To Live and Die in LA: Connection to Inner City Violence

By Amanda Santiago
Staff Writer for Streetgangs.com Magazine
December 10, 2002

Tupac after being shot 5 times while he was in the lobby of a Manhattan music studio in 1995

It.s the city of angels and constant danger, raps West coast artist Tupac Shakur in his song .To Live and Die in L.A.. (1996). Tragically, the young star had already fallen victim to murder by the time this track was released. As high profile as Tupac.s death was and still is, it has yet to be solved. However, one result has been a reflection on his lyrics and what he stood for as a rapper representing California and, more specifically, Los Angeles (LA). Unfortunately, critics have focused on the unappealing, graphic details of the artist.s songs as a way to shun his credibility about life in LA and the inner city. But with a closer look (in this case to the song .To Live and Die in L.A..), one can find that Tupac reveals the mournful reality that exists in LA.s ghetto areas. Although critics have discredited Tupac.s explicit lyrics, .To Live and Die in L.A..s. (TLDLA) portrayal and justification of inner city violence is a persuasive refute against depictions that Los Angeles is without social complications.

 

Tupac album cover

Instead of supporting idealistic views of LA, TLDLA expresses that adversity does exist in its inner city areas. Furthermore, the deliberate ignorance to the ghetto.s turmoil prompts the resulting violence. As Susan Anderson tells in .A City Called Heaven,. South Central L.A..s experience with the American Dream of leading well-to-do lives has not been as appealing as claims have made it seem. In fact, destruction has occurred while residents seek success. Anderson lists that in the inner city .manufacturing shut down, working families fled, crack invaded, middle-class migration increased, and the government safety net was yanked out from under thousands. (359, 1996). Therefore, the descriptions that TLDLA produces about illegal and violent activity can be linked to the fact that barriers and hardships in ghettos exist and are pervasive. The backdrop that Anderson describes are not addressed in the popular, exalted references of LA.s society. For example, Tupac states, Livin. life thug style, so I can.t smile/ Writin. to my people when they ask for pictures/ Thinkin. Cali just fun and bitches (.To Live..). Here, the song explains the grief of .Thug Life. in the inner city that the general audience is not aware of.

 

As a promotion of popular idealism, the Beach Boys 1965 anthem .California Girls. does not acknowledge difficulties that arise in search of LA.s offerings, thereby causing Tupac.s accounts of .Thug Life. to be commonly misunderstood. .California Girls. asserts that the best, beautiful women are available in that state. By comparing those girls to others around the world and ultimately choosing the .California Girls,. the song suggests that places all around the great big world are not as perfect a setting as California. Of course, maintaining the most attractive image as possible is an effective way to draw people to Los Angeles because if social realities are explained, the outside audience will be less likely to praise LA.s overall appeal. Tupac's song fares against this risk by explicitly exposing and rationalizing the misfortunes of the ghetto that have been underrepresented in mainstream society. His view is thus a more comprehensive one that he feels the general audience is not used to. With his explanation of .Thug Life. as an acronym for The Hate U Gave Little Infants Fucks Everybody, one can see that some of his lyrics are meant to bring a deeper perspective to the idea of a utopian LA.

 

In the song, Tupac bluntly speaks of LA.s impoverished areas in an earnest attempt to enlighten ignorant views about the inner city. Some common associations that are made with these ghettos include: poverty, gang violence, drug use and sales and, in sum, a situation of chaos. But the dangerous nature of these areas has been seen as .arriv[ing] at this position in the popular imagination after a century-long cycle of segregation, neglect, and bad publicity. (Fulton 288). Therefore, the lack of consideration and aid that has been offered to the inner city area of South Central LA has left its residents in a depressive state where they are left to support themselves through any means possible. As an LA-based artist who experienced a ghetto lifestyle, Tupac knows and expresses the impact of this through his lyrics. Perhaps the most powerful and straightforward line in TLDLA is that Los Angeles.s society is Blind to a broken man.s dream. As a result, the song explicitly describes how South Central residents who, in finding themselves having to resort to .hustles. and .currency chasin.. for survival, fall victim to the consequences of (gang) murder, fighting, and strong police surveillance resulting in incarceration (.To Live..).

