Tupac Shakur's "My Block"

In Tupac Shakur’s “My Block”, he mentions the many hardships and obstacles with being an African American in urban America and what it was like for him to grow up in his neighborhood. Drugs, gangs, and murder are a few of the things he addresses in order to establish the main theme of spreading awareness of life as an African American and simply opening the eyes of the public. The first problem he mentions is the prejudice towards African Americans saying, “I’ve been marked for death,” essentially saying that life was decided for him as soon as he was born. He expands on this later on saying “the three strikes law is drastic and certain death for us ghetto bastards.” So, not only does he expand on the idea of life being decided for him, but also mentions how the judicial system is out for him and the people in his neighborhood. He then solidifies this statement, saying “the only time they notice a n**ga is when he’s clutching on a four-five,” stating that African Americans only seem to be known for gangbanging and murder. He then moves on to the drug problems in his hood saying he’s “fearing jail but crack sales got me living well.” A lot of African American males drop out of high school, and are then forced into the gang life “mislead from childhood,” and “forever trapped in this drug life.” Finally, he goes into all the murder and homicide in his hood saying, “so many young kids had to die caught strays from AK’s and the drive by.” So, because of all of the drugs and gangs, it’s not just other gangsters being killed, but innocent people as well. There are other smaller problems he mentions as well like his “single mother with a problem child,” and calling the world he’s living in “a man’s world.”  However, he mostly talks about drugs, gangs, and murder dominating the lives of him and his peers. This is all done in order to open the eyes of the listener, as African Americans at the time were the only ones who knew what was happening behind the scenes.