2pac biography in hindi

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Tupac Shakur Biography In Hindi

Tupac Shakur Biography In Hindi हेलो दोस्तों आप सभी का स्वागत है हमारे साइट Jivan Parichay में आज हम बात करने वाले है तुपक शकूर की जीवनी के बारे में तो इस आर्टिकल को ध्यान से पढ़े। Tupac Shakur Ka Jivan Parichay In Hindi तुपक शकूर का जीवन परिचय:- तुपाक शकुर, जिसे उनके मंच नाम 2 पीएसी से बेहतर जाना जाता है, एक बेहद सफल रैपर और अभिनेता थे जो अपने हिंसक और चौंकाने वाले गीतों के लिए जाने जाते थे जिसने उन्हें कई प्रशंसकों के साथ-साथ आलोचकों का भी नाम दिया। कानून के साथ अपने ब्रश के लिए कुख्यात एक परिवार में जन्मे, जब तक वह वयस्क नहीं था, उसके जैविक पिता के साथ उसका कोई संपर्क नहीं था। हिंसा उस नौजवान के लिए कोई नई बात नहीं थी, जिसकी मां उसके साथ गर्भवती थी। यह कोई आश्चर्य की बात नहीं है कि उनका संगीत यहूदी बस्ती, सड़क पर हिंसा, सेक्स, गिरोहों और अन्य सामाजिक समस्याओं के संदर्भ में भरा हुआ था, जो बड़े होने पर उनका सामना करते थे। Tupac Shakur Ka Jivan Parichay – अपने करियर की शुरुआत में उन्होंने वैकल्पिक हिप हॉप समूह डिजिटल अंडरग्राउंड के लिए एक रोडी और बैकअप डांसर के रूप में काम किया। आखिरकार प्रतिभाशाली युवक ने अपना एकल डेब्यू ac 2 पेक्लिप्स नाऊ ’जारी किया, जो इसके गीतों की हिंसक प्रकृति के कारण काफी विवाद पैदा करता है और इस कारण से मुख्य रूप से बहुत लोकप्रिय हो गया है।

CTET क्या है सीटीईटी Kaise Kare in Hindi

B.tech कैसे करे पूरी जानकारी hindi, tehsildar कैसे बने in hindi.

पेशेवर रूप से सफल होने के बावजूद, उनका जीवन हिंसा में उलझा हुआ था और पुलिस के साथ उनकी लगातार अनबन थी। अपने संगीत कैरियर के अलावा, उन्होंने कुछ फिल्मों में भी काम किया था।

वह एक शातिर पाठक और शेक्सपियर का बहुत बड़ा प्रशंसक था। एक ड्राइव द्वारा शूटिंग में उनकी क्रूर मौत से उनका खिलता हुआ करियर छोटा पड़ गया।

Childhood & Early Life Of Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur Biodata In Hindi:- Tupac Amaru Shakur का जन्म 16 जून 1971 को न्यूयॉर्क शहर में ब्लैक पैंथर के सक्रिय माता-पिता के यहाँ हुआ था। उनकी माँ, अफनी शकूर को उनके साथ गर्भवती होने के दौरान कैद किया गया था। तुपैक अपने जैविक पिता बिली गारलैंड से परिचित हो गया, उसके वयस्क होने के बाद ही।

उनका बचपन कठिन था, क्योंकि वह अपराधियों की संगति में बड़े हुए थे। वह कम उम्र से ही हिंसा के संपर्क में आ गए थे।उनका पहला अभिनय कार्यकाल 1983 में हार्लेम के 127 वें स्ट्रीट रिपर्टरी एंसेंबल के साथ था, जब उन्होंने अपोलो थिएटर में एक नाटक the ए रायसिन इन द सन ’में अभिनय किया था।

