{"id":950,"date":"2012-02-23T20:36:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=950"},"modified":"2012-02-23T20:36:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:36:52","slug":"margaret-walker-center-hosts-forum-on-the-legacy-of-tupac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2012\/02\/23\/margaret-walker-center-hosts-forum-on-the-legacy-of-tupac\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Walker Center hosts forum on the legacy of Tupac"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jackson City Council member and former Tupac Shakur Attorney, Chokwe Lumumba.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

De\u2019Arbreya Lee<\/strong>
\nBlue & White Flash \/ Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fire drill and evacuations did not prevent the celebration of the life and impact of one of the hip-hop world\u2019s most influential entertainers, Tupac Amaru Shakur.
\nJackson State University\u2019s Margaret Walker Center hosted, \u201cR U Still Down? A Conference on the Career and Legacy of Tupac Amaru Shakur\u201d on Feb. 16, 2012 in the Liberal Arts Building, which experienced a fire drill in the midst of a presentation.
\nShakur was a man of many trades, assuming the roles of author, actor, poet and rapper. Since the Las Vegas, Nev., shooting that later claimed the entertainer\u2019s life on Sept. 13, 1996, the legacy, life and mystery of Shakur\u2019s death has been the topic of many scholarly journals, books and lectures, even 15 years later.
\nThe conference was moderated by hip-hop journalist, author, poet, writer, and scholar, Charlie Braxton and JSU history instructor Garrad Lee.
\nBraxton said that the conference was a collaborative work by himself and Lee that came about after Braxton penned the article \u201cR U Still Down? The Legacy of Tupac Shakur\u201d in the Dublin, Ireland based magazine \u201cOne More Robot\u201d.
\n\u201cI thought that it was important that young, African-American men who are being shaped by artists such as Waka Flocka Flame and Young Jeezy, who claim to be influenced by Tupac, understand the social and political commentary that is also a major part of Tupac\u2019s work,\u201d said Braxton.
\nJSU-TV streamed the conference live to the JSU website and thousands of others viewing from the Truth About Tupac website, watched as Braxton opened the panel discussion by saying, \u201cWe are gathered here today to look at the legacy and career of one of the most prolific, most profound, and most popular rappers in all of hip-hop.\u201d
\nThe conference included a host of panelists: Memphis, Tenn., hip-hop artist Al Kapone; Political Science Department Chair and Professor Byron Orey; DJ Phingaprint; producer, jazz musician, hip-hop artist, John \u201cJ-DOGG\u201d Shaw; Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Nsombi Lambright; Brad \u201cKamikaze\u201d Franklin; emcee and Maroon Music label owner Marcel Blac; and\u00a0 hip-hop artist Skipp Koon.
\nDuring the 1 p.m. session, the panelists discussed Shakur\u2019s vocal, written and film works as well as the influence that the young artist made in society from his early and later life experiences.
\nOrey examined the evolution, devolution, demise and ultimate destruction of Tupac Shakur using examples from the scholastic argument written by Josh Nisker in the article \u201cOnly God Can Judge Me\u201d: Tupac Shakur, the Legal System, and Lyrical Subversion.
\nHe also examined the early life of Shakur through selected readings of the poet\u2019s book, \u201cThe Rose That Grew From Concrete\u201d, that examined the internalized hatred that may be perceived when analyzing the later part of his life.
\nRapper Al Kapone touched on Shakur\u2019s strong upbringing as an offspring of a Black Panther Party member and the decline of the politically aware artist after his role as Bishop in the film \u201cJuice\u201d.
\n\u201cHe played that role so well that people kind of associated Bishop with Tupac. Bishop became Tupac in the lyrics,\u201d said Kapone. \u201cI was kind of conflicted in a way because I was wondering, what about the guy that spoke about Brenda had a baby?\u201d
\nDespite his thoughts of Shakur\u2019s changing nature, Kapone said that he began to notice the major impact that Tupac had on the community when news of the rapper\u2019s death spread sorrow among many.
\n\u201cI was blown away. I wanted to know \u2018how could he have had this affect on a lot of the black males?\u2019 It made me go back and start paying attention to some things [about Shakur] that I didn\u2019t pay attention to before,\u201d said Kapone.
\nHe added: \u201cHe wasn\u2019t the first of his time, but for some reason, he tapped into the community in a way that some of the other artists didn\u2019t.\u201d
\nKoon also agreed that Tupac\u2019s impact was widespread.
\n\u201cPac touched a nerve in human beings that will probably never be touched again. Pac defined what it meant to be a black male in the post-crack era,\u201d said Koon.
\nThe \u201cWomen, Revolution and tennis shoes\u201d artist discussed the long existence of Shakur within the black male culture and his observations of documentaries of the late artist.
\n\u201cHis celebrity has been elevated to a point that as black men, even if that is not our life experience, those are the phrases that we should use to define our lives,\u201d said Koon
\nChokwe Lumumba had long looked after Shakur in the family created by the Black Panther Party and welcomed Shakur to Jackson, Miss., years ago, giving him a tour of Tougaloo College and serving as Shakur\u2019s representative in the 1994 legal case.
\n\u201cWhen we talk about Brother Tupac, you\u2019re talking about a multidimensional brother. A powerful figure,\u201d said Lumumba. \u201cHe understood music and could put verse to music.\u201d
\nHe added: \u201cHe really was a messenger, somewhat of a profit of his time. Profits come many times; they come to each generation in order to bring the messages which are necessary for that generation to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

De\u2019Arbreya Lee Blue & White Flash \/ Staff Writer Fire drill and evacuations did not prevent the celebration of the life and impact of one of the hip-hop world\u2019s most influential entertainers, Tupac Amaru Shakur. Jackson State University\u2019s Margaret Walker Center hosted, \u201cR U Still Down? A Conference on the Career and Legacy of Tupac […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}