sprotected2
Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 — September 13, 1996), also known by his
stage names
2Pac and
Makaveli, was an American
rapper. In addition to his status as a top-selling recording artist, Shakur was a successful film actor and a prominent social activist. Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in society and conflicts with other rappers. Shakur's work is known for advocating political, economic, social and racial equality, as well as his raw descriptions of violence, drug and alcohol abuse and conflicts with the law.
Shakur was initially a
roadie and
backup dancer for the
alternative hip hop group
Digital Underground.
[Tupac Shakur - hotshotdigital.com] Shakur's debut album,
2Pacalypse Now, gained critical recognition and backlash for its controversial lyrics. Shakur became the target of lawsuits and experienced other legal problems. He was later shot five times and robbed in the lobby of a
recording studio in
New York City. Following the event, Shakur grew suspicious that other figures in the rap industry had prior knowledge of the incident and did not warn him; the controversy helped spark the
East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry.
Shakur was later convicted of sexual abuse. After serving eleven months of his sentence he was released from prison on an appeal financed by
Marion "Suge" Knight, the
CEO of
Death Row Records. In exchange for Suge's assistance, Shakur agreed to release three albums under the Death Row label.
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a
drive-by shooting in
Las Vegas, and died six days later of
respiratory failure and
cardiac arrest at the
University Medical Center.
[Tupac Shakur's death certificate details reported by Cathy Scott. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.]
MTV ranked him at #2 on their list of
The Greatest MCs of All Time.
[The Greatest MCs of All Time MTV. Retrieved on 2006-12-26] Because of his success and influence in music and poetry, he has become a
cultural icon and is regarded by many of his peers, fans, and critics to be the greatest rapper of all-time.
Biography
Early life
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in the
East Harlem section of
Manhattan in New York City.
He was named after
Túpac Amaru II, an
Incan revolutionary who led an indigenous uprising against Spain and subsequently received
capital punishment. His mother,
Afeni Shakur, was an active member of the
Black Panther Party in
New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Shakur was born just one month after her acquittal on more than 150 charges of
"Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York
Panther 21 court case.
Although officially unconfirmed by the Shakur family, several sources list his birth name as either "Parish Lesane Crooks" or "Lesane Parish Crooks".
Afeni feared her enemies would attack her son, and disguised their relation using a different last name, only to change it three months or a year later, following her marriage to
Mutulu Shakur.
Struggle and incarceration surrounded Shakur from an early age. His godfather,
Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high ranking
Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was later overturned. His stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the
FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982, when Shakur was a pre-teen. Mutulu was wanted in part for having helped his sister
Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), his godmother, to escape from a penitentiary in
New Jersey, where she had been incarcerated for allegedly shooting a
state trooper to death in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for the
robbery of a Brinks armored truck in which two police officers and a guard were killed.
Shakur had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older stepbrother,
Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared on many of his recordings.
At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in
Harlem's famous "
127th Street Ensemble." His first major role with this acting troupe was as Travis in
A Raisin in the Sun. In 1984, his family relocated to
Baltimore,
Maryland,
After completing his second year at
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School he transferred to the
Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied
acting,
poetry,
jazz, and
ballet. He performed in
Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the
Mouse King in
The Nutcracker.
Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his
beatbox, won most of the many rap competitions that he participated in and was considered to be the best rapper in his school.
Although he lacked trendy clothing, he was one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix in with all crowds.
He developed a close friendship with a young
Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until Shakur's death. In the documentary
Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life," and Smith calls Shakur "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime." A poem written by Shakur titled "Jada" appears in his book,
The Rose That Grew From Concrete, which also includes a poem dedicated to Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes".
In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved once again, this time to
Marin City,
California, where he attended
Tamalpais High School. He joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in entertainment. His mother's crack addiction led him to move into
Leila Steinberg's home with his friend
Ray Luv at the age of seventeen and he eventually dropped out of
high school. Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Shakur, an avid reader. Steinberg has kept copies of the books that he read, which include
J.D. Salinger's
Catcher in the Rye,
Jamaica Kincaid's
At the Bottom of the River,
Herman Melville's
Moby-Dick,
Eileen Southern's
Music of Black Americans, and the feminist writings of
Alice Walker and
Robin Morgan. Most of these books were read before the age of twenty. In 1989, Steinberg organized a concert with Shakur's former group, Strictly Dope. The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with the up-and-coming rap group Digital Underground. In 1990, he was hired as the band's backup dancer and roadie.