उन्होंने कला के लिए बाल्टीमोर स्कूल में कविता, जैज़, अभिनय और बैले का अध्ययन किया। वह एक प्रतिभाशाली रैपर था और अपने स्कूल के दिनों में कई प्रतियोगिताओं में जीता था। उन्होंने लीला स्टीनबर्ग के साथ तमालपाइस हाई स्कूल और कविता कक्षाओं में भाग लिया

Tupac Shakur kon hai – Career

Tupac Shakur Biography In Hindi: उन्होंने 1990 में वैकल्पिक हिप हॉप समूह डिजिटल अंडरग्राउंड के साथ रोडी और बैकअप डांसर के रूप में अपना करियर शुरू किया। उन्होंने फिल्म ‘नथिंग बट ट्रबल’ के साउंडट्रैक के लिए बैंड के साथ प्रदर्शन किया और 1991 में फिल्म में भी दिखाई दिए।

उन्होंने 1991 के अंत तक अपना पहला एकल एल्बम ‘2Pacalypse Now’ जारी किया। इसमें नस्लवाद, गरीबी, हिंसा और किशोर गर्भावस्था पर सामग्री दिखाई गई। इसने काफी विवाद उत्पन्न किया, और रैपर को बहुत लोकप्रिय बना दिया।

1993 में उनका दूसरा एल्बम, स्ट्रिक्टली 4 माय एन.आई.जी.जी.जेड ‘बाहर हो गया था। यह अपने पूर्ववर्ती की तुलना में अधिक सफल था और इसमें हिट्स’ कीप यस हेड अप ‘और’ आई गेट अराउंड ‘शामिल थे।

उन्होंने संगीतकारों बिग साइके, मोपरम शकुर, रेटेड आर और अन्य लोगों के साथ एक ठग जीवन का गठन किया। उन्होंने 1994 में एक एल्बम ठग लाइफ: वॉल्यूम 1 ’जारी किया। एल्बम को अमेरिका में गोल्ड प्रमाणित किया गया था।

Tupac Shakur ka Jivan Parichay

इस समय के दौरान उन्होंने कानून के साथ कई ब्रश किए और एक सशस्त्र डकैती के मामले में उन्हें गोली मार दी गई। शूटिंग से उबरने के बाद, उन्हें यौन उत्पीड़न के आरोप में जेल भेज दिया गया। उन्होंने कारावास के दौरान बहुत सारी किताबें पढ़ीं और अपने संगीत पर काम करना जारी रखा।

उन्होंने अपने जेल की अवधि की सेवा करते हुए 1995 में एल्बम Again मी अगेंस्ट द वर्ल्ड ’जारी किया। यह एल्बम एक तत्काल हिट था और बिलबोर्ड 200 में नंबर एक पर पहली फिल्म थी। इसे अब तक के सबसे प्रभावशाली हिप हॉप एल्बमों में से एक माना जाता है। (  Tupac Shakur ki Jivani In Hindi )

1996 में रिलीज़ हुआ एल्बम ‘ऑल आईज़ ऑन मी’ उनके जीवनकाल के दौरान रिलीज़ किया गया आखिरी था। इसमें पाँच एकल शामिल थे और इसके जारी होने के कुछ ही महीनों बाद मल्टी प्लेटिनम चला गया। इसमें हिट्स ‘हाउ डू यू वांट इट’ और ‘कैलिफोर्निया लव’ थे।

ट्यूपैक को सितंबर 1996 में एक ड्राइव-बाय शूटिंग में मार दिया गया था। पहले से रिकॉर्ड की गई सामग्री वाले कई एल्बम मरणोपरांत जारी किए गए थे। उनके सभी मरणोपरांत एल्बम भी सुपर हिट थे।

Major Works – प्रमुख कार्य

2pac Shakur Biography In Hindi:- उनका एल्बम, album मी अगेंस्ट द वर्ल्ड ’रिलीज़ होने के दौरान उन्हें कैद किया गया, जो उनके सबसे सफल एल्बमों में से एक था। इसने बिलबोर्ड 200 में नंबर एक पर शुरुआत की और इसे उनके करियर की शानदार पारी माना जाता है।

