Abstract

This article discusses Tupac Shakur’s relationship with policy debates in the 1990s using an interdisciplinary approach to examine historical, musical, archival, and policy sources. Key episodes in his life, especially his incarceration at the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York from 1995 to 1996, illustrate numerous challenges Black men of the hip-hop generation encountered, such as incarceration, targeted enforcement, and police corruption. Shakur’s contributions to the study of Black masculinity should not be relegated only to his music, but also include his contributions to policy discourse by engaging his T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E. code in its proper historical and cultural context. This research demonstrates how unsettled policy questions and cultural debates have continuing significance in the present, as well as the limitations of public policy approaches that exclude diverse perspectives on race, gender, and culture.

pdf

Share