 

TLDLA addresses that there is a constant pursuit of material wealth in LA, but seeks to elaborate on how the perceptions of this wealth can be negatively altered. In the song, Tupac professes that Los Angeles is Where everyday we try to fatten our pockets. Because this is the first line to the lyrics, Tupac emphasizes the idea that obtaining money is the main goal sought by citizens or people attracted to the city. Relative to the American Dream, financial success is presumably a concept that can be realized in Los Angeles- the City of Angels and therefore, hope. As William Fulton states in his 2001 piece .Whose Riot Was This, Anyway?,. LA attracted people because of its opportunity to live a middle-class lifestyle. This proved particularly appealing for blacks, who would come to characterize inner city ghettos, because such an existence was not made available to them virtually anywhere else in the U.S. (290). Though, as Tupac.s lyrics declare, along with that encouraging notion is .constant danger. (.To Live..). To elaborate, one will hear his recounts of murder, police surveillance, and gang activity. But the song explains that this disarray is actually caused by misleading professions that only in LA can one achieve happiness. As a result of rapping against such ideals, Tupac creates a paradox in depictions of success in Los Angeles.

 

In an effective fashion, the chorus of TLDLA utilizes the proverbial claim that LA is the center for obtaining success and, in doing so, creates the refute that seeking a well-off lifestyle can be more troublesome than claims have made it seem. Interestingly, the chorus incorporates the tendency to view LA as an idealistic city by repeating To live and die in LA/ It.s the place to be /You.ve got to be there to know it/ What everybody wanna see. Such phrases promote the belief that being in LA brings fortune because they call people to assemble in a place where .everybody. will find universal satisfaction in their lives. What draws even more attention is that the chorus of TLDLA is reminiscent of a past hit song which served the same purpose. There.s no business like show business.everything about it is appealing.nowhere can you get that happy feeling. are the main lines in 1954.s .There.s No Business Like Show Business. sung by Ethel Merman. Because Hollywood.s entertainment industry is a part of LA, referring to its .show business. as the only way to be happy further implies that Los Angeles houses the key to leading a pleasurable life.

 

Because the influence of historical, pop culture boosterism has played a part in producing the flourishing image of LA, Tupac incorporates this technique, but takes advantage of its meaning for an oppositional purpose. In TLDLA, the artist has intelligently set up a rationale/qualifier effect around his chorus. Instead of allowing his lyrics continue to attract people to LA, he describes the complicated conditions one will find in the city.s ghettos. With respect to Albert Hammond.s 1972 song .It Never Rains in Southern California,. one may find yet another portrayal of LA.s society, but with this being more relevant to Tupac.s intentions. Hammond sings Seems it never rains in Southern California. [but I.m] Out of work, I.m out of my head.I.m underloved, I.m underfed.Don.t they warn ya. It pours. Therefore, although he maintains that one should come to L.A., Tupac .warns. the audience about conditions in LA by giving them a wider perspective on what they will find there.

 

The violent everyday struggles that Tupac describes in his lyrics have become so controversial that conservative critics have discredited any logic which justifies motives for the violence. An example is Michael Saunders, writer for the Boston Globe, who, during Tupac.s fatal shooting in 1996, claimed that the rapper.s explicit lyrics about the disturbing life of South Central violence, no matter how influential in creating a straightforward image, were written in vain. He asserts this because he believes that .the gun. is more powerful than words for those who participate in ghetto lifestyles, as Tupac will realize on his deathbed (Saunders). What Saunders failed to acknowledge is that, if words, such as boosting, have already shaped glorified images of LA, why should unappealing descriptions about the city have less credibility and acceptance? Since violence seems to be a sensitive connotation with society, particularly LA, resistance to its purpose can often occur to maintain idealistic images. But when deliberate ignorance, such as Saunders conveys, minimizes the impact of voices speaking on behalf of those in ghettos, an unfortunate degradation of inner city struggles is portrayed.

