English Corpus

When we hear the term “battle” most of us revert to thoughts of grueling life or death wars that were fought between two countries. Figuratively that’s not to far off of what a hip hop battle really encompasses. Is it literally life or death? Well, of course not, but as a freestyle rapper, DJ or break dancer your reputation is won or lost on the hip hop battlefield.

Hip hop battles originated in the late 70s when different gangs or crews needed a way to settle their differences without having to resort to violence. Something as simple as a DJ or sound battle was definitely a sight to behold. A DJ battle at that time consisted of two DJs bringing their own sound systems to a party and having the party goers decide on which they preferred. In its infancy the winner usually just came down to the person who had more money and could afford the better sound system as they would just drown out their opponent with the power of their system. As technology progressed and good sound systems became more common, DJ’s had to find a way to differentiate themselves from their opponents. The new form of DJ battles consisted of not only who had the better musical selection but also on who knew how to mix and perform the better tricks known as scratching. Most DJs would have their own signature scratch and they would go back and fourth performing these scratches while the amount of applause would determine the winner.

Break dancing battles usually stemmed from turf wars. Not your traditional Mafia or gang type turf wars but more of hang out spots. Whether it were a dance club or an afternoon hang out spot, most dance crews were known to be regulars at their respective designated areas. What would happen if someone wanted your spot is they would challenge you to a break dancing competition? These competitions would consist of two different dance crews showing their best moves and tricks and much like the DJ competitions were based off of the audience’s applause. The winners would now own the territory while the losers would have to find a new spot to hang out.

Hip hop rap battles were the most personal and shaming of all the battles. In these battles you could either record a song in which you would insult a rival rapper and this song would play in all the local house parties and dance clubs where both rappers would frequently attend. The other method and most entertaining is where a live microphone would be at a party and the two rappers would be given a set amount of time to come up with insults to defame their counterparts. If you were to lose a live rap battle you would not only ever be able to show your face around there anymore but your career as a rapper would be in extreme jeopardy as well.

Hip hop battles, although serious in nature are often a fun event for all those involved as well as the bystanders. They are often comical and are a great way to settle a score without any one getting hurt. In a world where people are dying over the most trivial of things it is great to know that some kids can still find a civil way of dealing with their problems.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Hip Hop

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Slim thug is a rapper from Houston Texas, who took his love of music to build a career and a life for him self. In the small inner cities of Houston, there is the north and the south. While other rappers were unable to conquer and perform for areas in both the north and the sough, Slim thug has been able to complete this task, and perform for all types of rap followers through out Houston. Because of his large following, a record label, Greffen Records has picked up Slim Thug, marketing and taking him on tour across the US where even more rap lovers can see, hear and enjoy his music.

Rap music is one that is a bit different from classical, or country, but there is a huge number of listeners across the country who enjoy rap music. If you like rap and have not heard about Slim thug yet you are in for a great surprise.

If you aren’t sure what some of the words are that you are hearing in the Slim thug songs, here is a bit of a song, Like a boss, that will enhance you ability to sing along as Slim thug performs. This is just a few lines from Like A Boss.

I’m Slim Thugger motherfucker! Tha Boss of all bosses, That’s right! AKA - he who the King of the North is! Wars won, no losses; who wanna compete? With the chief of the police, who got the keys to the streets, I’m a full time hustler, part-time rhymer, I’m having thangs Pha-real (Pharrell) You punks ain’t no Grinders, You fools just went to school and learned to use Pro Tools?, And tried to cop you a G moves off the ten o’clock news, You can’t survive in my shoes or afford to pay my dues, Wit your cartoon crews, you niggaz destined to lose!, I rock Eminem and 50 Cent crowds, And spend most of my weekends cruising above clouds, From the West to the Southway to the East Coast, I switch time zones more than ho’s switch clothes, I was born to be on top (top), born to call shots (shots), Born to cop drops and trick off fats knots, like a boss!

