Dean Văn Nguyễn: Words for My Comrades

I loved 2pac and I didn’t think there would be any Vietnamese fellow who would know more about him than I did until I read Words for My Comrades. Beyond music, Dean Văn Nguyễn, an Irish-Vietnamese music critic, dived deep into the political history of 2pac. In the first 128 pages, Nguyễn takes readers all the way back to the Black Panther movement and the involvement of 2pac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, in the party.

Along with 2pac’s extraordinary life, Nguyễn writes eloquently about his music. He makes me revisit all of Pac’s album starting with 2Pacalypse Now. Lyrically, my personal favorite has to be Me Against the World. Right after the news report intro, 2pac kicks off the first track, “If I Die 2Nite” with : “They say pussy and paper is poetry, power and pistols / Plotting on murdering motherfuckers ’fore they get you.” Nguyễn favorite album is The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. Interestingly, the opening of “Hail Mary” has a similar concept. Makaveli aks 2pac rhymed, “I ain’t a killer, but don’t push me / Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin’ pussy / Picture paragraphs unloaded, wise words bein’ quoted / Peeped the weakness in the rap game and sewed it.”

After the murder of 2pac, Nguyễn wrapped up the book with capitalism in hip-hop. He covers big names including Master P, Dr. Dre, Biggie Smalls, and Jay-Z. Even though it felt off-topic, I enjoyed his cultural criticism. His writing takes me all the way back to high school, which was more than 30 years ago. After hearing the news about 2pac got shot and killed, I was fucked up. Even though I didn’t know much English, I could understand songs like “Trapped,” “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” and “Keep Ya Head Up.” Of course “Dear Mama” touched me heart deeply. Even though my mother was not single, but she raised my sister and me on her own while my dad was still in Việt Nam. She was on welfare too. I could relate to many rhymes in that song, but these lines in particular had helped me tremendously: “I wish I could take the pain away / If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day / Everything will be alright if you hold on / It’s a struggle every day, gotta roll on.” These words summed up my early life in America.

Thanks Nguyễn for the reminiscent of the good old time through his excellent book on 2pac. If loved 2pac like we did, I highly recommend this book to you.