Rapping career
Shakur's professional entertainment career began in the early 1990s, when he debuted his rapping skills on "Same Song" from the Digital Underground album
This is an EP Release. He first appeared in the music video for "Same Song". After his rap debut, Shakur performed with Digital Underground again on the album
Sons Of The P. Later, he released his first solo album,
2Pacalypse Now. Initially he had trouble marketing his solo debut, but
Interscope Records' executives
Ted Field and Tom Whalley eventually agreed to distribute the record.
Shakur claimed his first album was aimed at the problems facing young black males, but it was publicly criticized for its graphic language and images of violence by and against law enforcement. In one instance, a young man claimed his killing of a Texas-based trooper was influenced by the album. Former Vice President
Dan Quayle publicly denounced the album as having "no place in our society".
did not do as well on the charts as future albums, spawning no top ten hits. His second record,
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. The album, mostly produced by
Randy "Stretch" Walker (Shakur's closest friend and associate at the time) and the
Live Squad, generated two hits, "
Keep Ya Head Up" and "
I Get Around", the latter featuring guest appearances by
Shock G and
Money-B of the Digital Underground.
Thug Life
In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including
Big Syke,
Macadoshis, his stepbrother
Mopreme Shakur, and Rated R. The group released their first and only record album
Thug Life: Volume 1 on September 26, 1994, which went gold. The album featured the single "
Pour Out a Little Liquor" produced by
Johnny "J" Jackson, who went on to produce a large part of Shakur's album
All Eyez on Me. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur.
The concept of "Thug Life" was viewed by Shakur as a philosophy for life. He developed the word into a
backronym standing for "The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody". He declared that the dictionary definition of a "thug" as being a rogue or criminal was not how he used the term, but rather he meant someone who came from oppressive or squalid background and little opportunity but still made a life for himself and was proud.
Legal issues
Even as he garnered attention as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law. In October 1991, he filed a $10 million civil suit against the law enforcement of the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him for
jaywalking. The suit was later settled for $42,000.
In October 1993, in
Atlanta, two brothers and off-duty police officers, Mark and Scott Whitwell, were with their wives celebrating Mrs. Whitwell's recent passing of the state bar examination. As they crossed the street, a car passed by them or "almost struck them", after which the Whitwells began an altercation with the driver and passengers, which was then joined by a second passing car. One officer was shot in the buttocks, and the other in the leg, back, or abdomen, according to varying news reports. There were no other injuries, but Mark was charged with firing at Shakur's car and later lying to the police during the investigation, and Shakur with the shooting, until prosecutors decided to drop all charges against all parties.
[Smothers, R. "Rapper Charged in Shootings of Off-Duty Officers". New York Times. November 2, 1993. Retrieved from query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DC1F3AF931A35752C1A965958260 on September 30, 2008.]["Shakur's Estate Hit With Default Claim Over Shooting". MTV News, July 20, 1998. Retrieved from www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433981/19980720/2pac.jhtml on September 30, 2008.]
In December 1993, Shakur and others were charged with sexually abusing a woman in a hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur
sodomized the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur vehemently denied the charges. He had prior relations days earlier with the woman who was pressing the charges against him. She performed
oral sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had
consensual sex in his hotel room. The allegations were made after she revisited his hotel room for the second time where she engaged in sexual activity with his friends and alleged that Shakur and his entourage had
mass raped her, saying to him while leaving, "Why you let them do this to me?"
[ThugLifeArmy.com - A Total News Source for Hip-Hop Culture][jj_productions.tripod.com/rape1.htm][findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n21118324] Shakur stated he had fallen asleep shortly after she arrived and later awoke to her accusations and legal threats. He later said he felt guilty for leaving her alone and did not want anyone else to go to jail, but at the same time he did not want to go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Shakur was convicted of sexual abuse. In sentencing Shakur to one-and-a-half years in a correctional facility, the judge described the crime as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman".
[James, George, "Rapper Faces Prison Term For Sex Abuse", New York Times, B1 (February 8, 1995); also Olen, Helaine, "Rapper Shakur Gets Prison for Assault", Los Angeles Times, A4 (February 8, 1995); Romano, Lois, "The Reliable Source", Washington Post, B3 (February 8, 1995)]
In 1994, he was convicted of attacking a former employer while on a music video set. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail with additional days on a highway work crew,
community service, and a $2000 fine. Later that year he began dating
Madonna, who wanted to have his child; the two would continue to date until friends of Shakur encouraged him to end the relationship.
