Analysing the Structure of Changes by Tupac Shakur

Changes - Tupac Shakur

Changes, a rap song written and performed by Tupac Shakur, is about racial discrimination, and is intended to encourage a change into the way African American people are treated. The rap is organised with three main components; the verse, the hook, an interlude and an outro. The song contains three verses with a repeated hook in between, and an interlude between the second hook and the third verse, then ending with an outro. Shakur does implement rhymes in his song, however he does not follow the scheme throughout; From lines 7-12, his rhymes follow the AABBCC scheme, with ‘cares’ and ‘welfare’, ‘brothers’ and ‘others’, and ‘said’ and ‘dead’. Whereas from lines 11-15 in the second verse, the endings do not rhyme. Additionally, he incorporates internal rhyming too, such as from lines 18 and 19, he rhymes ‘way’ with ‘today’ and then back with ‘way’. Furthermore, in every verse the initial line, “I see no changes,” is repeated, and this repetition helps emphasize the lack of consideration for the African American issues, while also giving an introduction to the various issues that he will discuss in each verse. Not only that, but he makes use of alliteration as well. When Shakur raps, “all I see is racist faces, misplaced hate makes disgrace to races,” a lot of the words sound alike to each other, such as faces, disgrace and races. This helps the rap flow smoothly, which in turn makes the rap sound nicer and conveys his message better. Within the hook, the line, “That’s just the way it is, things will never be the same,” is repeated thrice. The hook is meant to be the most memorable part of the song and should generally support the song’s claim, however here is seems almost contradictory, or seen in a mocking manner. In his verses, he encourages change to occur in the way African American people are treated by others and to change their general behaviour within society. Yet in the hook, he can be interpreted as almost making the listeners guilty by implying that there are so many issues, but in the end everyone will resolve to saying, ‘that’s just the way it is’. This negative connotation to the sentence could encourage others to go out and prove him wrong. It is further supported by these lines, “but some things will never change, try to show another way, but you stayin’ in the dope game,” which implies how some people aren’t willing to change and still say the same. In terms of his style, he raps in a non-standard English, using the AAVE dialect. This incorporates many abbreviations, reduced grammar, and slangs. Due to this, it allows the rap to flow more smoothly and that benefit’s the delivering of his message. While some of the slang might be unfamiliar to many, the audience is able to understand it through the context surrounding it; for instance, when he raps, “‘I made a G today,’ … Sellin’ crack to the kids,” the G here can be interpreted as money. In conclusion, Shakur implements rhyme, alliteration and repetition in his song to help emphasize his message, and his AAVE dialect and slangs aide the flow of the song to better persuade the listeners.