Blasphemy

[Kobe]

Blasphemy, in the context of religion, is reference to God, in a manner declared by God, to be offensive to God. It includes using God's name as a stress expletive. It is also sometimes defined as language expressing disbelief, or ridiculing God.



I'm not the type to go to church on Sunday but, I do believe in God's existence. We all know Makaveli is an incredible LP but, I don't hear too many fans talk about track 5: 'Blasphemy'.

We obviously all got different thoughts about this song. I must have had goosebumps when I heard the distorted voice intro to this song. Heck, it still gives me creeps when I listen to it Verse 1 is pretty straight forward to understand, then comes in the chorus which I really can't decipher the meaning behind it.


[Chorus: Prince Ital]
Love for dem dat steal in the name of da Lord
Dem a tell nuff lie but holdin my bird in a cloud
Usin de name of de Lord in vain
While de people in de ghetto, feel nuff pain

Then comes this part in verse two that gets me thinking:


[Tupac]
Niggaz in Jerusalem, waitin for signs
God promised, she's just takin her time, haha

I've wondered if this a reference to some ideologies that God is a woman. Either way, forgive me if I'm getting it wrong, this song is just tough enough to understand beyond verse two for me.

I like this song, 2pac's flow & delivery is just raw, over a very bizzare, bass heavy beat. However, I'll admit I cringe when I hear some of the stuff he says on this song.

Your thoughts?:S

 

[masta247]

I have to admit that I usually skip it since it's the most creepy hip-hop track I've ever heard

 

[JayDawg]

This is 2Pac's best song ever in my opinion.. and its my favourite track by him, hands down. Nothing even close...

If you don't get it.. 'listen very carefully'

 

[outlaw4life2k4]

best song ever i bet pac thought so as well

 

[Kadafi Son]

Track 5 alwayz used to make me cringe too. Especial with Pac's cousin saying the outro. U can tell that songs like this, Hail Mary and White Man's World were definately not meant for the mainstream

But I think he's says HE, not she. If it is, my bad.

 

[Kobe]

I have to admit that I usually skip it since it's the most creepy hip-hop track I've ever heard

I can relate. I used to skip this track then eventually, I took time to listen to the song. I think its one of the tracks that prove 2pac was onto something groundbreaking for hip hop. He had picked up on a new sound for the game.

Track 5 alwayz used to make me cringe too. Especial with Pac's cousin saying the outro. U can tell that songs like this, Hail Mary and White Man's World were definately not meant for the mainstream

But I think he's says HE, not she. If it is, my bad.

I know. I remember QD3 talking about the LP not supposed to have any singles from it. Then came toss it up, to live and die in LA. That was as mainstream as the LP got.

That outro also gets me thinking.

 

[Bender]

Blasphemy <> High Till I Die

 

[Cooper]

You got one of the signs wrong

Blasphemy >> High Till I Die

 

[Bender]

'blasphemy' is a concept that Pac used in his raps, such as 'thug life' was the main concept that underlined much of the content that Pac talked about in his rhymes

 

[Preach]

I love that everybody's talking about religious parallells in that song, but no one can spend more than a paragraph writing about it.

I don't get how it's a new sound for the game. Raps with religious backtones aren't groundbreaking at all, it was done from before Pac ever started rapping.

Blasphemy is a decent song because the beat is nice, and Pac uses a lot of difficult words together that makes it sound cool and "emcee", but the song itself is about nothing. It's another "Bury Me A G", "High Till I Die", "Fuck The World". It's Pac rapping about two thousand different topics in one song, then he mentions Jerusalem, Mary, Holy Father and the spirit and suddenly it's a dark evil magic lullaby. There are lots of much better songs out there imo. I challenge anyone to write three four paragraphs about what "Blasphemy" is about. The fact that no one can tells me something. If we were talking about Brenda's Got A Baby or Changes, I would disagree, because for their time these songs addressed real problems and were thought provocative (and real/true).

