"Me Against the World Response"

Andrew NguyenEnglish 2018-8:50AM
Response to Tupac's - "Me Against the World"
Tupac Shakur's inspiring song, "Me Against the World" shows his view of the world and the people who are struggling within it. The song describes how life is for Tupac. That includes poverty, guns, deaths, and of course, politics. The title of the song "Me Against the World" shows a sort of rise against these issues. With Tupac, he wants to rise against these issues and continue to face life's struggles. One of the issues Tupac wants to rise against, is the violence within his life.


Tupac descrbies many issues that roams the world in his song. One of the many issues including, is the rising deaths in the community. Tupac describes his community with "projects is full of bullets, the bodies is droppin... Witnessin killings, leavin dead bodies in abandoned buildings" (Shakur). With that in mind, it is almost a constant look-out. People want to survive and they have to remain alert. In this "dog eat dog" world, one needs to protect oneself against others to live:


I'm headed for danger, don't trust strangers/Put one in the chamber whenever I'm feelin this anger/Don't wanna make excuses, cause this is how it is/What's the use unless we're shootin no one notices the youth (Shakur)

"Dear Mama" Racial/Heritage Pride Thesis

-Pg 31 - Racial Pride
- Songs/Soul Music
-"Black Seeds Keep on Growing"
- Black people don't do shelters/ They live with other black people

-Black Panther Party
- Afeni's integrity and pride
- Her dedication and love goes to Tupac

-How does Tupac's racial pride matter to him?

Racial/Heritage Pride Thesis
-From the moment he was born and to the night of his unfortunate departure, Tupac inherits his pride of his own culture from his own mother, and benefits from it throughout his life.
-Tupac continuously learns about his heritage from his mother from music, the life she went through herself, and the experience his family went through themselves.
-The amount of stress and emphasis of heritage and race that Afeni enlightens to Tupac makes him proud of who he is and what his family experienced.

Essay for "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes"

Byron Hurt's innovating documentary, "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" explores through Hip Hop culture and its connections through many issues. From the music he grew up with, Hurt connects topics such as sexism, homophobia, violence, and masculinity, with the music itself. He goes through many locations and interviews many people, ranging from famous artists and authors, to inspired rookies of the culture. With his interviews, Hurt gains knowledge of the topic in the music itself. One of Hip Hop’s issues that Hurt examines in his documentary, violence, as it displays Hip Hop’s perspective of it as a necessity of surviving and being strong.

Majority of Hip Hop music relies on the same topics: girls, money, shooting someone, and having a prized gun. Artists rap about the only way to survive and make oneself noticeable is by owning weapons, win fights, and kill anyone who is an opposition. According to Byron Hurt, “America is a very hyper masculine and hyper aggressive nation.” Audiences and listeners look up to artists who create these types of music and will believe that violence is the answer. Mainstream artists rarely rap about political or social issues like Kiwi Illafonte of Native Guns, a Hip Hop group formed from Los Angeles and San Francisco. This group creates music revolving around political and social issues, such as sweatshops, the War in Iraq, racism, and more. Kiwi‘s song, Imagine, is about wanting to stand up and actually act for something you believe in:

“Sometimes I ask myself why should I even fight for? Like what’s the point if this country already likes war? I write more to kind of get myself through the process, thinking of the fate of humankind as the world watches. Is it me or are we just losing our conscious? Are we just scared or does everybody really want this?”

Instead of Hip Hop music that inspires people in a positive way, people mostly hear music that inspires in a negative way. During Hurt’s documentary interviews rookie , artists who rap the same subjects: guns, shooting, and guns. Those artists explains that they are able to create the type of music like Kiwi does, but nobody wants to listen to it. Instead, they rap what sells, using concepts from the military and movies. As the violent music continues, listeners continue to be influenced, leading to deaths of people

Hurt’s documentary “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” displays what people think and believe in through Hip Hop music. If mainstream music continue on, there will be numerous of consequences to pay. Because Hip Hop culture is highly influential, people do follow its ways and believe that the music is truth. Hurt's documentary shows the issues the music includes in its songs and uses them to sell and sell. While artists gain money and fame, some or most areas are suffering. Is the price of life worth the gain of manhood, money, and fame?