यह यू.एस. में डबल प्लेटिनम बन गया। ‘ऑल आईज़ ऑन मी’, उनकी असामयिक मृत्यु से पहले जारी किया गया अंतिम एल्बम उनका सर्वश्रेष्ठ एल्बम था। यह बिलबोर्ड 200 में नंबर एक पर पहुंच गया और इसकी रिलीज के महीनों के भीतर मल्टी प्लेटिनम से मान्यता प्राप्त हो गया।

Family & Personal Life – पारिवारिक और व्यक्तिगत जीवन

2pac shakur ka Jivan Parichay:- उन्होंने अपनी लॉन्गटाइम गर्लफ्रेंड कीशा मॉरिस से अप्रैल 1995 में शादी की, लेकिन शादी मार्च 1996 में खत्म हो गई। उनका निजी जीवन हिंसा से त्रस्त था। वह आपराधिक अपराधों में शामिल था और जेल में बंद था।

सितंबर 1996 में जब वह सिर्फ 25 साल के थे, तब एक ड्राइव-बाय शूटिंग में उनकी मौत हो गई थी। शकूर अपनी प्रेमिका किदादा जोन्स, क्विंसी जोन्स की बेटी के साथ अपनी मृत्यु तक लिव-इन रिलेशनशिप में था। जोन्स अपने लास वेगास होटल के कमरे में उसका इंतजार कर रहा था जब उसे पता चला कि सकुर को गोली लगी है।

वह 13 सितंबर, 1996 को घायल होने तक अस्पताल में उनके साथ रहीं। वह माइक टायसन, मार्लोन वेन्स, जिम कैरी, चक डी और रोजी पेरेज़ के साथ दोस्त थे। उन्होंने साथी रैपर्स स्नूप डॉग और फ्रेडी फॉक्सएक्स के साथ सहयोग किया।

जैडा पिंकेट एक पूर्व सहपाठी और उसका बहुत करीबी दोस्त था। वह तब जेल की सजा काट रहा था जब उसका एल्बम World मी अगेंस्ट द वर्ल्ड ’बिलबोर्ड 200 पर नंबर एक पर पहुंच गया था।

उनके परिवार के कई सदस्य, जिनमें उनके सौतेले पिता, उनकी सौतेली चाची, उनके जैविक पिता और उनकी माँ शामिल हैं, ब्लैक बर्ड्स के सदस्य थे।

मै आशा करता हूँ की Tupac Shakur Biography In Hindi यह पोस्ट आपको पसंद आई होगी।

मै ऐसी तरह की अधिक से अधिक महान लोगो की प्रेरक कहानिया प्रकाशित करता रहूँगा आपको प्रेरित करने के लिये ।

यदि इस पोस्ट में कोई भी त्रुटि हो तो कृपया हमे कमेंट कर के अवस्य बताया। धन्यवाद् Tupac Amaru Shakur Biography In Hindi Tupac history In Hindi Tupac Amaru Shakur Biography In Hindi Tupac history In Hindi Tupac Amaru Shakur Biography In Hindi Tupac history In Hindi Tupac Amaru Shakur Biography In Hindi Tupac history In Hindi

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तुपाक शकूर जिवन परिचय | tupac shakur biography in hindi,  तुपाक शकूर जिवन परिचय | tupac shakur biography in hindi.

तुपाक शकूर ईस्ट कोस्ट और वेस्ट कोस्ट रैपर्स के बीच झगड़े में उलझा हुआ था। 1996 में एक ड्राइव-बाय शूटिंग में उसकी हत्या कर दी गई थी, जिसने 25 साल की उम्र में एक प्रभावशाली संगीत विरासत को पीछे छोड़ दिया था।

तुपाक शकूर कौन था?|Who Was Tupac Shakur?

