Iverem gives an example of this in a discussion with Tupac: “People say, ‘you got shot and survived.’ And then he (Tupac) says, ‘Yeah I’m bad. I’ll keep doing it!’” (Iverem, 44) It was his belief in his own immortality that caused Tupac’s self-destruction. This attitude, according to Iverem, is what led Tupac to his fatal end. People expect to be treated like human beings. So you cannot expect to go through life telling people to kiss your behind, and not suffer the consequences. Just like Tupac, everyone demands respect and when they do not get that they will retaliate in some way or form. In Tupac’s case they retaliated by taking his life. No, it does not seem like an equal trade off, but if Tupac did not care, why should anyone else.
Basically, Tupac’s ‘fuck it’ attitude was a sign that he did not care or respect anything other then him. And because he did not care, he did not worry about the consequences of his actions. He felt he had the power of immortality. It was that false sense of immortality that caused his self-destruction. Despite what Tupac thought, he was in deed mortal. So in the words of Iverem, “You may easily say fuck it to the world. But all that means is, sooner or later you’ll wind up fucked yourself.” (Iverem, 47)
During Tupac’s prime many directors felt that Tupac’s ‘fuck it’ attitude was exactly what they need to make their movie a success. Before his death in 1996, Tupac appeared in several movies. One in particular was Juice directed by Ernest Dickerson. In Juice, Tupac played the character of Bishop, a crazed young man who winds up shooting his friends. Bishop is a young high school drop out from New York who has the ‘fuck it’ attitude. One example of Bishop’s ‘fuck it’ attitude was in Steel’s house when he proclaims to the rest of the crew that he is sick of running from everybody. He explains to them that, “you have to be ready to throw down, stand up, and die for that shit like Blizzard did if you want some juice (respect).” Bishop believes that you have to take respect. If you do not demand it, you won’t get it. For him, life is not worth living without respect. When Bishop looks at his father, he has pity for him, but no respect. And he refuses to end up like his father. He doesn’t really see away out (of the ghetto), but he feels that the only way to survive in the ghetto is by demanding respect even if it means dying for it.
Bishop is different from the others: Q, Raheem, and Steel. He is different because he doesn’t want out. He has already given up on trying to get out of the ghetto. What Bishop wants is to have power or respect in the ghetto. And he knows that no one will respect him if he shows his fear or pain. So he never shows his true emotions, even when he shots one of his best friends: Raheem. After Bishop shots Raheem, he tells Steel not to cry, and that its Raheem’s fault that he was shot. He regrets shooting Raheem, but feels like he had to do it, because Raheem did not respect that fact that he had the gun and the power at that moment. And once Bishop realized how much Steel feared him, he liked it. Because of that fear he knew he could make Steel do what ever he wanted him too. Dickerson helps to intensify the sense of fear in the movie by putting Bishop only in shots by himself. After the shooting you never see Bishop with anyone. When he is talking, you see a shot of him standing alone. This is because Bishop has separated himself from his friends. He no longer has any friends; he is alone. Even when his having conversations with other people, Dickerson never shows them in the same shot. He show’s Bishop talking by himself, and the other person in the scene talking by himself. This shows the gap that developed between them and Bishop after Raheem is shot. The gap remains even though Bishop tries to threaten Q and Steel by telling them that if he goes down the whole crew goes down.
Bishop threatening Q and Steel shows the power Bishop believes he possess. He believes that he has them cornered. He is so confident that he won’t be turned in that he shows up at Raheem’s funeral. He believes that the three of them should carry on with their lives as if nothing changed. He tries to force Q to hang out with him when he meets Q at his locker in school. He question’s Q about why he has not been around. When Q answers that he is not worried about hanging with Bishop. Bishop explains to him that he needs to be worried because he determines if Q and Steel lives or dies. The power of being able to take someone’s life (which he demonstrated twice with Raheem and the man in the store) had consumed him. Now he makes all the decisions. They cannot cut him off he won’t let them. It has even become a kind of game for him. They hide and avoid him, and he searches and finds them. This can be seen in Bishop’s smile when he explains to Q that he is crazy because he doesn’t care about anything. It’s funny to him that they fear him so much now that he has a gun, but feared him so little when he did not have a gun. This is what he always wanted, to be feared. He feels that as long as he is feared he is respected. But Bishop was wrong. He over estimated his power and although Q feared him, he refused to let Bishop control his life. And when he tries to take Q’s life, he fails and falls to his death. Bishop would not have gotten greedy for power and try to control everyone he may have lived. But as was stated previously, people will retaliate and defend themselves, so you cannot expect to live long if you threaten to kill people.
Another example of this cycle of destruction is the movie Belly directed by Hype Williams. In Belly, DMX plays the character Tommy, a gangsta turned drug dealer who will do whatever it takes to make money. Tommy would do pretty much anything to get money. He doesn’t care about his girl friend Keisha, his underage mistress, or anything the is in the way of him making money. Tommy basically feels that the most important thing in his life is money everything else is expendable. For example, Keisha is in his life for sexual reasons. She is like an ornament. He cheats on her with an underage girl who gives him oral sex. To him they are both in his life because he has money, so he feels that as long as he has money they will stay around or simply be replaced. He dedicates none of his time or consideration to either one of the women. When Keisha goes to jail because of him, he doesn’t even attempt to do something the help her get out of jail. He simply tells Sincere to explain to her what happen. He feels as though he doesn’t have to do anything for her because she is not that important. She is there for his needs and nothing else. He has to power to tell her when to come, leave, shut up, and have sex with him. This is the power that money gives him. He knows this and tries to explain it to Sincere. He tells Sincere that money is the reason that they are on earth. They were put here to make money and receive all the benefits of money such as: women, and power. For Tommy it is the game of life. He is to make as much money he can anyway he can, and if he does he can have to benefits of money. Because Tommy has power he insults anyone he wants too. I am sure that he never thought that the guy who he made strip in the basement would try to get revenge on him. He felt that he was too powerful to be touched and if someone tried he would reach out and touch them. He also displays this power when he manipulates the two boys and plays them against each other which leads to them killing each other. But in the end Tommy realizes that he was stupid and you need more then money in life. You need people to look out for you like Keisha and Sincere were trying to do. Tommy believed that his power would stop people from setting him up, but he was wrong because the FEDs caught up with him. In his quest for money, Tommy stops respecting mankind and only respected money and those with money. And when you disrespect people, people will do whatever they can to bring you down. In the end you will pay for the pain you cause others. But out of these examples, the movie Belly is the only one in which the cycle was not complete. After Tommy agrees to work with the police to get out of serving time, he gets religious and decides to change his life before he self-destructs. He breaks the cycle because he realizes before it is too late that money is not important. And money does not bring true respect. You have to earn respect and power. And you have to respect others.
The power that comes with the ‘fuck it’ attitude is very appealing because it is quick and easy to some degree. It is because it is an easy way to gain power (power through fear or money) it is addictive. It cause people to believe that they cannot be stopped and can do what ever it is that want. But this is a false sense of power. This false sense of power always leads to their self-destruction. You cannot treat people with disrespect and not suffer the consequences one day or another. But the power leads them not believing there are no consequences, and therefore they are not prepared when the consequences come.