My Block by Tupac

Tupac confronts criminality, discrimination, racism, poverty, and oppression that emerges in suburban communities through his song ‘My Block’. Tupac recognizes how the actions of a person within the community can greatly affect those around them. In the first verse, Tupac raps about the dilemma of an African-American man living in the ghettos. The dilemma being sentenced to life in prison or dying from crossfire to avoid imprisonment, which is demonstrated through “The three strikes is drastic//and certain death for us ghetto bastards//what can we do when we’re arrested, but open fire//life in the pen ain’t for me cause I’d rather die”. He follows this line with “And who cares if we survive? The only time they notice a nigga is when he's clutchin' on a four-five”, conveying the type of discrimination towards African-American people on the news. People tend to believe what they see on the news, and how African-American individuals are portrayed - outsiders see them as dangerous people which consequently results to the mistreatment towards African-American communities. Tupac then tells the listener that due to the prejudice towards black people, it’s difficult for them to get a normal job and for Tupac - he turned to selling drugs and other criminalities to provide for himself, which is heard in, “Staying strapped, forever trapped in this drug life//God, help me, ‘cause I’m starving, can’t get a job//So I resort to violent robberies, my life is hard.” Tupac expresses the loss of connection within the community due to drugs being exposed and the death of ‘brothers’ because, “our block is filled with danger” they lost the trust within their neighborhood, as criminalities “exterminate black life”. He follows that by saying, “But I can't blame the dealers;” because he understands that selling drugs is the only way for them to provide, “my mama's welfare check has brought the next man chrome wheels” which introduces his mother’s drug addiction and how she used the money that was meant to provide for the family. Tupac's song allows the listener to experience the despairing loss of the connection within a society due to its daily social and political injustices.