तुपाक शकूर एक अमेरिकी रैपर और अभिनेता थे, जो 1990 के दशक के गैंगस्टा-रैप सौंदर्य को मूर्त रूप देने के लिए आए थे, और जो मृत्यु में महान संघर्ष का प्रतीक बन गए। उन्होंने अब तक 75 मिलियन एल्बम बेचे हैं, जिससे वह अब तक के सबसे अधिक बिकने वाले कलाकारों में से एक बन गए हैं।

एक संवेदनशील, असामयिक रूप से प्रतिभाशाली और परेशान आत्मा, टुपैक को 7 सितंबर, 1996 को लास वेगास में गोली मार दी गई थी और छह दिन बाद उसकी मृत्यु हो गई थी। उसकी हत्या कभी नहीं सुलझी।

तुपाक ने  अपने संगीत कैरियर की शुरुआत एक विद्रोही के रूप में कई अफ्रीकी अमेरिकियों द्वारा सहन किए गए कष्टों और अन्यायों को स्पष्ट करने के लिए की थी। ऐसा करने में उनके कौशल ने उन्हें न केवल अपनी पीढ़ी के लिए बल्कि बाद के लोगों के लिए एक प्रवक्ता बना दिया जो समानता के लिए उसी संघर्ष का सामना करना जारी रखते हैं।

जिंदगी में उनकी सबसे बड़ी लड़ाई कभी-कभी खुद से होती थी। जैसे ही भाग्य ने उसे गैंगस्टा रैप के शून्यवाद की ओर ले जाया, और विवादास्पद डेथ रो रिकॉर्ड्स इम्प्रेसारियो सुज नाइट की बाहों में, शकूर की कला और उसके जीवन के बीच की सीमाएं तेजी से धुंधली हो गईं - दुखद परिणामों के साथ।

तुपाक शकूर प्रारंभिक जीवन|Tupac Shakur Early Life 

तुपाक   का जन्म 16 जून 1971 को न्यूयॉर्क के हार्लेम में हुआ था। उनकी मां, अफनी, अपने दम पर दो बच्चों की परवरिश कर रही थीं और पैसे के लिए संघर्ष कर रही थीं। परिवार अक्सर घरों में चला जाता था, कभी-कभी आश्रयों में रहता था।

वे बाल्टीमोर चले गए, जहां टुपैक ने प्रतिष्ठित बाल्टीमोर स्कूल फॉर द आर्ट्स में दाखिला लिया, जहां उन्होंने महसूस किया कि "सबसे स्वतंत्र मैंने कभी महसूस किया।"

तुपाक की माँ, पिता और बहन|Tupac's mother, father and sister

तुपाक   को जन्म के समय लेसेन पैरिश क्रुक्स नाम दिया गया था। ब्लैक पैंथर पार्टी में शामिल होने के बाद, उनकी मां ने अपना पहला नाम बदलकर पेरू के क्रांतिकारी तुपैक अमारू कर लिया, जिसे स्पेनिश ने मार डाला था। टुपैक ने बाद में अपनी बहन के सेकिया के पिता से अपना उपनाम लिया, एक और पैंथर जिसे मुतुलु शकूर कहा जाता था।

तुपाक   की मां, एलिस फेय विलियम्स, उत्तरी कैरोलिना की एक नौकरानी और हाई-स्कूल ड्रॉपआउट की बेटी थीं। दौड़ युद्ध शुरू करने की साजिश रचने के आरोप के बाद जमानत पर रहते हुए वह 1970 में ट्यूपैक के साथ गर्भवती हो गईं। अफनी को अगले साल अदालत में सफलतापूर्वक अपना बचाव करने के बाद बरी कर दिया गया था, जिसमें उनके बेटे को विरासत में मिलने वाले भाषण के लिए एक उपहार प्रदर्शित किया गया था।

ब्लैक पैंथर पार्टी में सक्रिय रूप से शामिल होने के बाद उसने अपना नाम बदलकर अफनी शकूर रख लिया। अफनी का मई 2016 में 69 वर्ष की आयु में निधन हो गया।

