'Changes' by Tupac is an inspiring song about racism and discrimination of people living in low-income and minority neighborhoods, especially in the 1990s. Being a very popular rapper has allowed Tupac to speak on behalf of his community and this song is his statement on the problems faced by his community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The song touches on many topics including drug epidemics, the Black Panthers, discrimination and economic problems. One of the writer's messages is that racism is useless and we should all unite and instead hate evil things rather than the color of someone's skin. The topic that is often repeated throughout the song is the crack epidemic of the 80s and 90s. This was significantly worse for most black neighborhoods, but due to the many stigmas and blame placed on these communities, it was ignored. Tupac says, "First ship them drugs and let them deal to the brothers, give them guns, step back, watch them kill each other," which is a reference to what some people believed was the government intentionally distributing drugs to Black community. Tupac also mentions Huey P. Newton, who was the leader of the Black Panther Party saying, "'It's time to fight back,' that's what Huey said, Two shots in the dark now Huey is dead," Tupac's parents were actually active members of the Black Panthers, so he has ties to the leader, who was killed by a drug dealer when he was 47. Huey's ideas and motivations were actually different from Tupac's, as Huey wanted a completely separate community for blacks but Tupac thought, "We can never get anywhere unless we share with each other." An interesting idea I found in the lyrics is how Tupac doesn't always describe crime in a negative way, even if he believed it was a bad thing. He recognizes that most people commit crimes not because they want to, but because they need to to survive. Tupac says, "'I made a G today,' but you made it in a sleazy way, selling crack to the kids, 'I gotta get paid!' - well hey, but that's the way it is,” He's trying to explain to the drug dealer that he's harming kids' lives by selling them drugs and profiting from it and that he doesn't agree with what he's doing. However, he realizes that drug dealing makes a lot more money than many jobs available to him, and that he needs that extra money for several reasons to get ahead. I found it really interesting and it also somewhat changed the way I felt about drug crimes and how they affected the different people involved. I never thought being a drug dealer could be selfish when supplying people who need it, but Tupac describes crack as the "evil" that "good" people can suffer from, and providing that evil around a profit is selfish. One idea in the lyrics that I could apply to myself is that Tupac wants different people to see each other as brothers rather than strangers because of their differences. I always grew up in an environment where my family was open to different people and people of different races. It would be pretty hard for them not to since my mom is black and my dad is white. I have a large Jamaican family living in America and growing up I visited them often, and they always welcomed my father, me and others into the family without hesitation. It was never a surprising or kind thing to me because I always thought that was what every family did, but there are still people who don't accept others into their communities because they are.