Tupac Shakur’s Keep Ya Head Up is surely not the only old-school rap song that addresses topics ranging from misogynoir to police brutality to systemic oppression. It has long been a common misconception that rap degrades women, glamorizes gang culture, and promotes the use of drugs, etc. However, rap is extremely diverse and reminiscent of a very complex and multifaceted culture– one that has gone through many changes in America. Before Keep Ya Head Up, there were songs with similar subject matter including ” The Revolution will Not be Televised by Gil Scott Heron (1971) and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s The Message (1982) . These songs have also inspired a new generation of conscious rap, and Kendrick Lamar’s Blacker the Berry is the product.
The Revolution will Not be Televised by Gil Scott Heron (1971) → Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s The Message (1982)→Keep Ya Head Up by Tupac Shakur (1993) → Blacker the Berry Kendrick Lamar 2015.
Gil Scot Heron’s The Revolution will Not be Televised (1971) is not a rap like Keep Ya Head Up, but rather a spoken word poem that Heron created in the midst of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement in 1969. The poem urges Black people to break free from the bonds of white media and be a part of the revolution at hand. Like Keep Ya Head Up, Heron’s song addresses the ugly side of society at the time and we hear this when he explains,
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers on the instant replay
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers on the instant replay
However, like Shakur’s song, Heron offers Black people hope for a brighter future-
because black people will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The Revolution will not be Televised paved the way for Keep Ya Head Up and songs of similar subject matter because it encouraged young black rappers to actively engage in social change and reminded us that brighter days will only come if we advocate for them ourselves.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s The Message (1982) explores systemic oppression, inner city poverty, and the effects this has on Black people growing up in the ghetto. In the song the artists paint a picture of life marked by financial hardship, poverty and social immobility.
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
The Message was unique for its time because it was an early example of social commentary in rap. The artists explain these issues faced by Black people and offer them as explanations to the cycles we are often subjected to –
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ under
This cycle is something that Shakur also speaks about in Keep Ya Head Up –
I’m tryin’ to make a dollar out of fifteen cents
It’s hard to be legit and still pay your rent
And in the end it seems I’m headin’ for the pen
I try and find my friends, but they’re blowin’ in the wind
In both songs, the artists recognize the disadvantage that many Black people are at from birth and explain to the audience that upward mobility is not easily attainable- especially when you don’t have money.
Lastly, Kendrick Lamar’s Blacker the Berry highlights many of the struggles described in the earlier songs and takes inspiration directly from Keep Ya Head Up in some parts of the song-
The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot
Like Tupac, Lamar is echoing the sentiment that black is beautiful and using the theme of black pride but also explaining that the black are more likely to experience injustice in a white society simply for being born black.
October 3, 2023 at 4:21 am
Sydney,
You’ve created an excellent lineage, and it was fun to see Gil Scot Heron and Grandmaster Flash in here.
I like how you are opening the discussion with links and bolded text. In your next post, be sure to embed the media that can be embedded, add images, use sub-headers, and if you use lyrics, indent them so they appear set-off from the rest of the content.
Bill