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Summary: One neva stop learning bout himself -
Review: ...First and foremost big up to the Michael Dyson. When I first heard of da book over da net. I really wanted to read it right then and there. This book reveals a lot bout Tupac and da influence his mom had on him and as a young South African dis book teaches me a lot about self respect,respect for others,especially women and that each and everyone of us has got a purpose in dis world
Rating: 
Summary: Holler If You Hear Me
Review: after reading this book, i have decided it was not good. only reason i finished it was because my interest in 2pac, i would not reccomend this book to anybody with all the other books available on 2pac. i could not stand the way it was written, the author is horrible. he writes the book as if he has somethin to prove of his vocabulary, blurting words that can be substituted for more common words. however, he did have good references in the book. the only reason i give this book 2 stars is because i appreciate anything about 2pac.
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Summary: Tupac is the greatest rapper ever
Review: Anybody who gives any Tupac book a rating under 5 stars can bliznow me. Yeaheeyeah. Gk love
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Summary: I Aint Mad At Cha
Review: Dr. Dyson does it again with his piece on Tupac Shakur. In this book, you will find plenty of insight from people who knew him well. Jada Pinkett Smith, Leila Steinberg, Warren G, and plenty others give their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on this multidimensional man. One part that caught me was the amount of reading 'Pac did. His detractors constantly talk about all the negativity but rarely discuss the many things he did which were positive, and Dyson does his part to bring that to everyone who reads this book. Some of the information you will already know due to the fact that there is so much of Pac to go around, but there are some things which can be gained from the book. 'Pac was a representative of EVERY young black man in America in some sort of fashion, not EXACTLY the same, but there was a lil bit of all of us in him. Whether brothers confess to that is up to them. The trials, tribulations, ups, and the downs of this man are things we all have went through or are currently going through as of this moment. A very solid piece of work by Dr. Dyson.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't give good reviews for this book just because its Tupac
Review: Everyone (2pac fans)seems to love the fact that there is a full book out that claims to be about Tupac and his music. I love Tupac's music and would rank him as my favorite artist in the history of music, but this book is a disgraceful attempt to cash in on Shakur's good name. You will learn LITERALLY nothing about Tupac's music or message by reading this book.Take the time to read this book and you see there is very little substantive on Tupac's life and the author simply uses Tupac as a symbol with which to forward his own opinions on African Americans, religion, etc. T If you expect to learn about the life of Tupac Shakur by buying this book-- DON'T! This tells you nothing about his life or music. If you're interested in a book about Black life in America pretending to be about rap music... BUY THIS! There are people who "get" Tupac Shakur and what he was trying to say through his music, and then there are those who don't. Dyson is one of the latter.
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Summary: Seeks an understanding of the cultural icon's life
Review: Fans of rap music in general and Tupac Shankur in particular will find this biography of the artist blends interviews with reporting as it seeks an understanding of the cultural icon's life, music, and untimely death. Of particular interest are examinations of Tupac's role as a mentor for black youth.
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Summary: The metaphysic of Tupac Shakur
Review: Here is an overview of some of the issues and ideas expressed by the Reverend Professor Dyson in this book about Tupac Shakur.
Tupac's mother was a Black Panther, who had served as her own lawyer to acquit herself out of a COINTELPRO frameup. For the most part, it seems from the mid-70's onward, her involvement with the Panthers, had blacklisted her from the mainstream. By the early 80's, she had developed a severe addiction to crack cocaine. But she nonetheless managed to cultivate in Tupac a precocious intellect. He became a very literate young fellow, interested in political issues, art, literature and the theater. Tupac's family moved to Baltimore in 1986 and there he entered a School of Arts where he excelled. According to Dyson, he organized Stop the Violence and AIDS awareness campaigns as a student. However his mother was getting more crazy and kicked Tupac out on the street. He ended up in Marin City CA outside of Oakland in the home of the wife of the then wrongfully imprisoned Geronimo Pratt. The Pratt home was apparently very broken. According to Dyson, Tupac had a great difficult fitting in upon arriving in Marin City. He didn't know how to play basketball, wrote poetry, dressed like a hippy, and was a target of gangs. According to the taped interview of Tupac at age 17, that Dyson quotes extensively from, Tupac complained that he was rejected by a girl on the ground that he was "too nice." Tupac in the tape declares that he will keep treating the girls right and maybe they won't fall for the bad boys anymore and turn to sensitive, decent fellows like him. Tupac fled the Pratt house, and ended up in an abandoned apartment with some of his friends. He got a job at a pizza parlor. He started selling drugs but apparently some street people dissuaded him from it. He had just turned seventeen, when he met Leila Steinberg, a lovely young white woman with an admixture of Jewish and Chicano ancestry. Steinberg conducted workshops in the inner city high schools in the area that allowed youth to engage in various artistic forms. Tupac moved in with her and her then husband, a black rap promoter and children. He became her assistant.
By the early 90's Tupac with Steinberg as reading partner, was consuming religious tracts of all the religions, such novelists as Alice Walker, Herman Meliville and William Styron, the poetry of Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou, books of investigative journalism, Nietzsche,W.E.B. Dubois. He read Eurocentric works and tried to discredit them. He also read Sigmund Freud to discredit him, according to Steinberg; he held the opinion that Freud was "a frustrated homosexual who never fully formulated his opinions."
