Lessons From Shakur

Now would be the time for Tupac Shakur’s story to be put in the proper perspective. He sold a lot of records. He rapped about a lifestyle of violence and anger that he knew and lived, his work less a message than documentary. Shakur seemed to follow a subconscious desire to fit some statistical goal for young black males. He expected an early death and he got it.

Had he never sold a recording, his life likely would have ended the same. Maybe not at a Mike Tyson fight, probably some other less glamorous, still violent backdrop. He lived his gangsta life and now he’s dead. Many of his fans live the same.

Shakur’s music and the news reports of incidents throughout his life give a view of his world that most of us will never even want to know. Will this be the wake-up call for young black males or will it be a road map? Only time will tell.

JOHNNIE WALKER

Los Angeles