Holla If Ya Hear Me

I just heard Tupac for the first time recently.

I've listened to Tupac before, but this is first time I've heard Tupac.

Growing up, my parents censored most of the music I listened to (as good parents should). As a result of Tupac's love of profanity, his albums were kept at a distance.

My best friend, however, had greater access and would share with me. But the songs I remember listening to were "Hit Em Up" and "How Do Ya Want It." I viewed these songs as negative an destructive. Actually I still think "How Do Ya Want It" is a poor use of incredible talent.

For Mother's Day one year, I bought my mother the "Dear Mama" single. At the time it was the one Tupac song I knew really well, and I felt that the love that poured through on the album would be a good representation of the love I felt for my own mother.

Apparently, she didn't view the gift in the same light. At least not until she listened to it. Then she heard it.

When I was in high school, the song "Changes" was released posthumously. That was the first Tupac song that hit me on a personal level. Pac really expressed alot of the unspoken anger about being a Black man in America. The song is an affirmation of the Black struggle and lets others know that we're not alone.

The funny thing is, alot of Tupac's music is like that- I just didn't hear it before. Yeah, some of his stuff is negative and anti-productive and I still don't wanna hear it. But other stuff, like "F*ck the World" off the Me Against the World album- that speaks to the truth of human emotion.

When Tupac passed, we all did lose something. We lost an insightful young man who articulated the fears, hopes, and dreams of so many young Black men across this nation. Tupac was an ambassador of the Black experience.