In the song ‘changes’ Tupac speaks to his own social group,
to the American African-Americans also commonly known as the ‘blacks’. His word
choice, tone, and voice come from the
heart telling his audience, in an encouraging voice, to essentially ‘Improvise.
Adapt and Overcome’ the daily adversity they face.
The purpose of
this analysis is to evaluate the intended audience and purpose of Tupac’s
speech in the song ‘Changes’. The song discusses two major social/political
issues. The first being “being poor and even worse I’m black” the link
of discrimination due to uncontrollable physical characteristics. The second
issue is politically supported by the
quote “We ain't ready,
to see a black President, uhh”.
This adds to the previous points of discrimination and the public view of the
‘black’ community as less than human.
Tupac
chooses to communicate and address these political and social perspectives
because he wants to share stories of opinion, heritage,
and hardship, he chooses to communicate through the medium of hip-hop because it would be the most effective way to reach his intended audience.
Because
of Tupac’s word choice, we can identify a
target audience. Tupac uses words such as: ‘negro, nigga, bein, smokin’ crack, jack
you up’ etc. these words are and can be interpreted as louse slag words
in the English language, commonly used by the ‘black’ community as a normal way
of communication, these words and phrases are known to be an essential part of their
language, therefore,
the set of dialects and word choice that is spoken internally in their community
becomes clear in the perspective of “who will connect with the speech”. Making the intended audience clear in
the text.
The
purpose of the text is to convince and narrate a possible vision Tupac believes the ‘black’ community should
follow. Then, it is to express an opinion as to how they should all react to
the issues. Saying things like “That's just the way it is Things will never
be the same” shows that they will need to accept
things for what they are, then act on them if they want to see some changes. This
section being a larger part of the chorus, it is evident that Tupac uses repetition
to emphasize his points: “We gotta make a change It's time for us as a
people to start makin' some changes.” That quote holds the element of
rebellion and supports the purpose of the song. To encourage the community to
seek opportunities and run for them. The
way he delivers the message is by
pointing out a lot of opportunities. He
talks about being president, having choices, power in the country. Pointing
this out appeals to people sense of
ambition and emotion.
In fact,
it inspires even me to attempt to achieve more. The only limits we really have
are the one we set for ourselves. There is true power behind that.
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