Changes - The Gospel of a Thug?

Changes (2Pac Shakur)

I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself/is life worth living should I blast myself?/I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black/my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch/Cops give a damn about a negro/pull the trigger kill a n*gga he's a hero/Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares/one less hungry mouth on the welfare

First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal to brothers/give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other/It's time to fight back that's what Huey said/2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead/I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other/We gotta start makin' changes learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers/and that's how it's supposed to be/how can the devil take a brother if he's close to me?/I'd love to go back to when we played as kids/but things changed, and that's the way it is

That's just the way it is/Things'll never be the same/That's just the way it is

I see no changes all I see is racist faces/misplaced hate makes disgrace to races/We under I wonder what it takes to make this one better place, let's erase the wasted/Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right'/cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight/and only time we chill is when we kill each other/it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other/And although it seems heaven sent/We ain't ready, to see a black President/It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks

But some things will never change/try to show another way but you stayin' in the dope game/Now tell me what's a mother to do/bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you/You gotta operate the easy way/"I made a G today"/But you made it in a sleazy way/sellin' crack to the kids/"I gotta get paid"/Well hey, well that's the way it is

"We gotta make a change...It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive"

And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace/It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East/Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs/so the police can bother me/And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do/But now I'm back with the blacks givin' it back to you/Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, crack you up and pimp slap you up/You gotta learn to hold ya own/they get jealous when they see u with your mobile phone.

But tell the cops they can't touch this/I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this/That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool/my mama didn't raise no fool/And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped/and I never get to lay back'/Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs/some buck that I roughed up way back/comin' back after all these years/rat-tat-tat-tat-tat/that's the way it is

**I personally love this song and to me it represents the gospel very clearly (and what a prophet actually does - speaks to a generation all the while identifying with the people he is speaking to). Call this my respect for one man's desire to change the way things are.