तुपाक   के पिता, बिली गारलैंड भी एक पैंथर थे, लेकिन जब टुपैक पांच साल के थे, तब उनका अफेनी से संपर्क टूट गया। रैपर 23 साल की उम्र तक अपने पिता को फिर से नहीं देख पाएगा। 1996 में वाइब पत्रिका के साथ एक साक्षात्कार के दौरान उन्होंने लेखक केविन पॉवेल से कहा, "मुझे लगा कि मेरे पिता जीवन भर मर चुके हैं।" "मुझे लगा कि मुझे दिखाने के लिए मुझे एक डैडी की जरूरत है। रस्सियाँ और मेरे पास एक नहीं थी।"  

तुपाक   के दो साल बाद अफेनी ने एक बेटी सेकिया को जन्म दिया। हालाँकि, सेकिया के पिता, मुतुलु शकूर, भी इधर-उधर नहीं रहे।

जैडा पिंकेट स्मिथ और तुपाक की दोस्ती|Jada Pinkett Smith and Tupac Friendship

तुपाक ने अभिनेत्री जैडा पिंकेट-स्मिथ से मैरीलैंड के बाल्टीमोर स्कूल फॉर द आर्ट्स में हाई स्कूल में मुलाकात की। उन्होंने 'स्ट्रिक्टली 4 माई निगाज़' के लिए उनके संगीत वीडियो में एक कैमियो किया था।

पिंकेट-स्मिथ को 2017 में टुपैक ऑल आईज़ ऑन मी पर फिल्म में दिखाया गया था। बाद में उसने संवाददाताओं से कहा कि जब वह टुपैक से मिली तो वह एक ड्रग डीलर थी और उसने पाया कि फिल्म में उनके रिश्ते की "पुनर्कल्पना" "बहुत आहत" है।

"यह सिर्फ के बारे में नहीं था, ओह, आपके पास यह प्यारी लड़की है, और यह शांत लड़का है, वे इसमें रहे होंगे - नहीं, ऐसा बिल्कुल नहीं था। यह एक अस्तित्व के बारे में था, और यह हमेशा से अस्तित्व के बारे में था हमारे बीच, "उन्होने कहा।

 तुपाक खिलाफ बलात्कार के आरोप|Rape charges against Tupac

फरवरी 1995 में, टुपैक को एक महिला प्रशंसक का यौन शोषण करने के लिए डेढ़ और साढ़े चार साल की जेल की सजा सुनाई गई थी। मामला नवंबर 1993 में न्यूयॉर्क पार्कर मेरिडियन होटल में टुपैक के सुइट में हुई एक घटना से संबंधित है।

तुपाक ने कहा कि उसने लड़की के साथ बलात्कार नहीं किया था, हालांकि उसने वाइब पत्रिका के पत्रकार केविन पॉवेल के सामने कबूल किया कि वह उस समय सूट में मौजूद अन्य लोगों को ऐसा करने से रोक सकता था। "मेरे पास एक नौकरी थी [उसे बचाने के लिए]," उन्होंने अपना दुख व्यक्त करते हुए कहा, "और मैं कभी नहीं दिखा।

कविताएं और किताब|Poems and Books

तुपाक के रैपर बनने से पहले उन्होंने कविता लिखी थी। "दुनिया तेजी से आगे बढ़ती है और यह आपको 2 स्टॉप और सी जो आपको रुलाती है, के बजाय / से गुजरती है," एक कविता है जिसे उन्होंने एक किशोर के रूप में लिखा था जो अंततः 2000 की पुस्तक, द रोज़ द ग्रो फ्रॉम कंक्रीट में प्रकाशित होगी।

तुपाक अभिनीत फ़िल्में|movies starring tupac

अपने संगीत के साथ, टुपैक अपनी मृत्यु के समय तक कई फिल्मों में दिखाई दिए, उनमें से 1993 की पोएटिक जस्टिस में जेनेट जैक्सन और 1996 की बुलेट में मिकी राउरके के साथ भूमिकाएँ निभाईं।

