Tupac Shakur / Huges

1. The Webster's dictionary defines the word "Gospel" as the message concerning Christ: something accepted or promoted as infallible truth or as a guiding principle or doctrine. "Ghetto Gospel", by Tipac Shakur is a true picture of how life in the ghetto is. This song clearly illustrates the day to day trials of people who live in poverty stricken neighbourhoods. In the second stanza he makes reference to an old lady living out of a bag, and he also makes reference to a pregnant lady on drugs. All of these are very present in poverty stricken neighbourhoods , which makes his song true; hence the reason for the title "Ghetto Gospel".
In the fourth stanza, he talks about the importance of grandmothers in ghetto children's lives. He talks about what his grandmother did for him and how grandmothers takes the place of mothers and dead fathers. Today statistics shows that in poor neighbourhoods many of the children are cared for by grandparents, mainly grandmothers. I believe that this song is a true depiction of life in the ghetto.

2. By reading the words of the song, one will think that the video will be much more graphic. While I was reading the words of the song, I imagined images from the ghetto and created pictures in my mind of a mother holding a child, a pregnant lady on drugs and everything I could have imagined the ghetto to be. However, after viewing the video I saw a different picture. The video depicted a young man reflecting on his life. The video started with a young man lying in the street, in a pool of blood, with the EMT coming to his assistance. Then the next scene continued with that said young man, as if his soul was reenacting all the things that he did that day before he was gunned down. We saw scenes of him in the street with his homies, as was mentioned in the words of the song. Also, there were scenes of him with his family. This showed the viewers another side to this young, a softer side. The video focused on this one young man who lived in the ghetto and hung out in the streets. We saw the thug side of him in the street with other guys, and we saw another side of him looking up to the Sky, as if he is asking God to rescue him from the ghetto streets.
On the other hand, by reading the song you will get a more broad view of life in the ghetto for everyone, and not just the ghetto like of one person.

3. The line " We out of the projects, jumped into another form of slavery", means that although many blacks are successful there are still held back by many limitations. Although slavery is abolished and there are laws against discrimination, society still considers blacks to be second class and because of this the black race is not entirely free as our leaders would like us to believe.

4. Although Hughes' and Tupac's poem both relates to death, their portrayal of it is very different. In Hughes' poem, there is a sad tone throughout the poem. He refers to the shinning street lights as tears. He talks about a satin box and flowers that come from the poor boy's friends. There is a constant repetition of "Night funeral in Harlem", which reminds the reader that it is a funeral he is talking about. And then there are the lines "when it was all over", " And the lid shut on his head" , "the organ had done played" and "the last prayers been said", which depicts the end. The emotion I would use to summarize Hughes' pom is "Sad" or "Sorrowful".
On the other hand, Tupac's poem "In the event of my demise", was the opposite to sad. Tupac talked about dying for what be believes in. He talks about what he wants to accomplish before his death and how he love the people who were positive in his death. The word I would use to summarize the emotion behind Tupac's poem is "Stoical".

5. In researching Blues music, I've learnt that this genre of music generally have a somber tone; and lines in the song is usually repeated. I also learnt that this form of music originated within the black race. All of these characteristics is common in Hughes' poem. Lines are repeated and there is a somber tone throughout the poem. Lines 14 to 15 refers to sweet blues, coming from a black man's soul.