![]() ![]() When I first heard this song, I was not completely aware of what the message was because I was young. Contrary to most rappers of his time and of the present, Tupac does not mention anything about violence, drugs, or negativity about women – the song doesn’t even have a single curse word. The song samples Zapp’s “Be Alright” and The Five Stairsteps “Ooh Child”, two tunes that also send out a positive message to keep trying. It has a very melancholy and smooth beat in the background. This song is more geared towards women, as he mentions their struggles and his mother that raised him. In the song “Keep Your Head Up”, Tupac tries to send a message to all of his listeners to never give up, no matter how tough a situation may currently be. Labeled a “Gangsta rapper” at the time, Tupac shocked the world and this became one of his most controversial yet best albums to be produced. He notices the injustices in society and explains his consciousness and his experiences growing up in the hood. He was involved in gang activity and went to jail himself, but in his music you can tell he is trying to escape that life and try to be a better person. Tupac had grew up in a bad area of Harlem. Even though many were struggling in this type of environment, the government failed to address this issue. Around that time, living in an urban society was extremely tough there were gangs surrounding the area, father-less homes, corrupt neighborhoods, etc. This exemplifies Tupac’s main message in his album, which is to spread public awareness about the politics and controversies that were happening in urban societies. The acronym “N.I.G.G.A.Z.” in the title of the album stands for Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished. Unless you’re willing to address white supremacy (which includes transphobia, homophobia, classism, and ableism, too), true solidarity will never happen.“Keep Your Head Up” is the 11th song off of the album Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z, a studio album by Tupac Shakur that was released by Interscope Records on February 16, 1993. The people that get upset that I and others point this out will continue to call people divisive and aggressive. A handful of these are the same people with “BLM” in their bio, and it’s honestly beyond parody. While some people have taken down videos and tried to educate themselves, others have deleted comments, blocked comments, sold merch, and doubled double with more microaggressions. Not only is the cultural context stripped, as in the examples above, but the videos of those with lighter skin tones and features that appeal more to Eurocentric beauty standards are more likely to be shared and appreciated. ![]() Also, more often than not, it manifests into other issues. In fact, it can be an exercise to show shared struggles, but when you only engage with this when you’re hurt or for clout, that’s the problem. This act of people finding connections between art and music made by Black creators and their own oppression is not always bad. ![]() One of them is a small clip of the song “Keep Your Head Up” from Tupac Shakur‘s 1993 album Strictly 4 My N.*.g.g.a.z. They signal that the uploader and women will be defiant and stay strong. Two songs have been going around as pro-choice empowerment anthems played over videos frustrated by SCOTUS’ rollback of reproductive and civil rights. Wade tore away reproductive rights nationwide, white women (regardless of political leaning) have been doing the most online, at the expense of people of color, from claims like “this is the first time the Supreme Court has taken away rights and not extended them” to suggesting that abortion clinics be set up on reservations, to shamelessly telling Black women online they should lead the fight for reproductive rights because (and I’m paraphrasing here) we’ve “been fighting for longer and are better equipped to fight.”Īs if all of this weren’t bad enough, an echoing trend on TikTok specifically has been, quite frankly, disgusting.
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