Mock Annotated Bibliography

Student's Name

English 104

Annotated Bibliography

Iwamoto, Derek. “Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of

a Popular Hip-Hop Artist.” The Black Scholar 33.2 (2003): 44-49. Print.

Shakur is a misunderstood Black hip-hop artist to many hip-hop critics such as Bill O’Reilly and Bill Cosby. What these critics do not consider is what positive influence hip-hop music has on its listeners and the Black community. They don’t look at the context of the lyrics in which they are in place. They dissect these lyrics and pull out any negative influences and criticize its affect on the listeners and the Black community. Predominantly, Black males should be aggressive. They should assert authenticity by violence, drug dealing, and having sex with lots of women.

Keeling, Kara. ‘“A Homegrown Revolutionary’?: Tupac Shakur and the Legacy of the Black

Panther Party.” The Black Scholar 29.2 (1999): 59-64. Print.

The anger we see projected in Shakur’s lyrics stem from a rich family background associated with the Black Panthers. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was acquitted on charges of a plot to bomb public spaces in New York City, N.Y. Shakur lived at the very onset of oppression in his community. He was shot five times before the drive-by shooting that inevitably led to his death. His lyrics display black-on-black violence, misogyny toward Black women, money as a status symbol, and drug dealing. Keeling states that Shakur never quite lived up to his potential as opportunities were available to the Black community since the ‘60s and ‘70s. Shakur, the son of a Black Panther and the rapper, are two very different persons. Many critics don’t consider this in regard to his lyrics. His family wanted to live in an ideal world where possibility and opportunity were available to all persons, but Shakur prepared them to live in the world that he knew.

Pinn. Anthony B. “Followers of Black Jesus on Alert: Thoughts on the Story of Tupac Shakur’s

Life/Death/Life.” Black Theology: An International Journal 7.1 (2009): 31-44. Print.

Shakur’s controversial lyrics paint a cruel, but accurate picture of the life living in the inner city and the prejudices that followed his family and the Black community. Some critics or even those in the hip-hop industry might call into question Shakur’s authenticity. Pinn chronicles Shakur and his family’s repeated attempts to avoid poverty. He watched his mother succumb to her addiction to cocaine. It was these life experiences that fueled Shakur to showcase the thug lifestyle in his lyrics. Although his intentions were not to merely entertain listeners, but to educate them on the harsh realities affecting the Black community.