Nightmares

Shortly before the end of the collection, Tupac Shakur looks into the depths of conscience. His poem Nightmares appears in the fourth part of the book The Rose That Grew from Concrete, “Liberty Needs Glasses”. The dedication reads “Dedicated 2 Those Curious”, to the curious.

The Rich Prevail, the Disadvantaged Struggle

The poem opens programmatically: the speaker pours his heart out and searches for the meaning of life. His first observation is sobering: the rich and powerful always prevail, while the disadvantaged struggle through strife and hardship.

Then the tone softens. Mistakes happen and deserve forgiveness; one is too young for so much stress and suffering. Yet the path of purity and the positive remains the harder road.

Those Who Act Against the Heart Pay with Nightmares

In the second part, Tupac addresses someone directly. Their insatiable pursuit of perfection has only magnified their own mistakes. Curiosity shares the blame for the evil that makes them cry. In the end stands the experience of having acted against one’s own heart: afterwards, nightmares haunt the soul, and the nerves are frayed.

Whom the book means by the “curious” remains open. It is plausible that Tupac was thinking of peers who tried something out of curiosity that they came to regret-drugs, violence, or a breach of trust. He could just as well mean himself.

Written Before Fame: 1989 to 1991

No date is documented. According to the preface by Afeni Shakur, the poems were written between 1989 and 1991. The blend of social criticism and moral appeal connects Nightmares with Where There Is a Will… and And 2morrow, which also appeal to the resilience of young people. Even here, Tupac was wrestling with pangs of conscience, long before his later fame.

More on the book in the introduction.