रॉक एंड रोल हॉल ऑफ फ़ेम|Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

7 अप्रैल, 2017 को, टुपैक को रॉक एंड रोल हॉल ऑफ फ़ेम में शामिल किया गया था, जो संगीत के सर्वोच्च सम्मानों में से एक है - एक रैपर के लिए एक योग्य समावेश जिसे कई लोगों ने अब तक का सबसे महान माना है।

तुपाक की पत्नी और प्रेमिका|Tupac's wife and girlfriend

तुपाक ने 1995 में कीशा मॉरिस से शादी की, जब वह जेल में था; दंपति कई महीने पहले एक नाइट क्लब में मिले थे जब मॉरिस 20 साल के थे और टुपैक 21 साल के थे। अक्टूबर 1995 में टुपैक के जेल से रिहा होने के पांच महीने बाद उनकी शादी रद्द कर दी गई थी; यह जोड़ी उनकी मृत्यु तक दोस्त बनी रही।

मॉरिस से अपनी शादी खत्म होने के तुरंत बाद, टुपैक ने किडाडा जोन्स को डेट करना शुरू कर दिया। वे एक क्लब में मिले थे जब टुपैक ने अपने पिता क्विंसी जोन्स का अपमान करने के लिए माफी मांगी, केवल सफेद महिलाओं से डेटिंग के लिए। जिस रात उसे गोली मारी गई, जोन्स टुपैक के साथ लास वेगास में था।

मौत|Death

13 सितंबर, 1996 को लास वेगास में टुपैक की छह दिन पहले गोली लगने से मौत हो गई थी। उसकी हत्या अनसुलझी बनी हुई है।

7 सितंबर को, टुपैक एमजीएम ग्रांड होटल में माइक टायसन की लड़ाई देखने के लिए नाइट के साथ लास वेगास में था। क्रिप्स गिरोह के एक सदस्य और टुपैक के बीच लड़ाई के बाद हाथापाई हुई।

नाइट, जो प्रतिद्वंद्वी ब्लड्स गिरोह में शामिल था, और उसके दल के सदस्यों ने ढेर कर दिया। बाद में, एक कार के रूप में, जिसे टुपैक नाइट के साथ साझा कर रहा था, एक लाल बत्ती पर रुक गया, एक व्यक्ति दूसरी कार से निकला और उसने ट्यूपैक को मारते हुए 13 गोलियां दागीं। हाथ, श्रोणि और छाती। बाद में उनकी अस्पताल में मौत हो गई। उनके अंतिम दिनों में उनकी प्रेमिका किदादा और उनकी मां अफनी दोनों उनके साथ थीं।

तुपाक के शरीर का अंतिम संस्कार किया गया। उनके पुराने बैंड, आउटलॉज़ के सदस्यों ने विवादास्पद दावा किया कि उन्होंने उनके सम्मान में उनकी कुछ राख को धूम्रपान किया था। उसकी माँ ने घोषणा की कि वह उसकी हत्या की 10वीं बरसी पर अपने बेटे की राख को दक्षिण अफ्रीका के "अपने पूर्वजों की जन्मभूमि" सोवेटो में बिखेर देगी। बाद में उसने तारीख को बदलकर 16 जून, 1997 कर दिया - टुपैक का 26 वां जन्मदिन और साथ ही 1976 के सोवेटो विद्रोह की वर्षगांठ।

तुपाक की मृत्यु के छह महीने बाद 9 मार्च, 1997 को, लॉस एंजिल्स में एक ड्राइव-बाय शूटिंग में बिग्गी स्मॉल की मौत हो गई; उसकी हत्या भी कभी हल नहीं हुई है ।

क्या तुम्हें पता है:

तुपाक शकूर के माता-पिता ब्लैक पैंथर पार्टी के सदस्य थे।

13 साल की उम्र में टुपैक ने राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार जेसी जैक्सन के लिए धन जुटाने के लिए अपोलो थिएटर में 'ए किशमिश इन द सन' में ट्रैविस यंगर की भूमिका निभाई।