Slim thug was born in 1980, and started out with a band in his teens, but by the year 2005, he was taking his career to new levels appearing in songs with Gwen Stefani and Beyonce. Slim thug is the type of musician who is not going to give up on his career, and he will continue to put out the music that the public wants to hear. If you enjoy his music you can hear it online, or you can purchase the CD online or offline. Look for concert dates coming to major cities near you where you can purchase tickets and hear additional songs that are not out on record just yet.

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I’ll never forget the time I was giving lessons to this one student. Talk about difficult. She just couldn’t get it. And the “it” I’m talking about is not reading music or playing Beethoven or Bach. I’m talking about improvisation.

No matter what I showed her she just froze up.

I then realized something. This student really wasn’t having problems getting the technical aspects down, i.e., chords. The problem was she didn’t think she could do it! It was all attitude.

I then had a lightbulb moment. If the basic problem with most adult students is not technique but attitude, then I had to come up with a different approach to reach them. And that approach turned out to be mentoring.

Listen, what people really need is to believe in themselves. If this aspect is missing, no amount of technique or theory will help. In order for me to be helpful, I had to act as a therapist so to speak… gently guiding students to believe in themselves!

Once they could do this, the rest was a piece of cake. Look at it this way, if you don’t believe or have the slightest faith in your own abilities in anything be it writing, painting, whatever, your chances for success are slim indeed!

What I did to help these “shaky” students was basically a two-fold procedure.

First, they needed to relax and not worry so much about what was coming out of them. Performance anxiety can happen even when we play for ourselves. The critical parent shows up even when we’re playing alone. I had to help them overcome that critical parent first.

The second prong was simply to build up their confidence by showing them how easy it could be to create once that critical voice was eliminated. They watched me play and saw that I didn’t care if I made mistakes or if the music was “good enough.” My mentoring allowed them to see that the joy of the process was far more important than any product they could come up with.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

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12 Bar Blues is a universal set of chord progressions using the I, IV and V Chords.

Formula for 12 bar blues using the key of C:
4 measures of C Chords (the I chord)
2 measures of G Chord (V chord)
2 measures of C Chord
1 measure of G Chord
1 Measure of F Chord (IV Chord)

2 measures of C Chord.
This equals 12 measures. If you know the 7 chords you can use the C7 chord, G7 and F7 in place of the 3 note chords.

Now you know the pattern, you can play with any musician around the world.

What’s fun about playing the 12 bar blues is that it is simple enough where everyone can start learning to play rhythms, and begin improvisation.

I am going to give you some ideas of how to play the blues. This will be very simple to learn and is excellent for playing hands together if you are a new piano student, it will strengthen your hands and fingers, and start you playing rhythm.
OK, here we go. Starting with the left hand, let’s learn a boogie woogie. The left hand will be played in quarter notes, in 4/4 time.

How to play each chord in boogie:

Left hand C chord:
beat 1, play C and G together
beat 2, play C and A together
beat 3, play C and B flat together
beat 4, play C and A together.

Left hand G Chord Boogie:
beat 1, play G and D together
beat 2, play G and E together
beat 3, play G and F together
beat 4, play G and E together.

Left hand F Chord Boogie:
beat 1, play F and C together
beat 2, play F and D together
beat 3, play F and E flat together
beat 4, play F and D together.

Next apply the left hand to the 12 bar blues, playing the correct chord in each measure. Practice and memorize the left hand boogie following the formula for the 12 bar blues.

What will the right hand play? The right hand can play the 3 notes chord.
C chord = C-E=G, F chord = F-A-C, G chord = G-B-D. I would suggest when you first add the right hand to the boogie, play the right hand chord only on the 1 beat, until you can play hands together easy. After practicing the simple hands together, try to play the right hand chords in any rhythm that sounds good to you. For example, you could play a right hand chord on the 1 beat, and play eighth notes of the 4 beat. Now you have a rhythm. Once you start a rhythm, continue the same pattern throughout the 12 bars.

