, philosophy. Especially the philosophical consideration about "Thug Life", which Tupac always used to shout out loud in front of the crowd.

(I don't know why the small L is written as capital i in the subtitle...)

Let's see from the birth of Tupac.

Tupac's mother was a member of the Black panthers and worked for black movement. 

His godfather, Geronimo Pratt, also did something like this. 

As we see, Tupac's resistance can be seen from the family background. He grew up watching his mother working for black people's rights. Naturally, he did not have much time with his mother but later he understands it. His name, Tupac Amaru, is the name of the last emperor of the Inca Empire. However, as his parents had the ability to lead black movement, they were mistreated by the police and had some bad accidents. His mother was pregnant for 9 months in the prison and Tupac was borned 1 month after she got released from the prison.

Tupac was raised in a poor environment. He missed the existence of father. He said he wanted to learn how to live like a "man". He always wanted to live a life like Arnold, which is a character of a TV program "Different Strokes", because he thought that he could enjoy everything the actors had if he becomes an actor so that he can get rid of loneliness. 

This is high school freshman Tupac. He says that he is a guy who is chilling with girls, but he is confident with his criticism about the society. He says there should be a class about apartheid, police brutality, and real sex education. 

Well...This thing ruins his life later...

This is the reason why tupac begin his rapper career. He literally started his career at the bottom.

Tupac wanders for a while after he dropped out because his mother was once addicted to drugs. So he decides to earn money and sell drugs. His friends who sold drugs with him became like a sponsor for him to make him chase his dream. His dream was...

this. To make a song that has the messages came out from his deep heart. 

Tupac started his rapping from this kind of things(Oh...)He had to do a performance that reminds of sexual activities with a doll. 

At this time, rapper Shock G appears as a messiah of Tupac. Tupac goes into the  Digital Underground label and starts from Shock G's road manager. He participates on Shock's song. Tupac records his demo tape and prepare for a solo album. He meets Ted Field. 

 Tupac's first album was released with "parental advisory".(Well...it is very natural...) His album theme is <pain>. The pain he suffered since his youth turned into music. He raps about the harlem with a tale-like stories. Babies damaged by their mother's drugs when pregnancy, abused black people...He declares he will solve these problems.
Tupac says the Vietnam war ended because the horrors of it was aware to the public, and if he tells the reality of ghetto he could solve the problems.

However, Tupac gets in many troubles, troubles that never occurred before the album release. Police catches him with jaywalking and abused him.

That's what he says...He finally gets rewarded. However, he gets involved in many legal battles including sexual harassment. 

Tupac build his career with movie <Juice>. The critics said he perfectly got into the main character Bishop who acts like "I will burn them all." Tupac felt a spotlight and he wants to feel this more. 

The most important part in the movie I think is this. 

Thug Life. To summarize Tupac's music and his life, it would be "Thug Life". In the movie, Tupac spreads this idea to every black people in America saying that it is a kind of black power project. From the point of view of white people, they will see "African-American"s as a thug negro not depending on black people's job of self-confidence. He says he will keep going with the movement until the African-Americans get theirs. He tells he had not seen a well-grown up person from the ghetto. He asks who will consider a "nigger" who shoot guns as a "African-American"? He asserts that there should be some change.

Tupac introduces Thug Life as his new concept and new way of thinking.

Thug is not a criminal but a person who were hurt by the society, haven't got anything, and haven't do anything. They were damaged by the obstacles of the society. For Tupac thug is not a person who does illegal activities but a person who did not possess one's identity. He expresses his pain in his songs and consider his fans as people who share his pain not depending on the skin color.
Tupac couldn't understand why his thoughts are not accepted in the US, a country of liberty and freedom. He discusses the distribution from the wealthy to the poor, and insists gangs can play a beneficial role if they are motivated to make a synergy effect.

However, Tupac's idea has one vital flaw.

Tupac wanted to spread his Thug Life through his music. But the lyrics expressing Thug Life to make black kids aware of the reality and build a right black society was too violent. The conservative society could not accept his lyrics, and even black women communities cast doubts. 

In my opinion, Tupac's Thug Life movement was somewhat a fresh try. It was main philosophy of one of the greatest rappers, and his basic message is telling "You are not the only one lived like this. The way you lived is not your fault." and give hope. But there can be some problems about the violence. 

Tupac devoted his life for the society and his ideal as an artist. He tried to make a social movement. The try to change society via art is very freshing. But it is faded because the method was somewhat extreme, it is hard to determine the message was conveyed well, and mostly because of Tupac's freewheeling and arrogant mentality. 

Tupac is a great rapper indeed, and his Thug Life philosophy is ideal at the point of view of Tupac. It may seem different from a objective view. 

What is an artist's ideological movement? What is the range of "improper thoughts"? What is the right role of a celebrity? 

Was Tupac's ideas proper to be encouraged? By the way, a person's ideology can be interpreted in various ways, and depending on each point of view the problem of legitimacy varies. Then, is the legitimacy decided by the majority?

Tupac was a famous artist. As a influential person, can his activities be justified?

Thank you for reading this poor movie review :)

Body Ritual Among the Nacirema: revised response

     To briefly summarize the article, the Nacirema people are those who live in the North America following a magical belief and living with unique behaviors. For instance, they believe that human beings are originally ugly and it is natural to get sick and be disable. Therefore, they use ritual and ceremonies. They have at least one shrines in their home and activities inside the shrine is private. Medicine men do not give proper potions but just decide what ingredients are needed, and herbalists give them charm. The charm-box is always full. A holy-mouth-man enlarges large hole in the mouth and put some magical materials to exterminate decay. However, they return to the man about once a year. The article says that masochistic people developed sadistic specialists. Their custom going to latipso for their health was also not a pleasant description. They thought a person out of normal body as a ideal goal of aesthetics. 
     
     The Nacirema people's rituals are somewhat very extraordinary and incomprehensible.  Their ceremonies were based on unconditional beliefs rather than rational analysis of their action. I think that people in the modern society might sometimes do the same thing. People do not know why they are doing a certain action but just believe that it is advantageous or necessary. For instance, most people agree to increase the number of CCTV on the street because they think it will decrease the number of crimes. However, there is a possibility for central agencies to get real time information of any place and any person. For another example, not many people complain about the fact that internet users should give their resident registration number if they have to use online services. However, it is true that the purpose of gathering ID card numbers is not informed exactly, and we can see some articles mentioning Korean ID numbers are flowed into China.

     The most impressive point of the article was the last two sentences-"Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization." This tells us that magic could be unrelated to a civilized society, but still in a civilized society magic could be a force of human advance. I think the pharaoh in Egypt can be an example of this idea. Egyptians believed their king as the god of sun, or son of the emperor of the gods. Thus, they totally obeyed the pharaoh's order. The belief was key to built cities in the desert and pyramid construction. As they had to build large structures, math(geometry) and science(astronomy, mechanics) were developed. 

     Even though blind beliefs could lead to advance, the activities based on those beliefs should be verified due to its uncertainty whether it is beneficial or not. I think that the magic in the modern society is advanced technology. This is considered to be the most rational, scientific, and accurate thing in the world. However, there is a possibility that this magic can occur "rituals and ceremonies" in the modern society. 

     After class, I knew that the article was a metaphor of american society. I was shocked about the Nacirema people's behavior but I shocked once more because they were modern American people. Anyway, I think I got the point that it shares some point with modern society.