Words for My Comrades

A Political History of Tupac Shakur

Dean Van Nguyen

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Paperback

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English

White Rabbit
13 May 2025

Rap & Hip-Hop; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; Biography: arts & entertainment; Political activism

'Words for My Comrades ambitiously sets out to transcend the standard pop star biography, carefully knotting the evolution of hip-hop into a sweeping account of 20th-century radical US politics' - Victoria Segal, THE TIMES

Before his murder at twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the pre-eminent storyteller of the 90s, building, in the process, one of the most iconic public personas of the last half century.

In this cultural history and brilliantly researched biography, Dean Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac's coming of age, fame and influence and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a revolutionary following the George Floyd uprising. Words for My Comrades crucially engages with the influence of Tupac's mother, Afeni, whose role in the Black Panther Party, with its dedication to dismantling American imperialism and police brutality, informed Tupac's art. Tupac's childhood as a son of the Panthers, coupled with the influence of his militant stepfather Mutulu Shakur, became his own riveting code of ethics that helped listeners reckon with America's inherent injustices.

Drawing upon conversations with the people who bore witness - from Panther veterans and other committed Marxist revolutionaries of 1970s America, to good friends and close collaborators of the rapper himself - Van Nguyen demonstrates how Tupac became one of the most enduring musical legends in hip-hop history and how intimately his name is threaded with the legacy of Black Panther politics. Words for My Comrades is the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by culture and how America produced, in Tupac and Afeni, two of its most iconic, enduring revolutionaries.

By: Dean Van Nguyen
Imprint: White Rabbit
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 560g
ISBN: 9781399615440
ISBN 10: 1399615440
Pages: 464
Publication Date: 13 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dean Van Nguyen is an Irish-Vietnamese writer, journalist and critic covering music, culture, identity, race relations and left wing politics. He has written for Irish Times, the Guardian, the Independent, Pitchfork, The Atlantic, Uproxx, Wax Poetics, Jacobin and more. He writes a monthly music column for the Dublin Inquirer and a column on new reissues for Bandcamp Daily. In 2019, he published Iron Age: The Art of Ghostface Killah, a collection of essays on New York rapper that blends music criticism, cultural examination and personal appreciation.

Reviews for Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur

Sets out to transcend the standard pop star biography, carefully knotting the evolution of hip-hop into a sweeping account of 20th-century radical US politics . . . With the old-school grit of a hard-boiled crime writer, Van Nguyen sketches out a story full of explosive characters and explosive violence . . . It's no failing of this learned, compassionate narrative that Shakur the man remains elusive -- Victoria Segal * THE TIMES * In a time in which having a rich relationship with the truth is especially vital, here comes Dean Van Nguyen. History is either a tool of the state or an outside screaming for freedom. Words for My Comrades is about freedom - it is freedom at work * Saeed Jones, award-winning author of How We Fight For Our Lives * Words for My Comrades is elegant, incisive, and deeply considered. With Tupac's political history as the focus, Dean Van Nguyen properly humanizes a man who reached mythical status long ago. An astounding achievement * Marcus J. Moore, author of High and Rising (A Book About De La Soul) * In Words For My Comrades, Dean Van Nguyen deftly ties Tupac's brilliant career with his anti-capitalist upbringing. A richly researched biography that honours his subject's bold, deeply textured life and art * Walter Thompson-Hernández, author of The Compton Cowboys * Moves confidently . . . Fresh interpretations of a foundational hip-hop narrative * Kirkus Reviews * Dean Van Nguyen's fascinating new book tells the story of a musical icon's political life . . . Insightful, readable and thoroughly well researched, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of politics and pop culture * IRISH TIMES * [There is] much to admire about Van Nguyen's industrious, thought-provoking research, oral histories and thorough critical analysis of Shakur's significance . . . anyone (Shakur fans or not) interested in hip-hop history and Black radical political ideology will, with some justification, love it * IRISH TIMES *