Alana LaGrange is the founder of
Music and You
An online piano lesson website teaching beginning, Intermediate,
music arranging and jazz. She has published piano lesson books,
and is also an arranger and recording artist.

http://www.musicandyou.com

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With the now permanent foundation of selling that is EBayticket scalpingor more kindly, ticket brokering, has become a mainstay in the secondary market of ticketing. While once a simple side project to make a few bucks, this periodic gamble has become the livelihood of many people.

Sounds good doesn’t it? I’m going to give you the 2 minute inside scoop on how to start selling concert tickets online.

First and foremost there are generally 2 types of sales for concert tickets, a general public sale, available to everyone, and a presale. A presale will take place anywhere from a week to a day before the public sale. To give an example of how this works, let’s say a concert has 1000 tickets to sell, they might have 200 tickets available through a presale and the rest will be available through the public sale. Why go for the 200 instead of the 800? Well for a big show, one that’s going to sell out, there will be thousands of people bidding for the same tickets come the public sale, but the presale is going to be password protected, so only a limited number of people are going to be bidding for these concert tickets.

Now all you need to do is be lucky, and get a good set of tickets. Once you get these tickets you need somewhere to sell them, like EBay for a lot of people. But also, for serious brokers, there are companies out there that will try and sell your concert tickets for you though third-party brokering sites like http://www.TicketSpot.com. These companies let you set your own prices, so you control your profits, and you won’t have to do any work after that, just sit back and wait for the sale.

Jared Lock is the co-founder and webmaster at http://www.ticketspot.com and long time ticket broker.

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Most guitar players desire to become a better guitar player.
Guitarist ask me quite often why they are not at the
level that they desire and what can they do. In the past
I have asked myself the very same question. Soon I began
to understand the answers.

Just as you have probably done, I have read a lot of how
to play guitar interviews and articles from great guitar
players. I often found it frustrating whenever the subject
of learn to play guitar came up or when advice was offered
on improving someone’s playing. With a few exceptions,
little time and space was ever devoted on this.

It is not uncommon to see a guitar player give advise to
learn to play the guitar summed up in as little as three
words: Practice! Practice!! Practice!!!

I remember when I first was learning how to play guitar I
would practice on some days so long that the ends of my
fingers would be tender to the touch and hurt for days.

We all know that practicing is the main ingredient. Does
a football player practice a few times and then is able
to play up to the caliber of an NFL football player?

Rarely are we told anything more than on how to play the
guitar then to just practice. In my long quest to become
an excellent player I carefully took note of what worked
and what did not - which parts conventional wisdom are
accurate and which parts are (at least in my opinion)
are not. I believe the following twenty tips have proven
to bring great results to those who use them:

1. Educate yourself! It doesn’t matter what current level
you at can and should always learn guitar more. If you are
currently in a position to learn guitar online, studying
a home guitar study course, or have a teacher for you to
learn how to play guitar then your on the right track.
If you are not doing this (or if you feel that your current
home study course is not helping you enough in reaching
your goals) I strongly recommend looking for a new one.
I can not stress enough how important it is to find
a good home study course that is right for you! Your home
study course (or teacher) should always be Goal Orientated.
If its not look for another course or teacher to study with!
You don’t need a home study course or teacher to simply
give you information or things to practice - you
can get those things anywhere, what you need is a
study course or teacher who:

A. Knows what your goals are.

B. Cares about helping you reach your goals.

C. Knows how to help you reach your goals.

2. Listen to more music. This is really something that helped
me. There is a lot of music out there that you have not heard.
I am sure you can find something you really like and that
would inspire you. Look on the internet if you can not find it
on the conventional radio. Check out internet radio. You can
customize what you hear based on your preferences; its a great
tool! Check out web sites that you know feature a lot of the
music in the style you like. Listen to the guitarist in the
background. Listen to the strum patterns, picking or anything
else the guitarist is doing.