Essay Time for Changes

The main subject that my family continually pressures me is always about my education. To be honest, most Asian families pressure their children about their education. Their families want them to enter the top ranked colleges, such as the top universities, or the top private colleges. They want them to be doctors, dentists, engineers, or any high-paying occupations. They want their children to be financially successful, not successful in life. To increase that success, our families invest their time drilling our heads with occupations and with focusing on our education above our limit. To make matters worst, families also compare their children to other families' children as well. As their children, their hopes and dreams, we want to please our families by doing what they want us to do. Because we were constantly drilled to believe that top universities and top classes are the only way to succeed, we receive major pressure to make changes in our lives to accomplish our family's dream. We believe what can be acceptable to be actually terrible. The pressure changes our mindset and the changes we believe are the correct choices, or the wrong choices , even if they are truly not.

I was raised in a family whose main focus is education- mostly my education. Everyday I would- actually I still do, hear from my family to do well in school, to do better, to excel in classes. I understand their concern, but "to do better" hits me because I understand it as "you are not putting enough effort." Along with that, the U.C. system is also a top priority in my family as well. There is a very high expectation when I went through high school. I was expected to join all honors and advanced classes. Unfortunately, I did not join alot of those classes. I received many lectures (I actually mean arguments) from my family about not joining those type of classes. At the same time, I was compared to my cousin, whom entered U.C. Davis, and how intelligent he is compared to me. I know they meant better, but I felt like I was not good enough. I continued to work with more effort, especially when college applications arrived. Unfortunately, no universities accepted me. A state college did accepted me, San Jose State University. It was such a relieving feeling for me. This state university had had my interest for a long time. I'd rejected them. Even during the whole crisis of over admittance and being accepted again, I had rejected them. I did not accepted SJSU because I felt that I could do even better, even if the school I had rejected could be the one for me. Instead, I chose to go to community college to gain access to a university (no offense to community colleges!). Everyone is happy with me to try to go for the U.C. path once again. I however, seem not to be.

With all the high expectations, the comparison from other familes' children, and all the lectures, pressure can no doubt change what people believe is acceptable or not. People may think that it is unnatural that someone is crying about getting a 3.5 GPA, but to that person, a 3.5 could be a 2.5, or even lower then that. Getting into a state university can be a terrible outcome for those whose dreams of being accepted into the top universities the first time. We change to succeed for our family. As much as we want to believe in that, we change for others, not for ourselves.

Reminder for "Changes"

Remind yourself Andrew, what are you writing about? How are you formatting it? What is the bare minimum.

Does anything need to change now for that to happen? What are you doing now to ensure you get there? The essay should be minimally three paragraphs, five sentences per paragraph: an introduction, a body and a conclusion, with a clearly stated thesis. Make certain each paragraph has a topic sentence and that the topic sentence relates back to the thesis. Use examples, facts, short anecdotes, dialogue, statistics, definitions, analogies, and/or consequences, to expand, illustrate, and elucidate, your point. Put a title on the essay. Type it double-spaced, standard font, no italics. Read Diana Hacker: Planning to help you organize your thoughts and plan your essay. Bring your textbooks to class next week.

From Professor Wanda Sabir's Blogspot (http://professorsabirsposse.blogspot.com/)

Outline Essay "Changes"

Thesis
+pressure may make you commit to some changes in your life that you believe is the correct choice or for the good of others.

Major Point One (School)
+constant pressure of college
+comparison from others (family members, people that I do not even know)

Major Point Two (Family)
+situations with father and mother
+how long pressure lasted, or continued.

Conclusion
+change for others, not for oneself.

Essay Planning "Changes"

Topic
+What do/did you have to change to be in CoA? What do you have to change to remain in CoA/The Semester
-My "dream" college/family dream
-My priorities/urgencies
+my job, my friends, my family, my education
-My routines
+morning/afternoon/evening/night

Audience
+The reader: possibly a conversation to the reader
+First person view for a more personal note.

Question to Answer
+What am I doing here?
+Why am I here?
+Should I be here?
+Is it right for me to be here?
+Did I make the right decision?

Key Writing Strategies
+Examples: pressure from families (siblings/expectations/their dreams, not mine)
+Problem and solution: did not get into a university, have to take to alternative by going to community college.
+Cause and effect: what happened after I went to community college?

(I have no bad feelings about being in community college, it is just that I was kind of forced to go to community college.)