The most admirable quality about Tupac Shakur was (arguably) his empathy. He knew personally what it was like to struggle, to feel like he was stuck in a trap. Thinking about the economic disparity and racial injustice in America, there was a sense of gloom and doom. Consequently, when rap started to pay for him, he got to see both sides of the aisle.
However, rather than rest on those laurels, Pac fixated on his prior struggles. He felt burdened by the knowledge of what it’s like to live a good life while everyone else suffers. By knowing both, his catharsis was hampered, a never-ending torment. In an interview with Ed Gordon in 1994, Tupac described this state of being as a curse God struck him down with. “If I can’t live free, if I can’t live with the same respect as the next man, I don’t want to be here. God has cursed me to see what life should be like. If God wanted me to be this person and be happy here, he wouldn’t let me feel so oppressed. He wouldn’t let me feel so trampled on. He wouldn’t let me think the things I think.”
Tupac Looked at The Good Life as a Curse Because of How Others Suffer Instead
It’s a selfless existence, where his own success can only bring him so much joy. When there are people crumbling due to the inequities of the American system, how can you feel unadulterated pleasure? There was always a part of Pac that thought about his fellow man and how they should feel peace. He knows what it’s like to be at the bottom. Ultimately, he looked at his position of power as a way to be a tool for God.
“I feel like I’m doing God’s work. Just because I don’t have nothing to pass around for people to put money in a bucket don’t mean I ain’t doing God’s work. These ghetto kids ain’t God’s children and I don’t see no missionaries coming through there,” Tupac explained.
“Reverend Jackson do his up in the middle class, and he go to the White House and have dinner and pray over the president. I’m up in the hood… doing work with my folks. Just because I don’t live there don’t mean I don’t go there. I got to go there because I can’t hang nowhere else,” Tupac added.
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