3. Turn your musical frustrations into an asset in the form
of a motivating force. I used to get frustrated when I was
trying to learn how to play guitar. I would use this
frustration to motivate me to play the next day and then
the next day and all afternoon sometimes.

4. Believe in yourself. You have probably heard that phrase
many times before. It’s sad how many people don’t believe
in their beliefs or themselves. If you don’t believe in
yourself, you will not grow as a guitarist. I always in
my mind say, “I can do it; I know I can.” This can be
a driving force no matter what you want to accomplish in
life. If you start something and never thought you could
accomplish it in the first place than you probably will
not.

5. Understand that becoming a better guitarist means becoming
a better musician as well. When developing your musical skills,
make sure to think beyond the skills that are specific to
guitar. You will be working on many guitar skills - various
guitar techniques, chords, scales, soloing, etc., - but don’t
neglect other skills that are not guitar specific like ear
training (also called aural skills and very important),
songwriting, improvising, creativity, reading,
music theory, etc. When I was learning how to play guitar I
would work with a pianist once or twice a week with ear
training, creativity, and even music theory.Don’t limit
yourself.

Each of us has some natural ability of some kind. You may
already know what yours is or you may not yet discovered it.
If being a better musician is not coming easy for you that
simply means you are like the rest of us.

I have continued the next five tips of 20 tips to part II
of how to play guitar - discover 20 tips to play like a pro.

The next tip I will be discussing is “Surround yourself
with better guitar players” Be sure to get part II with
the next 5 tips.

Jason owns a few blogs on guitar lesson and how to play guitar and free guitar lesson

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I first started publishing my band newsletter during the Summer of ‘98. I tried the snail mail route. It was exhausting. Electronic newsletters (aka ezines) were the way to go.

I must’ve tried it all too. I promoted gigs, told of our latest accomplishments, gave away a free mp3 every month. Some of it worked. Some didn’t.

Here are some tips I’ve learned about running my band newsletter:

1. Give away something for free. It can be as simple as an MP3 download at MP3.com. Or a sticker. A free CD once a month. Well worth the cost for their loyalty. And it can be a great promo tool to draw people into signing up for your newsletter.
2. Hype your band. Tell your fans about all the band news. Who’s reviewed your latest CD? Post rave testimonies by your fans. Post them on your website too. Be positive and let them know you are the best!
3. In the two years I’ve managed my fan newsletter, I’ve had scores of fans write, saying, “Wow! I’m glad you’re doing so well.” We weren’t. And I didn’t lie. But our many small successes sounded like big ones to our fans. That is what hype is all about.
4. Keep it short. Write as if you were writing for a newspaper. Compose brief paragraphs about your greatness. Use headlines that make your fans want to read it. Provide frequent links to your website where you can post articles or more “further info”.
5. Publish every 7-10 days. This depends on how much info you get. But as long as the content is short and informative, people won’t mind. If you add a little drama, like how you’re doing on MP3.com, and how they can help, you’ll keep the fans reading. But if you’re not gigging much, and don’t have much news. Don’t publish. Give your fans what they deserve, the best.
6. Don’t get upset if people unsubscribe. It happens. If you lose half your list, consider adjusting your publishing schedule. But expect that some people can’t deal with a newsletter every 7-10 days. Perhaps every two weekes is better. I was doing every two weeks until I realized how much more effective a 10 day schedule was for our fans. But less than two weeks, and you are no longer on the fore front of your fans’ minds.
7. Choose a great inspiring name. Something that has meaning and is fairly informative. Certainly you can can get by without one, but a good name could attract people just out of curiousity.
8. Make it visually appealing. Keep lines short–60-65 characters followed by a hard return. Have a decent amount of space between sections. Add a table of contents at the beginning of the newsletter. Text newsletters work best, at present, but if you decide on an HTML ezine. Make sure you test it out extensively beforehand. Graphics need to be attached to your message. But keep it visually interesting on all accounts.
9. Content is King. You hear it all over the internet marketing circles. Make sure the info you provide is useful and relevant. My biggest problem is that my newsletter has subscribers worldwide and until we got hooked up on MP3.com, it was useless telling our fans about gigs in Austin. So have info that is interesting for EVERYONE!
10. Reward your fans. Give discounts for their loyalty. Have your CD on sale to newsletter subscribers.

