Paragraph Writing - My Block by Tupac

      "My Block" is a song composed by Tupac, one of the greatest hip hop artists of all time, which revolves around the theme of violence and racism. In the first verse, he introduces the miserable problems and fears of the African American community. He talks about how black people are affiliated with crimes and how they are discriminated and stereotyped as dangerous criminals by society that he thinks that he has "been marked for death". He talks about how African Americans are often arrested for no concise reason "What do we do when we're arrested, but open fire Life in the pen ain't for me, cause I'd rather die.". He prefers dying rather than being arrested for a crime he did not commit. These problems have reached to a point where Tupac, in a desperate and hopeless tone says "I wonder if the Lord still cares, for us niggas on welfare", where he is hesitant whether their existence is even worthy and that if anyone even cared or dnoticed their existence. At the end of the first verse, he says in a hopeful tone "it's all good when I go back, Hoes show me love, niggas give me props. Forever hope cause it don't stop... on my block", which shows that African American communities will always have each other's back no matter what happens, also shown in the chorus "But on our block we still prayyyyyy..", which is hopeful and optimistic.  In the second verse, he talks about why they resorted to violence in the first place which is because it is the only way to maintain their lives, as shown in "Fearing jail but crack sales got me living well" and "God help me, I'm starving, can't get a job. So I resort to violent robberies". He could have not commit crimes but because of social issues primarily racism, he has no other options when he said that "my life is hard". He also mourns for the dead black people who were killed "Can't sleep cause all the dirt make my heart hurt. Put in work and shed tears for my dead peers". At the end of the verse, he says "Can't help but feel hopeless and heartbroken. From start I felt the racism cause I'm dark". This indicates that the social issues against African Americans have made them depressed and hopeless. In the third verse, Tupac continues to stress on the violence and dangers faced by the black community. He started by expressing his confusion and sorrow of innocent children of the black community being killed when he said "And I can't help but wonder why, so many young kids had to die". He talks about how these social issues impacted family when he said "Brothers cry for broken lives, mama come inside. Cause our block is filled with danger". The line "Used to be a closed knit community but now we're all cold strangers" points out that violence and crime has divided the black community which was once a community of togetherness and unity. He also tells a story "A single mother with a problem child, daddy free. Hanging out picking up a game, sipping cheap liquor" of a mother and a child who were abandoned by the father and the child turned out to become a problem because of crime and violence. Overall, the social and political issues against the African American communities have been ruining lives and caused suffering to the black community  and Tupac had composed a variety of songs based on these problems in hopes to improve the lives of the black community.

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