The Vatican Playlist & 2pac on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The big news last week was the release of the Vatican Myspace Playlist which included the Changes by Tupac Shakur, a suprise to many people. Many of  Tupac's lyrics exemplified a living situation that many poor minorities were able to relate to...a stark contrast from the Hip-Hop scene of today that talks primarily about the aquisition of money, status, and women.

That's not to say that Tupac didn't have his share of gratuitous violence, language, and imagery. And perhaps that's what has some people concerned about his inclusion in the Vatican collection of songs, entitled Alma Mater. However after his death, Tupac's mother used her son's talent and drive for social resolutions to make Tupac more than just "another rapper," but (in the words of Harvard University's Symposium) "a modern folk hero."

As a poor kid growing up, part of me already identified to much of what his later recordings would speak to: living poor, violence and racism, a sense of helplessness, and much more. An example from Keep Ya Head Up

I wonder why we take from our women,
Why we rape our women
Do we hate our women?

I think it's time to kill for our women
time to heal our women,
be real to our women.

And if we don't, we'll have a race of babies
that will hate the ladies
and make the babies.

And since a man can't make one
he has no right to tell a woman
when and were to create one.

So with this decision by Vatican's artistic director Fr. Guilio Neroni, I thought it would only be fitting to add a Tupac video for reflection on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. If our love of our mother is a model for how we interact with our faith, then this video definitely seems appropriate.

Peace.