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

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It’s time to start thinking about guitar gifts (already!). As the holiday season rolls around, I’ve noticed the impact on the guitar world. Big displays of guitar “starter packs” crowding the floor at the local guitar shop. The seemingly endless infomercials on the shopping networks of Esteban hawking his entry-level guitars. And the festive holly-covered banners splashed all over the landing pages of the big online guitar retailers. Is it just me, but didn’t we just carve our Jack-O-Lanterns?

Any way, with the Christmas and holiday season upon us, what about guitar gifts for the aspiring (or actual) guitar players
on our lists? With that in mind I’ve put together some tips and specific recommendations for selecting guitar
gifts that will be appreciated.

A Wide Range of Choices

When it comes to guitar gifts, the good news is that there are many good choices at all price points, and many reputable
online retailers to buy from. The not so good news is that with all these options, it can be difficult to sort through them
and find just the right guitar gift. Consider these categories:

* Gear (acoustic guitars, electric guitars, amps, and guitar effects, etc)

* Beginners’ Guitar Packages- everything a beginner needs to get started

* Accessories such as tuners, straps, stands, etc.

* Online guitar lesson and instructional products

* Books and Videos

* Software

5 Tips for Selecting the Right Guitar Gifts

The main considerations in choosing guitar gifts are experience level, style of music preferred, and what gear and learning
material they already own. Try to find as much out about these as possible. Or better yet, get the lucky gift recipient to
drop a few subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints on what they want…”I want a standard Fender Strat in Blue Agave please!” If you
you really don’t have a good handle on any of this, no worries, here are some tips for different situations:

1. Discover Preferences- Learn as much as you can about the guitar player’s stage of development, gear they own, and
musical styles they prefer, and tailor the gift accordingly. Consulting a Guitar Gift Guide will help you with this, as will checking with a family member or friend close to the lucky recipient.

2. Go with a Gift Certificate- Don’t have a clue on what to get? No problem! When in doubt, give a gift certificate
for guitar gear, online lessons, or music. Price range: however generous you feel!

3. Give a Guitar Package- For a beginner who does not have a guitar , packages are available starting at about $100
that include a guitar and all the accessories needed to get going “out of the box” (including an amp if it’s an electric guitar.)

4. Consider online lessons or instructional products- Every guitarist wants to learn new skills and move to the next
level. These include “Learn to Play” lessons, interactive lessons to learn songs, and in-depth lessons on particular
techniques. These are usually in the $20-40 range.

5. Books and videos are a good bet- For a reasonably priced gift, books are a great choice and can easily be
tailored to the recipient. Some categories: history of a style of guitar music (rock , blues, jazz); biography of favorite
guitar players; instruction books; guitar song (tab) books for a favorite band or style of music. Price range $15-30.

It is possible to select the right guitar gift. The key is to spend a little effort to find out about the recipient’s skill
level, gear they have, and musical preferences. If you don’t know much about guitar playing, or otherwise aren’t able to
pick a specific gift, a gift certificate for guitar gear, lessons, or other products should do the trick.

Copyright 2005 Peter Bussey of www.guitar-players-toolbox.com
This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and the below resource box, with active links, are included.

Peter Bussey is Editor of The Guitar Players Toolbox, a website dedicated to helping advancing guitar players improve with practical tools, tips, and information. Visit http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com for more information on Guitar Gifts, as well as variety of free resources on guitar lessons, guitar chords, guitar chord charts, song chords, and more.