Anyway, I'm not saying it's a bad song, I'm saying Pac fans have always said the same shit about the song for years because one person said it ten years ago and everybody thought it sounded good. People love to decipher Pac's songs, but when they do so they don't actually do so. They point to a couple of lines and say "OMG AWESOME" without being able to formulate a point or an idea, and reference said point/idea to the lyrics of the song.

Ask yourself, what was Pac's intent with the song? Did he have a spiritual moment in which God came to him, and afterwards he recorded the song? Like Kobe originally asked, I too fail to understand what this song is actually about. It's about nothing and everything.

 

[Preach]

'blasphemy' is a concept that Pac used in his raps, such as 'thug life' was the main concept that underlined much of the content that Pac talked about in his rhymes

Fail. He has one song called "Blasphemy", other than that he pretty much never said the word in his music. Please do reference where he uses this "concept" though, for my own research's sake.

Thug Life is not a main concept and it didn't underline anything in his music. What do you even mean by that? That the concept of thug life emphasized the content of his music? The content of Pac's music was the ghetto and the streets, so if anything it's his lyrics that underline the concept of thug life, not the other way around. But you are just doing your pseudo-intellectual shit again I bet.

And you're talking bullshit. Emphasize what you mean specifically, so I can point to where you're specifically wrong.

 

[Kadafi Son]

get a life preach, with ya college-professor-wannabe azz

 

[Kobe]

Hey Preach, when I mentioned a new sound, I was talking about production, not the lyrical content. Sure, I've heard plenty of hip hop with religion as a theme. I didn't mean 2pac's lyrics on blasphemy were creating a new sound for the game. I meant the instruments used on the beat of the song were unique (for me at least) and it sounds so damn good. Hadn't heard anything like that when the LP was released.

'Blaspehmy' gets weird from verse two. That's when I totally lose understanding of the song. OK, so maybe its about everything and nothing so we can end this discussion already. You see with songs like 'high till I die', and 'bury me a g'......those are songs that you can hear and just let the content slide. Now, from this point, someone is gonna come in here and tell me I'm looking too much into the song. I think the metaphors 2pac uses in 'Blasphemy' tend to have a direction to them e.g. REMEMBER THESE EXAMPLES ARE MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONG, I'M NOT TELLING ANYONE TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY

We probably in Hell already, our dumb asses not knowin= The mention of hell when some people talk about their everyday lives. Look at some of the stuff that humans do to each other. So why talk about going to hell when things are bad enough as they are here on earth?

Have you ever seen a crackhead, that's eternal fire = Again, we all have our perception or idea of hell. Take a look at drug addicts, isn't that a life in hell already? I mean I look at some of them and their lives are f!@#$d up.

Everybody kissing ass to go to heaven ain't goin= People spend so much time talking about how devoted they are to God yet they doing all sorts of immoral things in the background.


Why you got these kids minds, thinkin that they evil
while the preacher bein richer you say honor God's people = A lot of criticism of the youth e.g we are too promiscuous, yet at the same time, there is weird stuff going on in terms of resource allocation in the church. You try to raise the issue and people tell you that your actions are disrespectful to church leaders. I've witnessed that happen here in Kenya.


Should we cry, when the Pope die, my request
We should cry if they cried when we buried Malcolm X = This kinda reminds me of Scoop Jackson metaphor. He said something a long the lines of: "People have attended funerals of loved ones and they didn't shed a tear. Jordan retired from the NBA and these same people shed tears like they've never cried before"

OK, so the Pope dies and people make a big deal about it and they cry. When Malcolm died, those same people prolly didn't give a f!@#k, didn't shed a tear.

Let the Kobe bashing commence........

 

[Kadafi Son]

Kobe, I actually agree with everything you typed. It seems like you got a good understanding of the song, despite what you say about not understanding it. I just think it should be common sense, thats why I didn't type any paragraphs about it.

Anywayz, Pac had a lot of strong phrase in this track

Mama tell me am I wrong, is God just another cop
waitin to beat my ass if I don't go pop?!

This one alwayz rang in my head. As a black person, goin to church and seeing nothing but european images, and knowing that european missionaries and colonists have been bringin hell on earth every since their "exploration", it confuses a brotha sometimez and we wonder if the God we've been percieving in our churches will be as evil as the ones we've been dealing with on earth. So is God just anotha cop, waitin to beat my ass if i don't go pop?

