2Pac-- Keep your head up

[ismnotwasm]

(Acapella version)

Little somethin for my godson Elijah and a little girl named Corinne

[Verse One:]

Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, and don't nobody else care
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain't nuttin don't believe him
And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him
Cause sista you don't need him
And I ain't tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em
You know it makes me unhappy (what's that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up

[Chorus]

Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier
ooooo child things are gonna get brighter [2x]

[Verse Two:]

Aiyyo, I remember Marvin Gaye, used to sing ta me
He had me feelin like black was tha thing to be
And suddenly tha ghetto didn't seem so tough
And though we had it rough, we always had enough
I huffed and puffed about my curfew and broke the rules
Ran with the local crew, and had a smoke or two
And I realize momma really paid the price
She nearly gave her life, to raise me right
And all I had ta give her was my pipe dream
Of how I'd rock the mic, and make it to tha bright screen
I'm tryin to make a dollar out of fifteen cents
It's hard to be legit and still pay tha rent
And in the end it seems I'm headin for tha pen
I try and find my friends, but they're blowin in the wind
Last night my buddy lost his whole family
It's gonna take the man in me to conquer this insanity
It seems tha rain'll never let up
I try to keep my head up, and still keep from gettin wet up
You know it's funny when it rains it pours
They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor
Say there ain't no hope for the youth and the truth is
it ain't no hope for tha future
And then they wonder why we crazy
I blame my mother, for turning my brother into a crack baby
We ain't meant to survive, cause it's a setup
And even though you're fed up
Huh, ya got to keep your head up

[Chorus]

[Verse Three:]

And uhh
To all the ladies havin babies on they own
I know it's kinda rough and you're feelin all alone
Daddy's long gone and he left you by ya lonesome
Thank the Lord for my kids, even if nobody else want em
Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I'm sure
And if you fall, stand tall and comeback for more
Cause ain't nuttin worse than when your son
wants to kno why his daddy don't love him no mo'
You can't complain you was dealt this
hell of a hand without a man, feelin helpless
Because there's too many things for you to deal with
Dying inside, but outside you're looking fearless
While tears, is rollin down your cheeks
Ya steady hopin things don't all down this week
Cause if it did, you couldn't take it, and don't blame me
I was given this world I didn't make it
And now my son's getten older and older and cold
From havin the world on his shoulders
While the rich kids is drivin Benz
I'm still tryin to hold on to my survivin friends
And it's crazy, it seems it'll never let up, but
please... you got to keep your head up

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. and in reply ---

Happy Holidays, ismnotwasm

[NYC_SKP]

2. You two are, no doubt, among my favorite DU members. Thanks for that.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Not so bad yourself

I hope you have joyous holidays

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. Happy Holidays to you, NYC_SKP

I hope that you are enjoying a very merry season

[ismnotwasm]

3. Perfect!

And happy holidays too you as well

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. Have to work tomorrow (today now haha) *sigh* but, today (yesterday was) has been very nice

[ismnotwasm]

7. Me too

But I don't mind, I get to home home at the end of the day, and there's soooo much chocolate

[redqueen]

8. And from me...

She cracks me up.

[ismnotwasm]

9. I could totally hang out with her

We'd probably end up in jail

[redqueen]

10. Isn't she great?

She makes me LOL for real.

[nomorenomore08]

11. For all the man's faults, I think he was totally sincere here. Quite possibly the first "feminist"

rap song by a male artist. And it's a message that's still just as relevant, and necessary, as 20 years ago.

[ismnotwasm]

12. Yeah-- he could have been something

He was something


I was not a huge fan of rap once it hit mainstream. The message of oppression from breakthrough groups like Grand Master Flash or even Run DMC, was lost on radio rap-- although from what I understand, the people who really know the genre still get to hear a strong social message. My son told me about an artist who would rap from prison--over the phone.

But I'll tell you a story

When I was about 18, I wanted to be be anything but a white girl. Through events to long to tell, I ended up with my son's father--something over half Cowachin Indian. He was a "street" Indian, as opposed to a "Rez" Indian. Both of us talked "street".

Anyway we were at this party, mostly Indians, a few mixed folk, but nobody black. That was the year Sugerhill Gangs "Rappers delight" came out. They played it over and over and over; and I swear to you that I knew then I was in the presence of history-- that silly breakthrough song that I know by heart to this day.

It was quite a feeling, watching how Rap/Hip/hop resonated with them, these terribly damaged disenfranchised lost boys and girls. No few are dead now, including my sons father.

The relationship didn't last, and I ended up back into hard rock and metal and punk, but I never forgot that feeling. When I hear powerful lyrics I recapture it--Hip/Hop shook the world, and continues to do so.

[nomorenomore08]

13. That is an awesome story. And I agree that Pac could've done so much more

even considering the hundreds of songs he managed to record before his death. Same goes for Biggie Smalls - I still honestly consider B.I.G. the best rapper of all time. No one, in my opinion, has ever had a flow like his.

[ismnotwasm]

14. I didn't know much about him

Other than the obvious.

But here's an fairly recent article that agrees with you

Biggie Smalls: Still The Best There Ever Was


16 Years on from his untimely death at the hands of hitmen, Notorious BIG is still

As a teenager growing up in a small town in Shropshire, without a rail link to anywhere but Kidderminster, music ruled my life. And it didn’t matter what type of music it was. Rock, reggae, country, ska, punk and hip-hop. I got introduced to rap by a mate of mine who had loads of 2 Live Crew on T90 tapes, MTV showed me a tall skinny fucker with a molasses drawl called Snoop, another mate played N.W.A and Eazy-E over and over until our ears bled and my step-father, a policeman, nearly took the door off as Fuck Tha’ Police blared from my bedroom in a haze of bong smoke.

But no one rapper before or since has grabbed my ear like Christopher Wallace, AKA Biggie Smalls, AKA Big Poppa, AKA Notorious BIG, AKA The Best Fucking Rapper To pick up a mic, period. Purists will argue the case for KRS One and Rakim, idiots for Tupac and the youth of today might bang on about Jay -Z and some will even argue for 50-Cent. Sure, early Eminem is spellbinding, Nas’s Illmatic is a gold from beginning to end, the first solo albums of GZA, Raekwon, Method Man, ODB and Ghost from Wu-Tang are blinding, but none of them, when all is said and done, can hold a candle to the big man from Bed-Stuy.

Jay-Z might rule hip-hop and be the unofficial chairman of the board, but ask him, truthfully, and he’d surely tell you that he’d swap it all to have the flow, wit and ability to freestyle a song in one cut like his old schoolmate.
In the 16 years since he was shot by a drive-by gunman, hundreds, thousands, of young men with attitude, heart a shady past and a story to tell have picked up the mic and gave it their all. Some it great, some of it awful and some of it dated before it is released. Play Ready to Die now, as I am, and apart from the references to the year that it was made, it is as fresh as batch of Krispy Kreme straight out of the oven. Jay-Z might rule hip-hop and be the unofficial chairman of the board, but ask him, truthfully, and he’d surely tell you that he’d swap it all to have the flow, wit and ability to freestyle a song in one cut like his old schoolmate.

http://sabotagetimes.com/music/rip-biggie-smalls-still-the-best-there-ever-was