See additional Guitar Articles on Ezinearticles.com by Peter Bussey:

• “Basic Guitar Chords: “How to Easily Master the Guitar Chords You Must Know”

• “Guitar Chord Diagrams: An Essential Tool for Learing to Play the Guitar”
• “Guitar Lessons: A Guide to Your Options”

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Just as children need their parents to read to them and teach the alphabet, parents can also teach their young children the foundational “music Language” skills for piano or keyboard. If you can teach your child the alphabet, you can also give them an important foundation at home for learning to read music and understand keyboard theory. Even if your young children are already taking piano lessons, piano teachers don’t have time in a 30 minute weekly lesson to give kids the complete foundation they need to read music easily. But most parents don’t know how easy this is to do because they don’t have the right tools, resources and support from their child’s piano teacher. Sometimes piano teachers even make parents feel stupid when they ask what they can do at home to help. They act as though only a piano teacher with their level of education and experience is qualified to do this. This is not true! Even if you don’t play the piano, you are absolutely qualified to help your child get a great keyboard foundation at home.

When I show parents how easy it is they are so relieved. Their young children taking lessons are able to get the right musical foundation they need to advance much more quickly. Plus they stick with piano because their experience is so positive! I have been showing parents how they can do this for years. It’s a very simple straightforward process. And you can learn it too.

So find a piano teacher who is willing to give you the guidance and support necessary to help your young children get the musical foundation they need to excel in piano. Don’t believe you are unqualified. In fact when it comes to piano pre-skills, parents are the most qualified of all!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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Tupac Shakur was a very influential person in 20th century USA. He was born on
June 16, 1971 in Brooklyn New York, and died on September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas
Nevada (unknown author, no title, no page, letter code C). But his family moved
around a lot while he was a kid (Bastin, J.D.). He eventually ended up in the
Bay Area California alone and spent his first two years there homeless (unknown
author, no title, n.p., letter code D). He grew up with only his mom and loved
her very much. He even wrote a song called Dear Mama to his mom and thanked her
for how she tried her best at raising him.

His public career started when he joined the seminal Bay Area rap ensemble
(u.a., “original area,” n.p.). He started as a tour dancer but then started
rapping live (u.a., “original area,” n.p.). From there he released a couple
albums and then was offered to be in some movies. He became friends with a
couple of popular rap artists like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre (Placid n.p.).
He made some songs and music videos with them that made it big on the Billboard
charts. This really helped his popularity. He released a double CD with the
songs on it and a lot of his own songs and sold millions of copies (u.a., n.t.,
n.p. letter code D) More people were influenced to buy his CD. People listened
to the music and did what he said he did. So Tupac was influencing all of these
people.

Tupac was rich and famous now. He was showing off his own style now and didn’t
need his popular friends. This is the time that many people saw the real Tupac
and loved him. He was now very influential to fans. They wanted to be just like
him. He starred in more movies and could be who he really was. He did a lot of
interviews that showed his beliefs. He said self esteem and self respect was
very important and said “I feel as though I am a shining prince just like
Malcolm and feel that all of us are shining princes, and if we live like shining
princes, then whatever we want can be ours. Anything.” (Patrick, Tony, n.p.) And
when he says all of us, he means all men. He also said he doesn’t care if
someone is white or black. And no one can be judged by their skin. “So just
because it’s Black don’t mean it’s cool, and just because it’s White don’t mean
it’s evil.”(Patrick, Tony n.p.) If he judged a man, he judged them by what they
do to or how they treat others. Tupac wasn’t racis!
t against any body. And he showed that. I’ve seen him treat everyone equal that
I see him with on TV or even on movies. This is an influence because since
people want to be like him, they will follow his beliefs. And if Tupac believes
in non-racism, then the people will believe in that too.