[www.nydailynews.com/gossip/bwiddicombe/2007/10/30/2007-10-30_madonnatupac_shakurs_love_child_almost.html] In 1995, a
wrongful death suit was brought against Shakur for a 1992 shooting that killed Qa'id Walker-Teal, a six-year old of
Marin City,
California. The child had been the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout between Shakur's entourage and a rival group, though the
ballistics tests proved the bullet was not from Shakur or any members of his entourage's guns. Criminal charges were not sought, and Shakur settled with the family for an amount estimated between $300,000 and $500,000.
["Marin slaying case against rapper opens", San Francisco Chronicle, November 3, 1995]["Settlement in Rapper's Trial for Boy's Death". San Francisco Chronicle. November 8, 1995.] After serving part of his sentence upon a conviction, he was released on bail pending his appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of
probation.
["Rapper Is Sentenced To 120 Days in Jail". New York Times. April 5, 1996.]
November 1994 shooting
On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the
verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was shot five times and robbed after entering the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan by two armed men in army fatigues. He would later accuse
Sean Combs,
Andre Harrell, and
Biggie Smalls — whom he saw after the shooting — of setting him up. Shakur also suspected his close friend and associate,
Randy "Stretch" Walker, of being involved in the attempt. According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur had received five bullet wounds; twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital, against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. In the day that followed, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of molestation, but innocent of six others, including sodomy.
On November 30, 1995, exactly one year to the day of the shooting, Stretch was killed in an
execution-style murder in
Queens.
On March 27, 2008, the
LA Times issued an apology to Combs for blaming him for having a role in the '94 attack on Shakur. The article stated that Shakur was led to the studio by Biggie's associates to gun him down to make favor with Biggie. The newspaper relied on forged documents that
The Smoking Gun proved to be faked.
Combs stated that he is disgusted with the
LA Times for printing the story.
[Diddy: 'The story is a lie' - CNN.com][L.A. Times looking into sourcing of Tupac story - CNN.com][L.A. Times apologizes for Diddy-Tupac story - CNN.com][2Pac Story]
Prison sentence
Shakur began serving his prison sentence at
Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterwards, he released his multi-platinum album
Me Against the World. Shakur is the only artist ever to have an album at number one on the
Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks. The record album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time.
["Timeline: 25 Years of Rap Records". BBC News. October 11, 2004. Retrieved on April 10, 2006, from news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3734910.stm] He married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, while serving his sentence; the couple later divorced.
[ThugLifeArmy.com - A Total News Source for Tupac (2Pac) & Hip-Hop Culture] While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by
Niccolò Machiavelli,
Sun Tzu's
The Art of War and other works of
political philosophy and
strategy.
[Au, W. J. "Yo, Niccolo!". December 11, 1996. Salon.com. Retrieved on April 10, 2006, from archive.salon.com/media/media2961211.html] He also wrote a
screenplay titled
Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about an adolescent who becomes a
drug baron.
[Live 2 Tell at the Internet Movie Database]
In October 1995, Shakur's case was on appeal but due to all of his legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. After serving eleven months of his one-and-a-half year to four-and-a-half year sentence,
[Info from StreetGangs.com, from www.streetgangs.com/topics/tupac/091496passes.html] Shakur was released from the penitentiary due in large part to the help and influence of
Suge Knight, the CEO of
Death Row Records. Knight posted $1.4 million bail pending appeal of the conviction, in exchange for which Shakur was obligated to release three albums for the Death Row label.
["Biography: Suge Knight". AOL Music. nd. Retrieved on April 10, 2006, from music.aol.com/artist/main.adp?tab=bio&artistid=279843&albumid=0]
Life on Death Row Records
Upon his release from Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur immediately went back to song recording. He began a new group called
Outlaw Immortalz. Shakur began recording his first album with Death Row and released the single "
California Love" soon after.
[
], and
Suge Knight during Shakur's tenure on
Death Row]] (1995)
On February 13, 1996, Shakur released his fourth solo album,
All Eyez on Me. This double album was the first and second of his three-album commitment to Death Row Records. It sold over nine million copies.
[The Top Selling Record Albums of All Time] The record was a general departure from the introspective subject matter of
Me Against the World, being more oriented toward a thug and gangsta mentality. Shakur continued his recordings despite increasing problems at the Death Row label.
