“Unsolved” by Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls

Netflix has released a series called “Unsolved.” In its description, it is a “scripted True Crime series based on the murder investigations of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.” (Netflix) The show takes the viewer through the police investigations of the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. If you do not know, Tupac was killed in a drive by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996 at the age of 25, and Biggie was also shot and killed by an unknown person in March 1997 at the age of 24.

Both rappers were critics of society when alive and still are because they and used their platforms to tell stories of who they were, the life around them and much more. Tupac recorded a song in 1992 called “Changes.” After his death in 1996, the song was remixed in 1998 and was part of his after death album, “Greatest Hits.” Throughout the song, Tupac speaks about police brutality and racism in America, I am going to talk about the importance of this and why it was important. I will not be sensoring any lyrics.

In “Changes,” Tupac says “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.” He is clearly speaking about the issue of police brutality, and the unfortunate fact that in the United states minorities are more likely to receive deadly force. I have found data collected by the Washington Post on the use of deadly force by police officers starting in 2015. The Washington post stated that, “relative to the portion of the population, black people are overrepresented among all those killed by police under all circumstances. Black people made up 13% of the population. However, in 2015 they accounted for 26% of those that were killed by police. In 2016, 24%, and in 2017, 23%.” In other words, black people are still the victims of the deadly use of force by police officers and at a rate that is almost twice the rate as the general population! This is clearly still a problem and through music Tupac told the world.

It is not hidden that America has a long history of discrimination and racism. Over 20 years ago Tupac spoke about the racism and discrimination he saw in America. In his song "Changes," he said, “All I see is racist faces, misplaced hate makes disgrace to races.” He also said “some things will never change.” It is clear to me that some things have not changed. NBCNews.com states that 36 percent of Americans do not believe racism is a major problem in this country, they believe “we,” as a country have moved passed that. However, numbers say otherwise. According to data from the FBI on The National Press Office Website. “Hate crimes are still motivated by race more than any other factor.” For example, in 2014, 48.3 percent of hate crimes were motivated by race. In second place was sexual orientation, with “18.7 percent”. This data was only five years old and what Tupac said was twenty years ago.. Racism still is a big problem in America. Through Hip Hop/Rap music it was spoken about.

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