Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

I caught this in a documentary I was watching tonight on Tupac. He was only 17 when he said this but as was often the case, his words were insightful and had a prophetic ring of social justice to them. Check it out!

To some, Tupac Shakur was no more than a filthy rapper and an ex-con thug. Indeed, he had some lyrics that make me a little more than uncomfortable and his lifestyle was certainly not the type that I myself live. But the truth is, Tupac was an incredible poet and a master of the pen. A wordsmith who died way too young--age 25--I have always been drawn to his passionate lyrics and literary creativity. Some might ask, why an aspiring biblical scholar like myself would spend time on such un-Christian things or even waste my time on something they see as less than scholarly? To that, all I can say is that within Pac's songs, there is great theological wrestling and depth. There is also, as I have already intimated, great poeticism and cultural savvy. In many ways--I have noted this before here on Pisteuomen--Tupac was like the prophets of the Old Testament. His challenges to the powers that be, his calls to change our ways of living (yes, even his own), his dealings with the di...

A couple of nights ago I stumbled upon a sweet mini-series that Bio (the TV channel) is doing: Final 24. Final 24 is a basically a series that covers the final 24 hours of a deceased but famous person's life (e.g. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, John Belushi, JFK, Marvin Gaye, Nicole Simpson, etc.). The episode I caught covered the final 24 hours of Tupac Shakur's life. It was very interesting. It spent some time talking about a number of different theories surrounding Pac's death (e.g. a setup by Suge, payback from the crips, someone from Biggie's clan, etc.). Suprisingly, it didn't even throw out the speculation that he had not died, that is, the whole Makiavelli theory. Anyway, it was pretty interesting. Click the photo to watch the first three minutes of the documentary.

Yesterday, I spent about 30-40 minutes in the Kalamazoo library. During my brief stint there, I picked up a book I had not yet read, Tupac Shakur's, The Rose That Grew From Concrete . One of my favorite poems was "Tears Of A Teenage Mother". Here are the very simple, yet, very profound words: He's braggin about his new Jordan's The baby just ran out of milk He's buyin gold every two weeks The baby just ran out of Pampers He's buyin clothes for his new girl and the baby just ran out of medicine You ask for money for the baby? The daddy just ran out the door

There's no doubt about it, Tupac was prone to objectifying women. Actually, it might be more correct to suggest that he glamourized his sexual encounters with various ladies. Indeed, this is a large part of what rap music talks about and a large part of what rap culture has identified itself with. But behind the sexual smokescreens, Tupac had a deep appreciation for women, not least his mother, Afeni Shakur whom he raps about in Dear Mama and other songs. Ironically, while one part of rap culture objectifies women, another part lifts them up. It is young, single women who are sexual objects but the mothers, especially single ones, who are heroes. Common sense would seem to say that if there former didn't exist, then perhaps all women would have the latter applied to them. Who knows, though? Anyways, I say all that to say that there is a certain matriarchy that coarses through the veins of many of Pac's lyrics. Every time I listen to his "Keep Ya Head" up, I am mov...

A couple of days ago I was having a conversation with a fellow, a not decided on Christianity type of guy, who said something that gave me a little grin and a stomach ache at the same time. I asked him: "Who do you think is going to win the election?" He replied: "Hopefully not him (he called him Obaka, purposefully saying his name wrong--as a slander)." He spoke again and this time his words were exactly (I mean exactly) the same as something Tupac said in a song about 10 or 15 years ago, he replied: "We ain't ready to see a black president." I grinned a bit because I knew this guy had never listed to Pac and it was odd that they said the same exact words. But the grin quickly wore off as my stomach turned to a pit--this guy was harboring prejudices that were totally uncalled for.

Jim West has requested prayer for myself and Nick Norelli. I am tempted not to respond to Jim's cry but I just cannot resist. For the record, 1) I did compare Tupac's work (not just hip-hop in general) with Israel's prophets and, 2) I did compare King and Pac. To call either of these a "gross bastardization of comparison" is to either skew the comparisons or to be completely ill-informed of the prophets, King or Tupac. My comparison of Shakur and the prophets was not the same as Norelli's. I do not take the view that these rappers were speaking self-fulfilling prophecies (btw, this sounds way too much like lingo from the Word of Faith Movement for me to ever use it). My comparison, Jim, was that like Israel's prophets, Tupac spoke about oprression, social injustice, political and religious corruption, poverty, spirituality, etc. Either you are ignorant of Tupac's music and have never listened to it or you misread the prophets and miss these ele...

As far as secular rap goes, I must admit, I quit listening to it a number of years ago. However, I must also admit that whenever I hear Tupac, I get very inspired. In many ways, Tupac reminds me of Israel's prophets. Like them, his lyrics deal with issues of social injustice, political oppression, marred relationships, spirituality, familial devotion, crime, sin, brokenness, forgiveness, redempton, judgment, etc. Some might take offense at it but I see Tupac as a Martin Luther King, Jr. type of figure. King was certainly prophetic (not necessarily in the sense of "prediction" but rather forthtelling, preaching)! Though the two have thier differences (King and Pac), they also share many similarities. That's why they both can still be so inspiring. The fact is, truth is truth and truth is everlasting. That's also why King's and Pac's messages still ring true today. That's why what they spoke of when they were alive, still has bearing on what's going ...