Dr. Dre left his post as house producer to form his own label,
Aftermath. Shakur continued to produce hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which would be released on posthumous albums such as
Still I Rise,
Until the End of Time,
Better Dayz and
Pac's Life. He also began the process of recording an album with the
Boot Camp Clik and their label Duck Down Records, both New York-based, entitled
One Nation.
On June 4, 1996, he and Outlawz released the
diss track "
Hit 'Em Up", a scathing lyrical assault on Biggie and others associated with him. In the track, Shakur claimed to have had
intercourse with
Faith Evans, Biggie's wife at the time, and attacks
Bad Boy's street credibility. Though no hard evidence suggests so, Shakur was convinced that some members associated with Bad Boy had known about the shooting beforehand due to their behavior that night and what his sources told him. Shakur aligned himself with Suge, Death Row's CEO, who was already bitter toward Combs and his successful Bad Boy label; this added fuel to building an East Coast-West Coast conflict. Both sides remained bitter enemies until Shakur's death.
On July 4, 1996, he performed live at the
House of Blues with Outlawz,
Tha Dogg Pound, and
Snoop "Doggy" Dogg also headlining. This was Shakur's very last live performance.
[[1]]
While incarcerated in
Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur read and studied
Niccolò Machiavelli and other published works, which inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the record album
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur wrote and recorded all the lyrics in only three days and the production took another four days, combining for a total of seven days to complete the album (hence the name). The album was completely finished before Shakur died and Shakur had complete creative input on the album from the name of the album to the cover, which Shakur chose to symbolize how the media had crucified him. The record debuted at number one and sold 663,000 copies in the first week. Shakur had plans of starting Makaveli Records which would have included Outlawz,
Wu-Tang Clan,
Big Daddy Kane,
Big Syke, and
Gang Starr.
September 1996 shooting
[
], from the cover of the book
The Killing of Tupac Shakur by
Cathy Scott]]
On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the
Mike Tyson -
Bruce Seldon boxing match at the
MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After leaving the match, one of Suge's associates spotted 21 year-old
Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the
Southside Crips, in the MGM Grand lobby and informed Shakur. Shakur then attacked Anderson. Shakur's entourage, as well as Suge Knight and his followers assisted in assaulting Anderson. The fight was captured on the hotel's
video surveillance. A few weeks earlier, Anderson and a group of Crips had robbed a member of Death Row's entourage in a
Foot Locker store, precipitating Shakur's attack. After the brawl, Shakur went to
rendezvous with Suge to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). He rode in Knights's 1996 black
BMW 750iL sedan as part of a larger
convoy including many in Shakur's entourage.
At 10:55 p.m., while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took his photograph.
[Tupac Shakur LV Shooting - Thugz-Network.com] At around 11:00-11:05 p.m., they were halted on Las Vegas Blvd. by Metro bicycle cops for playing the car stereo too loud and not having license plates. The plates were then found in the trunk of Suge's car; they were released without being fined a few minutes later.
[The Murder of Tupac Shakur] At about 11:10 p.m., while stopped at a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their right side. Shakur, who was standing up through the
sunroof, exchanged words with the two women, and invited them to go to Club 662.
At approximately 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model,
Cadillac driven by unknown person(s) pulled up to the sedan's right side, rolled down one of the windows, and rapidly fired around twelve to thirteen shots at Shakur. He was struck by four rounds, hitting him in the chest, the
pelvis, and his right hand and thigh.
One of the rounds apparently ricocheted into Shakur's right
lung.
[Detailed information on the fatal shooting at www.alleyesonme.com/] Suge was hit in the head by
shrapnel, though it is thought that a bullet grazed him.
[Don Killuminati |] According to Suge, a bullet from the gunfire had been lodged in his skull, but medical reports later contradicted this statement.
[2PACWORLD.CO.UK - MARION 'SUGE' KNIGHT BIOGRAPHY, CEO OF DEATHROW RECORDS]
At the time of the drive-by Shakur's bodyguard was following behind in a vehicle belonging to
Kidada Jones, Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive Kidada Jones' car instead just in case they were too drunk and needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. Shortly after the assault, the bodyguard reported in his documentary,
Before I Wake, that one of the convoy's cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard back from the occupants.
