Its Time for a Change

Although there are many Hip Hop songs that lyrics are degrading and hurtful; there are also songs that promotes the exact opposite, for example, “Keep Your Head Up” by Tupac Shakur. In “Keep Your Head Up” Tupac shows his compassionate side in this anthem for women. In the first verse Tupac states “I know they like to beat ya down a lot/ When you come around the block brothers clown a lot/ but please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up/ forgive up don’t forget, girl keep you head up/ and when he tells you you aint nuttin don’t believe him/ and if he can’t learn to love you, you should leave him” (A-Z Lyrics). Listeners can assume that Tupac is speaking to any woman that has been mistreated in any way, verbal or physical. In this same verse Tupac questions why do some men do these things to women, “Since we all come from a women/ I wonder why we take from our women/ why do we rape our women, do we hate our women? / I think it’s time to kill to kill for our women/ time to heal our women, be real to our women” (A-Z Lyrics). Mr. Shakur is encouraging women not to give up. He understands one may be tired of dealing with misogynistic behaviors but he wants women to remember to keep their head up. He also feels it’s time for a change and men should be real to women instead of hurting them.

For women to lose this “image” that have obtained in the Hip Hop industry first and foremost women need to stop portraying their selves the way they do in music videos.  Also Hip Hop artist needs to stop referring to women as bitches and hoes in their songs.  Most Hip Hop fans are young adults and they need to hear how to treat women with respect. If there were more songs like “Keep Your Head up” misogyny would not be such a issue.

Above is a picture of a woman and man shaking hands, showing respect.