One of Tupac’s strategies for acquiring empathy was through the use of adolescent experiences and perspectives in his narratives. Rap music, principally created and directed by the passions of young people, acted as an appropriate avenue for Tupac to connect with his young constituents. He was also able to relay the concerns of the inner-city youths to other young people less familiar with their atrocities. Surprisingly enough, he was also able to negate the generation and racial gap that often separates blacks and whites [and persons whose demographic doesn't typically identify with rap music or Hip-Hop culture]. Mary Tasker (1999), a middle-aged, Caucasian, social worker acknowledges this when she proposes:
Many people believe that these lyrics condone, glorify, and perhaps even promote violence, and that therefore this music contributes to the moral decline of teenagers today. The teens I work with, however, have very different feelings that I am learning more about each day. (p. 217)Tasker (1999) offers this opinion as she transitions from a stance of ignorance to one of enlightenment on the subject of rap music. Through her experiences with a group of inner-city youth, she finds herself in a position to understand and appreciate the music from a more empathetic perspective. Tasker (1999) mentions the impact of Tupac’s death on, Zaddi, one of her students. As tears flowed from Zaddi’s eyes, she asked “Why Mary? Why I feel this bad...like it was my own flesh and blood?” This illustrates the acute affinity that the youth had in regards to Tupac and his music.
In order to acquire this level of empathy, Tupac utilizes young people throughout many of his rhyme schemes. By using adolescents in his music, Tupac was not only able to appeal to them, but he was captivated by them and illustrate a social-psychological bond. His ability to do so can be attributed to passages like the following:
Back in junior high…when we was barely getting by,
when daddy died…that's when my momma started getting high.
My neighborhood was full of drive-bys; couldn't survive.
All my homies living short lives, I couldn't cry.
Told my momma if I did die, just put a blunt in my casket
let me get my dead homies high.
Come follow me throughout my history,
it's just me against the world stuck in misery; as a young nigga. (Shakur, Young Niggaz, 1995)Consistent with his use of first-person narrative, Tupac invited listeners into a reality that he stated as his own. Listeners were inadvertently asked to empathize with an adolescent whose family structure is characterized by a deceased father and a mother who is beginning a cycle of drug addiction. He continues this description of depression by informing the audience of a neighborhood terrorized by drive-by shootings. As a result of this ‘ghetto-terrorism,’ all of his close associates and comrades are meeting early deaths. Consequently, the young man in this narrative is left to cope with a harsh reality of ephemeral relationships that entertain violence, deteriorate in drugs, and eventually end in death. Using an adolescent rationale that attempts to merge the secular with the celestial, the child asks his mother to place marijuana in his casket so that he is able to bear gifts to his deceased brethren. After making this quixotic request, he concludes by empathetically asking listeners to remain attentive as he continues his tour through misery.
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