After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Suge and a fatally wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center. According to an interview with one of Shakur's closest friends the music video director Gobi, while at the hospital, he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and were sending death threats aimed at Shakur, claiming that they were going there to "finish him off".
[Interview with Gobi at http://www.hitemup.com/] Upon hearing this, Gobi immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police claimed they were understaffed and no one could be sent.
Nonetheless, the shooters never arrived.
At the hospital, Shakur was in and out of
consciousness, was heavily
sedated, was breathing through a
ventilator and
respirator, was placed on
life support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-
induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed.
[Tupac shooting in Las Vegas at http://www.hitemup.com/]
Despite having been resuscitated in a
trauma center and surviving a multitude of surgeries (as well as the removal of a failed right lung), Shakur had gotten through the critical phase of the medical therapy and was given a 50% chance of pulling through.
Gobi left the medical center after being informed that Shakur made a 13% recovery on the sixth night.
While in
Critical Care Unit on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died of
internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not impede his hemorrhaging.
His mother, Afeni, made the decision to tell the doctors to stop.
He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. (
PDT)
The official cause of death was noted as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds.
Shakur's body was cremated.
[Tupac Amaru Shakur] Some of his ashes were later mixed with
marijuana and smoked by members of Outlawz.
[Tupac's life after death]
Murder case
Due largely to the perceived lack of progress on the case by law enforcement, many independent investigations and theories of the murder have emerged. Because of the acrimony between him and Biggie, there was speculation from the outset about the possibility of Biggie's collaboration in the murder. He, as well as his family, relatives, and associates, have vehemently denied the accusation.
[BBC News. September 9, 2002. Retrieved on April 10, 2006, from Rapper's family denies murder theory] In a notable 2002 investigation by the
LA Times, writer
Chuck Phillips claimed to have uncovered evidence implicating Biggie, in addition to Anderson and the Southside Crips, in the attack.
[BBC News. September 6, 2002. Retrieved on April 10, 2006, from Paper investigates rapper murder] In the article, Phillips quoted unnamed gang-member sources who claimed Biggie had ties to the Crips, often hiring them for security during
West Coast appearances. Phillips' informants also state that Biggie gave the gang members one of his own guns for use in the slaying of Shakur, and that he set out a $1,000,000 contract on Shakur's life. By the time Phillips' specific allegations were published, Biggie himself had been murdered.
["Fresh probe over rapper's murder". BBC News. March 18, 2006. Retrieved on April 10, 2006, from news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4820224.stm]
In support of their claims, Biggie's family submitted documentation to
MTV insinuating that he was working in a New York recording studio the night of the drive-by shooting. His manager Wayne Barrow and fellow rapper
James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Biggie's partaking in the crime and claimed further that they were both with him in the recording studio during the night of the event.
The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of English filmmaker
Nick Broomfield, who made the documentary film
Biggie & Tupac which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those close to the two slain rappers and the investigation. Shakur's close childhood friend and member of Outlawz,
Yafeu "Yaki Kadafi" Fula, was in the
convoy when the drive-by occurred and indicated to police that he might be able to identify the assailants, however, he was shot and killed shortly thereafter in a housing project in
Irvington.
[Jones, S. "The Truth is Being Covered Up". Philadelphia Weekly. September 18, 2002.]
In the first few seconds of the song "Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply)" on the record album
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur can be heard saying "Shoulda shot me". While some believed that Suge may have orchestrated Shakur's murder, theorists mistook the statement in the song as "Suge shot me" or "Suge shot 'em" until confirmation by multiple audio tests and confirmation from members of Outlawz. This, along with reports of Suge's strong-arm tactics with artists and other illegal business tactics including involvement with the
MOB Piru street gang gave rise to a theory that Suge was complicit in the shooting, as it was supposedly reported that he owed Shakur up to $17,000,000 in back royalties, but no evidence has been provided to support this theory.
A DVD titled
Tupac: Assassination was released on October 23, 2007, more than eleven years after Shakur's murder. It explores aspects circulating the event and provides new insight about the
cold case with details of the environment.
Influences
Shakur's music and philosophy is rooted in many American, African-American, and World entities, including the
Black Panther Party,
Black nationalism,
egalitarianism, and
liberty. His debut album,
2Pacalypse Now, revealed the socially conscious side of Shakur. On this album, Shakur attacked social injustice, poverty and police brutality on songs "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped" and "Part Time Mutha". His style on this album was highly influenced by the social consciousness and
Afrocentrism pervading hip hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s. On this initial release, Shakur helped extend the success of such rap groups as
Boogie Down Productions,
Public Enemy,
X-Clan, and
Grandmaster Flash, as he became one of the first major socially conscious rappers from the West Coast.