Beyond the great intellect, Dyson writes, Tupac struggled with some mighty demons. His relationship with his mother had really wrecked havoc with him psychologically. Like a lot of ghetto youth, he had identity problems. He came of age in an era of the "white blacklash" and "white flight",of the deregulation that allowed the fleeing of working class manufacturing jobs to poor countries, of declining government subsidies. Meanwhile, more and more blacks were hoarded into prison on such principles of justice that places harsh justice on the consumer of crack but relatively light sentences on the predominantly wealthy white users of powder cocaine.
According to Dyson, Tupac defined thuggery in terms of someone who is trying to survive and be a man in a society that shuns and oppress them. Tupac made an acronym of thug life-"the hate you give little infants f-ks everyone." Dyson quotes Vijay Prashad on the interesting roots of the word "thug." It apparently is rooted in the Indian subcontinent and referred to brigands who robbed bullion cargos being looted by the British imperialists.
The thug life gives ghetto youth self-esteem and fellowship with other males. Tupac had similar motivations according to Dyson for entering the gangsta rap world with his second album. He tried to live that life to the fullest, getting drunk and high a lot. He lived life very recklessly, challenging god to bring death on him. In this flirting with death, Tupac expressed the psychological state of all too many ghetto residents, including chiliastic impulses, a deep down severe pain with life on this earth.
Dyson writes that most folks don't really consider Tupac really guilty of the offense for which he spent eleven months in prison. The woman claimed that Tupac had participated in a gang rape of her. He was only convicted of "forcibly" touching her buttocks. The prison experience damaged him. He might have been raped there. Dyson discusses sexism in the black community. He writes that the Million Man March sponsored by Farrakhan was an example of black men getting together to affirm that they going to live constructive lives.
Tupac's embrace of thuggery seems pretty silly to say the least. No doubt he was trying to make some money by cultivating the image, as the Notorious B.I.G. later claimed Tupac told him.
Dyson at times writes clearly and simply, even musically; much of the rest of the time, he writes in a rambling, gnarled, bookish style. There are times particularly in the last chapter, when he is almost unreadable. Nonetheless, he paints of moving picture of Tupac, who, in the true style of the poet, could evoke profound emotion with simple words and his vocal skills in his songs.
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Summary: The Other Side of Tupac
Review: I decided to read this book after seeing Michael Eric Dyson on BET Tonight w/ Suge Knight and had to see what this book was all about. I guess Suge's igonrance and Dyson's comments were what made me have to go out and buy this book. Suge accused Dyson of writing the book to simply make money and that he did not know Tupac well enough to write a book about his life. Dyson's response was that he wrote the book so that other could see the Tupac and that only close friends knew and to say that this book should be read in public schools. No Dyson may not have known Tupac personally but the people he talked to for this book did and there is so much more to Tupac that what the media portrayed or how they portrayed him I should say. There is so much more meaning behind the words he wrote and rapped about. Tupac really did not recieve all the credit he was due.
I hope that Suge read the book althought I am sure he will still won't be able to understand what Dyson is trying to say.
Rating:
Summary: I have Mixed feelings about this book
Review: I not really sure what I think about this book. Being a big fan of Tupac, I'm interested to read any book about him because I like to see how different people view his feelings and his words. But this book really confused me. The whole time I was reading it i was wondering where it was going. It seemed to jump to a totally different subject TOO OFTEN. If you want read a book about Tupac that will help you learn more about him and what he did. This book isnt for you. This book is really Dyson's insight on how Tupac related to other genre's and problems in the world. I wouldnt recommend this book to many people, I dont know who I would recommend it to, to be honest. If you are a big 2pac fan, then there probably isnt anything in here that you dont know. Half the book wanders off in other directions such as the authors view on the "n" word. Personally, If I wanted to read about that then I would read a book about it. I'm getting mad writing this review so Im just gonna quit. THIS BOOK ISNT ANYTHING SPECIAL, IT GOT ON MY NERVES MORE THAN I ENJOYED IT!!!!
Rating:
Summary: I have Mixed feelings about this book
Review: I not really sure what I think about this book. Being a big fan of Tupac, I'm interested to read any book about him because I like to see how different people view his feelings and his words. But this book really confused me. The whole time I was reading it i was wondering where it was going. It seemed to jump to a totally different subject TOO OFTEN. If you want read a book about Tupac that will help you learn more about him and what he did. This book isnt for you. This book is really Dyson's insight on how Tupac related to other genre's and problems in the world. I wouldnt recommend this book to many people, I dont know who I would recommend it to, to be honest. If you are a big 2pac fan, then there probably isnt anything in here that you dont know. Half the book wanders off in other directions such as the authors view on the "n" word. Personally, If I wanted to read about that then I would read a book about it. I'm getting mad writing this review so Im just gonna quit. THIS BOOK ISNT ANYTHING SPECIAL, IT GOT ON MY NERVES MORE THAN I ENJOYED IT!!!!
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