People Who Inspired Me To Be A Writer: Tupac Shakur (rapper/actor).

The core of what makes entertainment so enjoyable is all rooted in how it makes us feel. The way everything we see and hear impacts our emotions determines how respond to the artist making the form of entertainment of which we enjoy. When it comes to Hip Hop music, no rapper ever captured the essence of emotion the way that Tupac Shakur did and this is why he is not only one of my top biggest influences as a Hip Hop artist, but also why he is one of my biggest influences as a writer.

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971. He was the oldest of two children born to Afeni Shakur, an active member of the Black Panther Party movement of the 60's and the 70's. Tupac came from a family of Black Panther Party members including not only his mother Afeni, but his birth father Billy Garland, his stepfather Mutulu Shakur, his aunt Assata Shakur, and his uncle Geronimo Pratt. He would attend Black Panther meetings as a young child in the early 70's, having lived around the movement and what remained of it growing up as an adolescent living in New York City, Baltimore, Maryland, and the of Bay Area, California. Tupac would eventually incorporate the lessons he learned from the movement as well as his experiences living in the inner city into his music career that would not only captivate the music industry, but the world as a whole.

Tupac Shakur made a name himself in the early to mid 90's for his multifaceted identity as an artist and a person. This was something he showed a lot of in his music much to the delight of many and disapproval of others. Whether he was loved or hated, Tupac knew how to tell a great story with his music and make you grasp the emotion behind every word he spoke on record. Like the tens of millions of other people around the world, this had a big dramatic effect on me. Tupac inspired me with not only his ability to tell a great story and talk about serious world issues, but also with the ability to make me feel firsthand how it felt to feel the pain or joy of the person or people who were in the driver seat of the subject matter on which he was focused.

If someone wanted to know what it felt like to be a character in a story told by Tupac they could look at Brenda in his first hit song "Brenda's Got a Baby". Brenda is a young Black female teenager who has been a victim of statutory incest rape and has given birth to a baby as a result. The next few months of her life consist of being abandoned by her family, not being able to keep a stabile job and eventually turning to prostitution to earn income before being murdered in the process. With Tupac's heavy voice of emphasis on Brenda's journey you not only see Brenda's trouble, but also feel her pain and helplessness that drives her down the path of destruction that leads to her ultimate death. I've watched many people listen to this song and watch the music video for it and go back to watch and listen to it all over again because of how captivating both the subject matter of struggle as an adolescence are and because of how much it tugs at your heart by taking you deep into the pain of what this person is feeling and how unbearable it must have seemed.

Along with the great sense of emotion added to his sense of storytelling, Tupac did a great job with captivating your emotions when he spoke on the issues of society. Tupac was known for being one of the greatest conscious rappers there has ever been, so when he made songs like "Trapped" and "Keep Ya Head Up", he not only spoke on issues that I could relate to as a young Black male from the inner city, but also paint a first person point of view picture of what was taking place and putting a lot of focus on how it would make you feel if you had to live among those circumstances. I would listen to these songs and tell myself "man, this is so real. This is exactly how I felt living in the middle of all of this". He also inspired so many listeners to want to do better with the uplifting tone he added to such songs as these by adding that though these issues of life are hard, if we stay in faith and work hard to persevere to make it through the struggle, then we will come out on top.

Tupac Shakur is one of my heroes of writing because he inspired me to not only be a great storyteller and talk about things that matter, but also make sure that whoever explores my written work can not only see or hear what I am saying, but also feel my every word more than anything else, because our emotions are how we tap into what we love and being able to tap into the emotions of others are how people learn to love us and what we bring to the table.

~~Dedicated to the memory of Tupac Amaru Shakur. I will forever appreciate the inspiration you gave me my whole life.