An Analysis of the Song Changes by Tupac Essay

Words: 1358
Pages: 6

Vincent Bocchino
College Writing I
Prof. Fisher
Music Interpretation Essay
12/3/2011
Changes by Tupac

Millions of people in the world listen to music for all different reasons. Most people all over the world listen to different genres of music in order to relax, but not too many people pay attention to the actual lyrics of a song. If you listen to the lyrics of a song you will realize that many songs have important messages or themes to them. An example of this is the lyrics of the song “Changes” by Tupac Shakur. If you listen to this song, you will realize that Tupac raps about not only the problems that African Americans face from society, but also the struggles that poor people in society have to endure and overcome. Many

We gotta start makin' changes.” In these two verses, it could be noticed that Tupac uses the pronoun “we” to represent unity among African-Americans. The importance of unity makes it possible for changing the ways to deal with these complex social issues.

A couple of verses further, Tupac makes the ultimate point that the unity for changes will not happen because there are too many individualistic people who are not willing to give up their personal interests to better blacks altogether. He describes this idea by saying, “Try to show another way, but they stayin' in the dope game.” This line shows the people have a choice but instead they choose the life of crime. This way blacks would not be able to change the social issues affecting them if some are not cooperating. In the final stanza of the song it can be thought that Tupac was thinking to himself that since the majority of blacks aren’t willing to unite and make a change, that he has to go against the crowd himself and do what’s right for him as an individual to survive.

I believe that the song “Changes” by Tupac is very relevant in society today. Many people might disagree with this and think that poor African Americans could do more than drugs to better themselves, however it’s not that easy. For example, Tupac explains how he has to sell drugs and steal people’s money in order to survive and find food. Many people in society can disagree and fight this argument by saying that these African Americans can