I leave this and hope God can see my heart is pure
Is heaven just another door?

After being as true as he can on track and gettin all his questioning of god of his chest, he hopes God can define his heart better, or see it as pure. Perfect way to end a verse

But anyway, Kobe, i think your on point

 

[Freedom Froggy]

get a life preach, with ya college-professor-wannabe azz

LMAO! shyt had me laffin

 

[Bender]

Fail. He has one song called "Blasphemy", other than that he pretty much never said the word in his music. Please do reference where he uses this "concept" though, for my own research's sake.

Thug Life is not a main concept and it didn't underline anything in his music. What do you even mean by that? That the concept of thug life emphasized the content of his music? The content of Pac's music was the ghetto and the streets, so if anything it's his lyrics that underline the concept of thug life, not the other way around. But you are just doing your pseudo-intellectual shit again I bet.

i be talking in a general sense, so nothing's specific here.

what i meant is that Pac drew from a range of perspectives and often combined them. such as pac raps about 'something' but in a completely different concept, eg talking about his gun as if it's his girlfriend. there are similar instances throughout pac's music where he raps about 'blasphemy' but in a totally different concept, hence combining perspectives and concepts.

and pac only had to do one song called Blasphemy to lay down the foundation for the perspective. to me the song Blasphemy is like dropping a clue or hint to many of his previous raps.

every artist uses concepts through which they portray their work material. i wonder if you could write down and name the concepts that Pac used in his raps from all perspectives and concepts ... and yet you think that Blasphemy is only about blasphemy?

what do you think High Till I Die is about?

 

[Butt Rubber]

I have to admit that I usually skip it since it's the most creepy hip-hop track I've ever heard

you pussy

 

[Preach]

get a life preach, with ya college-professor-wannabe azz

Look at Kobe's post and learn youngin! And lmao at college professor. You don't realize it, but that sentiment says more about your intellect than it does about my personal desires, but okay. Kobe managed to make a proper response with some depth which shows he's not another mindless fan who thinks he likes Pac because he thinks he cares about what Pac stood for, when in fact it's a bored asshole with no life and nothing to do. The point of discussions is to discuss, so if everyone's just like "Yea, thx, agree with OP" then the thread didn't need to get made in the first place. And Pac fans LOOOOVE to talk about Pac as a political leader and a revolutionary, but when you ask them more in depth about why they think so, they have no answer. Because they don't actually think so, they have adapted opinions they stole from others and never thought about for themselves. Because I'm not gonna spend time talking shit about Pac's songs with people like that. Very kudos on your post Kobe :thumb: And Yeshua too for that matter.

Yeshua, I hate to admit this but when you rephrased yourself I was actually a bit intrigued Sorry for coming at you like an ass.

 

[Kadafi Son]

^^your like only a year and a month (exactly)(january 11 88) older than me, do you got a job or some goals, cuz u got a lil bit too free time on your hands to be written essays, homie. How about we all need to take a break a read some books on the side. Take dat discussion somewhere else

 

[Preach]

Let me flip that on you. You must be dyslectic to think it takes me an unhealthy amount of time to make that post, because I can probably write a book in a day. I took a typing test online and had to take an extra test to prove I wasn't a bot. I had like 130 words per minute. Try to insult me again, you slow little n00b, because so far you've failed miserably. But thanks for reassuring the fact that I type, think and read fast. I too am stunned by my own intellect some times.

And age doesn't really say shit about maturity, but thanks for letting me know what time of year to send a bag of shit to your mail box. I know 40-year-olds who still get angry when they feel insecure, who can't see their of moronic behavior for what it is. So again, age isn't really a factor when it comes to agreeing with shit without thinking about it, which is what a lot of Pac fans do. All you need to do is use more than 30 words to describe your point, which you did above by the way. That was it, that was all I tried to get out of you. Proof that your thoughts are your own and not some re-hashed bullshit. I don't understand why you take offense from anything I've said unless I'm right about it.