 

In fact, many .gangsta rappers. who also chronicle the violent presence within ghettos are criticized as Tupac has been. These criticisms mainly focus on proving that the artist.s overt expressions of violence bring about their own self-destruction. However, as Michael Eric Dyson analyzes in his 1996 book Between God and Gangsta Rap, .gangsta rap.has embarrassed mainstream society.It has forced us to confront the demands of racial representation that plague and provoke Black artists. (186). Because critics like Saunders tend to undermine the message behind the explicitness of rap lyrics, many can miss valuable insights that may shed light on how to better the violent situations in inner cities.

 

Moments before Tupac was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996

Not only does TLDLA stress that the cause for the inner city.s troubles are aversion and misleading perceptions, it also persuasively depicts that society.s institutions disenfranchise the residents. Dyson reasons that the influence of a culture consumed with ideals, plus detrimental politics, is a source for the adversity facing neglected inner city residents (186). As Jennifer Wolch, professor of geography at the University of Southern California acknowledged, in South Central.s ghetto areas live not only Blacks, but other ethnic minorities that include a large Latino population. Historically, these groups have been regarded as inferior, and discriminated against by businesses and society in their attempts to gain financial success and housing. In fact, .ghetto. is defined as .a central city zone, created by external forces for segregation. (30 October 2002). Tupac maintains this point in TLDLA: .Cause would it be LA without Mexicans? /Black love, Brown pride.Pete Wilson tryin. to see us all broke.I.m out for everything they owe. With these descriptions, his song reinforces Wolch.s argument that the groups confined to the ghettos are subjected to even more limitations by the government who enact tax and welfare policies that make it difficult to rise above the low incomes associated with those in the inner city. In addition, the song refers to the LAPD.s .ghetto bird helicopters. that continuously survey South Central and detain a significant number of residents in jail (.To Live..). Tupac mentions these occurrences to suggest that the LAPD unfairly targets ghetto residents as criminals who are detrimental to LA.s society. These extreme forms of policing and ostracism try to upkeep the image of a harmonious Los Angeles when in fact that may have created or lead youth culture to resort to violent means.

 

In response to the discouraging conditions that exist for inner city residents trying to lead middle-class lives, TLDLA persuades that ghetto violence is resorted to in pursuit of capitalism and, additionally, displays of social unrest. As Tupac recounts, he writes songs in order to survive a life outside of jail. He then describes that his comrades, in their attempts to earn money, encounter violence amongst themselves through gang activity, particularly the LA Bloods and Crips (.To Live..). Mix this with the sale of drugs and one can conclude that being subjected to these dangerous pursuits of money is a cause for violent uprisings. As Tupac admits, We might fight against each other, but I promise you this/ We.ll burn this bitch [LA] down, [if you] get us pissed(.To Live..). In that statement, Tupac alludes to 1992.s LA Riots and professes that, even though violence takes place within the ghettos. own communities, the residents. discontent with the state of conditions they have been placed in is more of an incentive to be violent in reaction to having to survive on their own.

 

Although Tupac.s TLDLA justifies the cause for inner city violence, one may wonder why rap focuses on portraying violence in LA as a result of the neglect and oppression that ghetto residents experience. Dyson.s assertions can lead one to believe that rappers use the weighty issue of violence as a way to answer and speak for the voices of inner city residents who want to address the terrible aspects of their misfortunes. Susan Anderson concludes that, despite the explicitness, rap lyrics act as a valuable .guidebook. to teach society about the difficulties of ghetto lives (359). Both viewpoints coincide to support the explicit voices of rappers. Indeed, although it may be disturbing to hear, such lyrics should be credited as conveying truth, but more importantly, significance in defining life in a city such as LA. Although LA can be a place of wealth, glamour, and success, there is another, more troublesome side that needs to be accounted for in order to make a well-rounded claim about conditions in the city.

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Amanda Santiago can be contacted by email at asantiago@streetgangs.com.