How Writers Can Use The Tupac Method for Success
Using this will definitely have All Eyez on You.
If you do not know who Tupac Shakur is by now, then here’s a rabbit hole you can go down to learn more about the prolific writer.
Yes, I said writer, as he was a poet laureate before ever becoming a polarizing rapper.
So what is this “Tupac Method” touted about in the title?
The TL;DR answer is recognizing our limited time tapping into proliferation.
But let’s explore the depths of this concept.
I See Death Around the Corner — Tupac Shakur
When Tupac was recording music for his All Eyez on Me album, he alluded to his limited time on earth. According to several sources close to him, those who appeared on Vlad TV interviews, such as Mopreme Shakur, reinforced this notion.
In a HipHopDX.com article titled, “Tupac Shakur Says He ‘Wrote Only One Song in Jail’ in Post-prison Interview from 1995,” where it was researched that Tupac left prison only to go on a recording binge.
When Tupac was in prison, he only wrote one song. Former prison inmates will express that “prison does something to you.” In the above article, Tupac, in his own words, specifically contrasted how circumstance and environment affect your motivation and creative spirit:
Getting everything I wanna say out since I can’t express myself in any other way. Plus I was locked down for eleven months so I gotta lot of stress and pressure to get up off my chest. I think I did it on this album [All Eyez on Me]. That’s why I stayed in the studio…I wrote only one song in jail. Everything else I wrote while we sat up in here drinking Budweiser. After the Budweiser is gone we have a song usually.
Jail = low spirit
Associates and a good time = high spirits
While his double LP, All Eyez on Me, gave Pac’s fans a west coast party on CD, Pac was in a season where he was brooding, seeking revenge while also in a state of paranoia.
Most rappers claim to record a lot of music during their life. And many are afforded a lifetime to do so. Thanks to the dark cloud hanging over Tupac’s head, his neck break pace to record enough material for posthumous release has influenced a generation of artists to adopt a “no days off” attitude.
Post-release from prison, Tupac worked with a sense of urgency because he felt his time. However, clues to his impending demise are littered throughout earlier lyrics, before prison and All Eyez on Me.
“I hope they bury me and send me to my rest / Headlines readin ” Murdered to death ‘/ My last breath.” — If I Die Tonight, Me Against the World
“My every move is a calculated step, to bring me closer / To embrace an early death, now there’s nothing left.” — So Many Tears, Me Against the World
Multiple songs found Tupac conveying a recurring theme about his unhappiness with his earthly existence across various albums:
“Don’t shed a tear, ’cause mama, I ain’t happy here” — I Ain’t Mad at Cha, All Eyez on Me
“Don’t shed a tear for me, n***a, I ain’t happy here” — If I Die Tonight, Me Against the World
“Don’t shed a tear cuz, mama I ain’t happy here” — Life Goes On, All Eyez on Me
Tupac's trauma created a pressing need to produce as much of a catalog as possible before his final hour.
None of us know when our final hour will arrive, but we perform as if time is on our side. We should always assume that our moment is limited. As writers, our deadlines are not tomorrow but today.
What is the Tupac Method?
It’s not one thing but a collection of approaches. Let’s dive right in.
Create tight deadlines
All Eyez on Me was initially titled 7 Days, challenging himself to record his album in less than a week.
What type of goals do you have for your writing? And having a writing schedule is not a writing goal; it is a means to achieve your goals.
Publishing should be the end game. It’s what moves the needle forward. I talk about that in-depth in this article.
For Tupac to record a 2-disc album in seven days would require recording songs back-to-back non-stop. I wouldn’t ask anyone to do that unless you wanna beast the keyboard.
Setting a goal to publish an article daily is fantastic, but you may want to write a book in seven days.
We’ll start calling you the “Don Killuminati.”
Write as if your life depended on it
It literally did for Tupac. Multiple attempts on his life inside and outside of prison until the grim reaper pulled his card. We are all in this position, believe it or not.
We do not know when our number is up. Funerals briefly remind us of our mortality. As writers, we have the luxury of being in any setting and quickly recording our words.
It’s nothing to open the Notes app and type our ideas into existence. From 2007 to 2009, I worked overnights in retail. I didn’t have a smartphone, but I had constant access to receipt paper and a pen. I have a shoebox full of thoughts and ideas locked away from that era.
I have my iPhone 13 Pro and a digital shoebox full of drafts that may or may not see the light of day. But now I practice in public here on Medium and YouTube.
Keep material in the can so ready for polishing to be published. Tupac had 713 unreleased songs before his time which now serve for album releases after his death.
Use Parkinson's Law to Your Advantage
Parkinson’s Law, or Parkinson's Law of Triviality, is defined as “work expanding to fill the allotted time for its completion.”
I outwork many friends and family members simply because my time is limited. I often ask myself, “Why am I running circles around you right now when you’re single, less than a 40-hour work week gig, and no children's responsibility?”
Well, Parkinson's Law provided an answer. The difference between a two-week deadline between myself and acquaintances is a sense of urgency, priorities, and circumstances.
In Will Smith’s autobiography, Will, he tells the story of how his father made him and his brother build a wall. At first, things appeared overwhelming, but when their dad helped them shift their mentality from trying to build an entire wall to laying one brick down as perfectly as possible, it changed the game for their confidence in completing it.
Laying a brick down as perfectly as possible for many of us is meeting a word count every day until we have a completed article, essay, novella, novel, or non-fiction book.
We all are brick layers. The question is, how do you lay yours?
Final Thoughts
Doom and gloom haunted Tupac, but it simultaneously was his fuel for production.
Have you ever disliked your situation so much that the one thing you’re good at became a beacon of hope, the light at the end of the tunnel for you to meet an expected end?
Realizing you’re mortality is the only way to immortalize yourself through your work.
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