This is a big difference from him and other rap artists. A lot of others are
racist to different people, and the different people then don’t like him, don’t
listen to his music, don’t see his movies, and aren’t influenced by him. Almost
all races listen to Tupac’s music. I’ve known Mexican, White, Black, Asian,
Indian, and even Pakistani people who listened to his music and are influenced
and are moved by him. I’ve even saw a show in Singapore about music here and a
Singaporean kid said he listens to Tupac.

Tupac has a lot of self-values that he follows. He even said it’s hard
sometimes, but he keeps it up. He said “To me it’s really troubling because I
look over what’s successful - Marky Mark, Hammer, Vanilla Ice, New Kids on the
Block selling twenty-two million copies, and I want that so badly, but I can’t
do that. I would be wrong to do that, knowing what I know and having the brain
that I have, for me to even go and write some simple shit would be wrong even
though I would get paid and I would get more people’s money.” (Patrick, Tony,
n.p.) This means that Tupac has a strong will and values. He resisted the
temptation to write some easy rhyming words and get peoples money. He instead
followed his values and worked up to his potential.

He says he also believes in Karma (Bastin, J.D., n.p.). That what comes around
goes around. And he said he believes in reincarnation too. He wants to be a good
man in this life, because he said he knew he was going to die soon (Bastin,
J.D., n.p.) and wanted to be ready for the next life. The reason Tupac gives for
the reason he makes his music is not only for the money, but so people would
know what it was like for him growing up. He also wanted to be remembered. He
said “I would rather leave something so that when people pick up 2Pacalypse Now
or any of my other albums in 1999, they’ll go, ‘Damn! Brothers had it hard back
in the day, but brothers were working it out.” (Patrick, Tony, n.p.)

He said his music is spiritual: a little like gospels, but with a different idea
in mind. And that his music was not meant to be danced to, but just to be
listened to. His music was for the strong willed (Patrick, Tony, n.p.). He shows
his hard life through his music “Which celebrates violent defiance of a society
viewed as largely racist and lethal” (Patrick, Tony, n.p.).

I think Tupac influenced most of the people that listen to his music. People
start to dress like him and talk like him if they see him on music videos
singing his newest song. They could also listen to the things that Tupac says he
does, and then do those things themselves. I hope his values and beliefs in a
non-racial world also influence people. He does say some bad things, but he did
spend eleven and a half months in a maximum-security jail for something he
claims he never did and says that he was framed for (Placid, Sylvester n.p.). He
also spent two years of his life homeless (u.a., n.t., n.p. letter code D) and
grew up having it hard to fit in(u.a., n.t, n.p., letter code B). Tupac was not
a normal man, but he was still trying to send a good message to the youth’s that
listened and still do listen to his music.

He also influenced many future and present rap artists. Biggie Smallz for
example sounded just like Tupac, and used the same voice tones as Tupac. I’ve
also heard about five other songs that steal the backgrounds to Tupac’s songs.
And if there are that many imitators now, there will definitely be a lot in the
future.

One of the reasons he was so influential is because he showed his real self to
the world through interviews, music videos, movies, his music, and his poetry.
He showed his views on the world unlike most other rap artists. Another reason
is because people liked his views and liked his non-racial ways. People liked
the way he sung about real subjects. Not like the others who sing about nothing
much, and then get all the money they can. Also his unique style of mixing new
sounds for a new beat really separated his music from others. He didn’t use
traditional beats that people get tired of. He added a twist to rap and hip-hop
music all together. And brought a lot of people to like that.

“Tupac was one of raps most controversial and influential performers” (”tupac”
n.p.). “Tupac Amaur Shakur left a distinct impact on American culture that is
still being shown today” (u.a., n.t., n.p. letter code D) He was one of the most
influential persons in the 20th century America. And I believe he will be
remembered and loved by a lot for years to come. He has served and will serve as
a role model for younger kids growing up today.

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