On his second record, Shakur continued to rap about the social ills facing African-Americans, with songs like "The Streetz R Deathrow" and "Last Wordz." He also showed his compassionate side with the inspirational anthem "Keep Ya Head Up", while simultaneously putting his legendary aggressiveness on display with the title track from the album
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. he added a salute to his former group
Digital Underground by including them on the playful track "
I Get Around". Throughout his career, an increasingly aggressive attitude can be seen pervading Shakur's subsequent albums.
The contradictory themes of social inequality and injustice, unbridled aggression, compassion, playfulness, and hope all continued to shape Shakur's work, as witnessed with the release of his incendiary 1995 album
Me Against the World. In 1996, Shakur released
All Eyez on Me. Many of these tracks are considered by many
critics to be classics, including "
Ambitionz Az a Ridah", "
I Ain't Mad at Cha", "
California Love", "
Life Goes On" and "Picture Me Rollin'".;
All Eyez on Me was a change of style from his earlier works. While still containing socially conscious songs and themes, Shakur's album was heavily influenced by party tracks and tended to have a more "feel good" vibe than his first albums. Shakur described it as a celebration of life, and the record was critically and commercially successful.
Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including
Niccolò Machiavelli,
Donald Goines,
Sun Tzu,
Kurt Vonnegut,
Mikhail Bakunin,
Maya Angelou,
Alice Walker, and
Khalil Gibran. In his book, Dyson describes the experience of visiting the home of Shakur's friend and promoter Leila Steinberg to find "the sea of books" once owned by Shakur.
Legacy
At a
Mobb Deep concert following the death of the famed icon and release of
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,
Cormega recalled in an interview that the fans were all shouting "Makaveli",
[Tupac Shakur: A Roundtable Discussion] and emphasized the influence of the
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory and of Shakur himself even in New York at the height of the media-dubbed 'intercoastal rivalry'.
About.com named Shakur the most influential rapper ever.
[50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987 - 2007)]
To preserve Shakur's legacy, his mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation (later re-named the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation or TASF) in 1997. The TASF's stated mission is to "provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents." The TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a
performing arts day camp for teenagers and undergraduate scholarships. The Foundation officially opened the
Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts (TASCA) in
Stone Mountain,
Georgia, on June 11, 2005. On November 14, 2003, a documentary about Shakur entitled
Tupac: Resurrection was released under the supervision of his mother and narrated entirely in his voice. It was nominated for
Best Documentary in the
2005 Academy Awards. Proceeds will go to a charity set up by Shakur's mother Afeni. On April 17, 2003,
Harvard University co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero." The speakers discussed a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur's impact on everything from entertainment to sociology.
[Gewertz, K. "Symposium analyzes, celebrates 'Thug'". Harvard University Gazette. April 24, 2003. Retrieved from news.harvard.edu/ on April 16, 2006.]
Many of the speakers discussed Shakur's status and public persona, including
State University of New York English professor Mark Anthony Neal who gave the talk "Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian" in which he argued that Shakur was an example of the "organic intellectual" expressing the concerns of a larger group.
[Neal, M. "Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian". Harvard University. 2003.] Professor Neal has also indicated in his writings that the death of Shakur has left a "leadership void amongst hip-hop artists."
[Neal, M. "New Black Man". Retrieved on April 16, 2006, from newblackman.com] Neal further describes him as a "walking contradiction", a status that allowed him to "make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people".
Professor of Communications Murray Forman, of
Northeastern University, spoke of the
mythical status about Shakur's life and death. He addressed the
symbolism and mythology surrounding Shakur's death in his talk entitled "Tupac Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)". Among his findings were that Shakur's fans have "succeeded in resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force".
[Forman, M. "Tupac Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)". Harvard University. 2003.] In "From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero", Professor of Music at Northeastern University, Emmett Price, compared Shakur's public image to that of the trickster-figures of African-American folklore which gave rise to the urban "bad-man" persona of the post-slavery period. He ultimately described Shakur as a "prolific artist" who was "driven by a terrible sense of urgency" in a quest to "unify mind, body, and spirit".
