De’Arbreya 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’s most influential entertainers, Tupac Amaru Shakur.
Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center hosted, “R U Still Down? A Conference on the Career and Legacy of Tupac Amaru Shakur” on Feb. 16, 2012 in the Liberal Arts Building, which experienced a fire drill in the midst of a presentation.
Shakur 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’s life on Sept. 13, 1996, the legacy, life and mystery of Shakur’s death has been the topic of many scholarly journals, books and lectures, even 15 years later.
The conference was moderated by hip-hop journalist, author, poet, writer, and scholar, Charlie Braxton and JSU history instructor Garrad Lee.
Braxton said that the conference was a collaborative work by himself and Lee that came about after Braxton penned the article “R U Still Down? The Legacy of Tupac Shakur” in the Dublin, Ireland based magazine “One More Robot”.
“I 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’s work,” said Braxton.
JSU-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, “We 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.”
The 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 “J-DOGG” Shaw; Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Nsombi Lambright; Brad “Kamikaze” Franklin; emcee and Maroon Music label owner Marcel Blac; and hip-hop artist Skipp Koon.
During the 1 p.m. session, the panelists discussed Shakur’s vocal, written and film works as well as the influence that the young artist made in society from his early and later life experiences.
Orey examined the evolution, devolution, demise and ultimate destruction of Tupac Shakur using examples from the scholastic argument written by Josh Nisker in the article “Only God Can Judge Me”: Tupac Shakur, the Legal System, and Lyrical Subversion.
He also examined the early life of Shakur through selected readings of the poet’s book, “The Rose That Grew From Concrete”, that examined the internalized hatred that may be perceived when analyzing the later part of his life.
Rapper Al Kapone touched on Shakur’s 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 “Juice”.
“He played that role so well that people kind of associated Bishop with Tupac. Bishop became Tupac in the lyrics,” said Kapone. “I was kind of conflicted in a way because I was wondering, what about the guy that spoke about Brenda had a baby?”
Despite his thoughts of Shakur’s changing nature, Kapone said that he began to notice the major impact that Tupac had on the community when news of the rapper’s death spread sorrow among many.
“I was blown away. I wanted to know ‘how could he have had this affect on a lot of the black males?’ It made me go back and start paying attention to some things [about Shakur] that I didn’t pay attention to before,” said Kapone.
He added: “He wasn’t the first of his time, but for some reason, he tapped into the community in a way that some of the other artists didn’t.”
Koon also agreed that Tupac’s impact was widespread.
“Pac 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,” said Koon.
The “Women, Revolution and tennis shoes” artist discussed the long existence of Shakur within the black male culture and his observations of documentaries of the late artist.
“His 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,” said Koon
Chokwe 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’s representative in the 1994 legal case.
“When we talk about Brother Tupac, you’re talking about a multidimensional brother. A powerful figure,” said Lumumba. “He understood music and could put verse to music.”
He added: “He 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.”
