Tupac Shakur’s ‘Black Jesus’

This profound lyricist who had a way with words is considered by many to be the most significant rap artist (if not artist PERIOD) to have ever lived. His integration of issues that plagued black humanity in America and the thug life with music proved to establish him as some sort of proprietor of poetic justice (which is the name of one of his movies, actually!!) While most other rappers of his time and of today (but not ALL!) flaunt their wealth and their women (but let’s be careful not to make black male rappers THE face of misogyny… ) , Tupac steadily rapped about what Scripture calls refers to as the “unseen forces”. The patterns of racism , oppression, and classism were amongst the most impactful topics to which Shakur would allude. With such songs as “Run Tha Streetz”, “Ghetto Gospel”, and “On My Block”, it becomes apparent , just from the song titles, that 2pac’s biggest thrust was his commitment to making music that reflected the community he came from and felt solidarity with. Truly, Tupac was and his legacy still lives on as a prophetic voice in an age of white supremacist imperial America.

The song I would like to share on this edition of Musical Jesus is entitled “Black Jesus”. This simplistic yet provocative title is quite telling of the contents of the song itself. In the lyrics, the various rappers ( one of which being Tupac, of course) are seemingly searching for black Jesus. A Christ figure that they can say truly walks among them, knows their struggles, and fights for their causes. While the rest of “holy” white America celebrates the reign of their messiah each Sunday morning with the ceremonious ringing of the church bells within the confines of their ivory chapels, the messiah of the hood rats, the forgotten, the dispossessed, the despised, the marginalized, the “scum of the earth” just does not seem to get quite the same fanfare. The song, then, is about the quest, the relentless search for their own Black Jesus. I could not help but see the connections between this song and much of what Dr. James Cone writes about in his incredible work, God of The Oppressed.

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