Tupac Shakur



Growing up in Hayward, local artists have always been part of the music that is most popular in the bay area. Almost everyone not only locally but nationally has heard of Tupac Shakur. Ever since childhood, I can remember hearing Tupac has been a staple growing up and certain memories can be linked to Tupac songs. He is a staple in bay area music and was not only limited to music. He débuted his acting talent in 1992’s Juice where he played a main character and plans a robbery that goes horribly wrong. He continued to make more films and taken at the very young age of 25 shook the rap community and it has never forgotten its fallen member. Tupac’s music has affected many and his movies as well as his poetry will always show how truly talented this man was.




Tupac Amaru Shakur, son of two black panther members was born June 16, 1971, brought to music what very few have spent their entire careers trying to achieve. He started rapping at 17 and through an eight year span he put out twelve albums and wrote memorable songs such as “Dear Mama”, “Hail Mary”, “Life Goes On”, and “Brenda Got a Baby”, which was his first big hit. He was a few movies such as “Gridlock’d” (1997) and “Gang-Related” (1997) that showcased that Tupac was not just a person with one talent. He was born in New York and later went to Baltimore and attended School of Arts where his interest in music stemmed from. He later moved to Oakland and became very involved with the rap scene which leads to him becoming a legend in the rap scene.
His impact on the rap world was immense and today is still evident. He was such a revolutionary because he not only spoke of women and exorbitance in his music but he spoke of his life and the struggles he went through. “Dear Mama” is one of the examples of his childhood and what he went through that lead him to have so much to say to the world and made his story so relatable to so many people in the bay area. In an 8 year span he put out so many albums that many artists are unable to do in a lifetime, for example R. Kelly who has been in the music business far longer has only put out thirteen albums since he started. His music is still being remixed today and he has some underground songs and has collaborated with recent musicians such as Keyshia Cole.
Besides recording an immense number of songs and albums and movies, Tupac has left his mark on the world with literature and most popular is his book “The rose that grew from concrete”. In this book that he wrote he has many quotes and poems of what he has seen, heard, and experienced. Some of his quotes are;
For every dark night, there's a brighter day”,
“we wouldn't ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals, in turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun, well, we are the roses, this is the concrete and these are my damaged petals, dont ask me why, thank god, and ask me how”,
“since we all came from a women, got our name from a women, and our game from a women. I wonder why we take from women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think its time we killed for our women, be real to our women, try to heal our women, cus if we dont we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, who make the babies. And since a man can't make one he has no right to tell a women when and where to create one”, and
“A coward dies a thousand deaths... a soldier dies but once.”
Tupac was a man who despite his life’s struggles he became one of the best artists to ever grace the top of the charts. A man who came from the slums to the big silver screen. That’s a chance not every man or women gets and he made it happen. Even though it has been over a decade since his untimely demise, his music is still played not sometimes, but all the time. Tupac left this world leaving a lot to carry on his name for future generations; He left his music, his poetry and his life story.

if u wud like to see videos of "Brenda's got a baby" or "Dear mama" visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl54ABY8VgY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcloTmvTeA

CHAPTER 14 EVALUATING INTERNET RESOURCES

Evaluating Internet sources of info helps you determine if they are reliable and useful. Use the Internet source evaluation system as a tool for assessing websites. As a reader and thinker, become open minded and consider each website's Relevancy, Reliability, Credibility and Accuracy using the following seven steps: 1. Know your purpose. 2. Double check facts and sources. 3. Consider the source. 4. Evaluate content. 5. Determine intended audience. 6. Evaluate the writing. And 7. Use what you already know.

CHAPTER 13 READING BEYOND THE WORDS

Critical thinking comprehension involves challenging yourself to understand what you read at different levels of complexity. Bloom's taxonomy lists six levels of critical thinking; knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation that you can use to deepen your understanding.

CHAPTER 12 IDENTIFYING AND EVALUATING ARGUMENTS

Recognizing arguments as you read lets you critically examine an author's line of resoning. Arguments always have atleast one reason and one conclusion. One ways to find them is to look for the conclusions and then track the reasons they used to reach them. When you find an argument, you should break it down into parts so that you can figure out whether it's well founded and logical. The two primary types of arguments are deductive and inductive. Deductive arguments have at least one premise that logically leads to a conclusion. If the premise or premises of a deductive argument are true, then the conclusion is true. Inductive arguments begin with series of specific observations and conclude with a generalization that logically flows from them. Being able to detect and evaluate arguments, and to create arguments using your textbook, makes you analyze the logic of what you read and helps you present your own ideas.

CHAPTER 11 READING, UNDERSTANDING, AND CREATING VISUAL AIDS

Textbook author often use visual aids to help their readers understand better the info they are presenting. Some visual aids are mind maps, outlines, charts, diagrams, graphs, illustrations, photographs, and time lines. Learning how to read visuals will help you to understand and remember the information. To create an effective visual aid, you have to recognize the important elements in what you are reading and be able to prioritize and organize them in a logical and useful format. An effective visual well save you from taking s many notes from your texts or in lectures.

CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK MARKING

Textbook marking is a systematic mak and label reading tool that helps distinguish important ideas from less important ones. You should try to mark and label the main ideas, important details, and new vocabulary in the textbooks. Always mark information that is unclear, to remind yourself to find out what it means before you are tested on the material.

CHAPTER 9 USING PREVIEW, STUDY-READ, AND REVIEW (PSR) STRATEGIES

The PSR technique which means (preview, study-read, and review) requires that you question yourself before, furing, and after you read. It encourages you to participate in a reader-author conversation. In this conversation, you assess what the auther says and decide if it makes sense to you. The PSR technique also requires you to respond to readings by writing in your journal. Commenting in writing helps you understand an author's ideas and create your own. By knowing exactly where you get confused in a reading, you can return to that part and reread that section. This will help you understand the material on your own.