[Price, E. "From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero". Harvard University. 2003.]
Michael Dyson, University of Pennsylvania Avalon Professor of Humanities and African American Studies and author of the book
Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur[Dyson, M. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. BasicCivitas Books. 2001.] indicated that Shakur "spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform. He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his identity."
[Dyson, M. "Holler If You Hear Me". Harvard University. 2003.] At one Harvard Conference the theme was Shakur's impact on entertainment, race relations, politics and the "hero/martyr".
[Harvard Gazette May 1, 2003, edition, writer Ken Gewertz] In late 1997, the
University of California, Berkeley offered a student-led course entitled "History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur."
[Berkeley University Offers Class On Tupac at VH1 (September 10, 1997). Retrieved on July 26, 2006.]
In late 2003, the
Makaveli Branded Clothing line was launched by Afeni. In 2005, Death Row released
Tupac: Live at the House of Blues. The DVD was the final recorded performance of Shakur's career, which took place on July 4, 1996, and features a plethora of Death Row artists. In August 2006,
Tupac Shakur Legacy was released. The interactive biography was written by
Jamal Joseph. It features unseen family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 removable reproductions of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other personal papers. Shakur's sixth posthumous studio album,
Pac's Life, was released on November 21, 2006. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of Shakur's death. He is still considered one of the most popular artists in the music industry .
[Top Musical Artists for 2006]
Honors
- Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2002.
[BET.com - Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur To Be Inducted Into Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame]
- In 2003, MTV's "22 Greatest MCs" countdown listed Shakur as the "number 1 MC", as voted by the viewers.
[MTV2 Presents: 22 Greatest MC's broadcast July 2003]
- In 2004, at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Shakur was honored along with DJ Hollywood, Kool DJ Herc, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Rock Steady Crew, and Sugarhill Gang.
[VH1 Hip Hop Honorees 2004 at VH1]
- A Vibe magazine poll in 2004 rated Shakur "the greatest rapper of all time" as voted by fans.
[V Community: Greatest Rapper of All Time?]
- At the First Annual Turks & Caicos International Film Festival held on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Shakur was honored for his undeniable voice and talent and as a performer who crossed racial, ethnic, cultural and medium lines; his mother accepted the award on his behalf.
[Turks and Caicos International Film Festival - Festival To Honor John Debney and Tupac Shakur, Friday, October 13]
- In 2008, the The National Association Of Recording Merchandisers in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized him as a very influential artist and has added him in their Definitive 200 list.
[Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Top Artist]
Discography
Film
Acting career
In addition to rapping and hip hop music, Shakur acted in films. He made his first film appearance in the motion picture
Nothing But Trouble, as part of a
cameo by the Digital Underground. His first starring role was in the movie
Juice. In this story, he played the character Bishop, a trigger happy teen, for which he was hailed by
Rolling Stone's
Peter Travers as "the film's most magnetic figure."
[2Pac biography. Alleyezonme. Accessed December 5, 2007.] He went on to star with
Janet Jackson in
Poetic Justice and with
Marlon Wayans in
Above the Rim. After his death, three of Shakur's completed films,
Bullet,
Gridlock'd and
Gang Related, were posthumously released.
He had also been slated to star in the
Hughes brothers' film
Menace II Society but was replaced by
Larenz Tate after assaulting Allen Hughes as a result of a quarrel. Director
John Singleton mentioned that he wrote the script for
Baby Boy with Shakur in mind for the leading role.
[village voice > news > Sex & Negrocity by Greg Tate] It was eventually filmed with
Tyrese Gibson in his place and released in 2001, five years after Shakur's death. The movie features a mural of Shakur in the
protagonist's bedroom as well as featuring the song "
Hail Mary" in the movie's score.
Near the end of his life, Shakur founded a movie development company called Euphanasia. He wore the company chain (a silver chain with a medallion depicting the Black Angel of Death) on September 4, 1996, during the
1996 MTV Video Music Awards. He wore it again on September 7, 1996, during the
Mike Tyson vs.
Bruce Seldon bout and when he was shot later that night. Shakur was evidently planning to start writing and directing his own films which would be developed by Euphanasia; the company never did anything due to his death.
Filmography
Documentaries
Shakur's life has been recognized in big and small documentaries each trying capture the many different events during his short lifetime, most notably the Academy Award-nominated
Tupac: Resurrection, released in 2003.
See also
