Untitled (Please Wake Me When I'm Free)

No title of its own, just a simple Untitled: Because the volume The Rose That Grew from Concrete contains three untitled poems, this site lists the piece by its opening line as Untitled (Please Wake Me When I’m Free). It is sometimes called “Untitled Poetry”. In the book, the work appears in the first section, between When Ure Heart Turns Cold and The Eternal Lament, a text about lost heritage, the dream of freedom, and waking up to poverty.

In the Dream Kings Reign, Upon Waking Poverty Rules

The speaker asks to be woken when he is free, he cannot bear captivity. What is meant is not a prison cell, but a society in which he is told that his culture has no meaning. In the middle, a dream image opens up: With his “inner eye” he sees a people who once ruled as kings elsewhere, in a world full of green trees where men and women were equal and war had vanished.

Then follows the awakening, as if from a nightmare: He lives as a prisoner of poverty. The poem closes with the thought that he would rather go blind than live without the freedom to express his thoughts.

Africa as a Lost Homeland in the Black Power Tradition

The image of kings “in another place” points to Africa as a lost homeland, a motif that played a major role in the Black Power tradition Tupac’s family came from. Tupac connects it to his own situation: For him, captivity is cultural and economic at the same time. That expression matters more to him than sight fits a nineteen-year-old who was just beginning to find his voice as a rapper and poet. This reading is an interpretation.

Set to Music on the 2000 Album

On the album The Rose That Grew from Concrete (2000), the poem opens the series of interpretations under the title Wake Me When I’m Free, featuring drummer Babatunde Olatunji. It is not dated; according to the preface, the poems were written between 1989 and 1991.

More about the book and all poems in the introduction.