ईस्ट कोस्ट/वेस्ट कोस्ट रैप विवाद शुरू होने से पहले, टुपैक और बिगगी स्मॉल दोस्त थे।

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Tupac Shakur

• Born June 16 , 1971 · East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
• Died September 13 , 1996 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (homicide)
• Birth name Lesane Parish Crooks
• Height 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
• Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith . His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. In the same year he received individual recognition for his album "2Pacalypse Now," but this album was also the beginning of his notoriety as a leading figure of the gangster permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His solo movie career also began in this year with Juice (1992) , and in 1992 he co-starred with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993) . However, law confrontations were soon to come: A 15-day jail term in 1994 for assault and battery and, in 1995, a conviction for sexual assault of a female fan. After serving 8 months pending an appeal, Shakur was released from jail. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bruce Cameron <[email protected]>
• Notorious 25-year-old gangsta MC and actor Tupac Shakur was shot and killed before he had a chance to fulfill the promise of a successful career in both fields. He was born in New York City and his mother, Afeni Shakur , was a member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur spent much of his youth in Harlem, then Baltimore, Maryland. In 1988 his family moved to Oakland, California, where he first gained notice as an MC in 1991 with the group Digital Underground. Later that year, he released a solo album, "2Pacalypse Now." Filled with violent lyrics that promoted cop killing and misogyny, it earned both notoriety and acclaim for fans of the genre. Shakur began his acting career in the late 1980s with an appearance on the television series A Different World (1987) . He made his feature film debut in 1992 with the film Juice (1992) and followed it up, co-starring with Janet Jackson , in Poetic Justice (1993) in 1993. Shakur had a certain charisma that always made him stand out in his films. This was especially true in Gridlock'd (1997) which proved that the versatile young artist had the makings of being a major star. Unfortunately, he was murdered during a drive-by shooting outside a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel a few months before its release. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Gilbert Lee
• Tupac Amaru Shakur (born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur sold over 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His double-disc albums All Eyez on Me (1996) and his Greatest Hits (1998) are among the best-selling albums in the United States. Shakur is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, and he has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of any genre by many publications, including Rolling Stone, which ranked him 86th on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On April 7, 2017, Shakur was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground, eventually branching off as a solo artist. Most of the themes in Shakur's songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social issues. Both of his parents and several other people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. During the latter part of his career, Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, becoming involved in conflicts with other rappers, producers, and record-label staff members, most notably The Notorious B.I.G. and his label, Bad Boy Records. Aside from his career in music, Shakur was also an actor, starring in six films and one TV show in the 1990s, including Poetic Justice (1993), Gang Related (1997) and Gridlock'd (1997). On September 7, 1996, Shakur was fatally shot four times in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was taken to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died from his injuries six days later. Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, into an African-American family in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks. The following year, he was renamed after Túpac Amaru II, the 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary who was executed after leading an indigenous uprising against Spanish rule. His parents, Afeni Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina) and Billy Garland, were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 trial. Many people in Shakur's life were involved with the Black Liberation Army; some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, had been convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was later overturned. His stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his friend (no relation) Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), Tupac's godmother, to escape from a penitentiary in New Jersey in 1979. She had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for several years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and eventually convicted and sentenced to prison for the 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior. Mopreme performed in many of his recordings. In 1986, the family moved from New York to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Shakur transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts. There he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker. Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beat box, won many rap competitions and was considered to be the best rapper in his school. He was remembered as one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix with all crowds. Shakur developed a close friendship with Jada Pinkett Smith that lasted until his death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life." Pinkett Smith calls him "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 Pinkett Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes." During his time in art school, Shakur became affiliated with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA. He began dating the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Shakur and his family moved from Baltimore to Marin City, California, a small unincorporated suburban community located 5 miles north of San Francisco. He attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley. Before using his first name as his rap name, Shakur went by the alias MC New York when starting his career in Baltimore. Although Shakur began recording in 1987, his professional entertainment career did not take off until the early 1990s when he debuted in Digital Underground's "Same Song" from the soundtrack to the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, and also appeared with the group in the film. The song was later released as the lead song of the Digital Underground extended play (EP) This Is an EP Release, the follow-up to their debut hit album Sex Packets. Shakur appeared in the accompanying music video. After his rap debut, he performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons of the P. Shakur went on to feature Shock G and Money-B from Digital Underground in his track "I Get Around", which ranked #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In November 1991, Shakur released his debut solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Though the album did not generate any hit singles, 2Pacalypse Now has been acclaimed by many critics and fans for its underground feel, with many rappers such as Nas, Eminem, Game, and Talib Kweli having pointed to it as inspiration. Although the album was originally released on Interscope Records, the rights to its distribution are now owned by Amaru Entertainment, the label owned by Shakur's mother. The album's name is a reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke (Tyruss Himes), Macadoshis (Diron Rivers), his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and the Rated R (Walter Burns). The group released their only 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 album was originally released by Shakur's label Out Da Gutta Records, though Amaru Entertainment has since gained the rights to it. Among the notable tracks are "Bury Me a G", "Cradle to the Grave", "Pour Out a Little Liquor" (which also appears on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Above the Rim), "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" and "Str8 Ballin'". As a result of criticism of gangsta rap at the time, the original version of the album was scrapped and re-recorded with many of the original songs being cut. The album contains ten tracks because Interscope Records felt many of the other recorded songs were too controversial to release. Although the original version of the album was not completed, Shakur performed the planned first single from the album, "Out on Bail" at the 1994 Source Awards. Thug Life: Volume 1 was certified Gold. The track "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" later appeared on 2Pac's posthumous Greatest Hits album. Shakur's third album, Me Against The World, was released in March 1995 and was very well-received, with many calling it the magnum opus of his career. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time. It is Shakur's fourth-best-selling album with 3,524,567 copies sold in the United States as of 2011. Me Against the World won best rap album at the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards. All Eyez On Me was the fourth studio album by 2Pac, recorded in October 1995 and released on February 13, 1996, by Death Row Records and Interscope Records. The album is frequently recognized as one of the crowning achievements of 1990s rap music. Steve Huey of AllMusic stated that "despite some undeniable filler, it is easily the best production 2Pac's ever had on record". It was certified 5× Platinum after just 2 months in April 1996 and 9× platinum in 1998. The album featured the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "How Do U Want It" and "California Love". It featured five singles in all, the most of any 2Pac album. Moreover, All Eyez on Me (which was the only Death Row release to be distributed through PolyGram by way of Island Records) made history as the first double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released for mass consumption. It was issued on two compact discs and four LPs. Chartwise, All Eyez on Me was the second album from 2Pac to hit number one on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. It sold 566,000 copies in the first week of its release and was charted in the top 100 for one-week Soundscan sales since 1991. By the end of 1996, the album had sold 5 million copies. The album won the 1997 Soul Train R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year Award. Shakur also won the Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist at the 24th Annual American Music Awards. In October 1995, Shakur was released from prison after serving nine months of a sentence for sexual assault and formed a new group called Outlaw Immortalz. Shakur joined the Death Row label, under which he released the single "California Love". 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 more than nine million copies. 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 in-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 his posthumous albums Still I Rise, Until the End of Time, Better Dayz, Loyal to the Game and Pac's Life. He also began the process of recording an album, One Nation, with the New York-based Boot Camp Clik and their label Duck Down Records. On June 4, 1996, he and Outlawz released the diss track "Hit 'Em Up", a scathing lyrical assault on The Notorious B.I.G. and others associated with him. In the track, Shakur claimed to have had sexual intercourse with Faith Evans, the wife of Wallace, Shakur's former friend and rival, and attacked Bad Boy's street credibility. Shakur was convinced that some members associated with Bad Boy had known about the 1994 attack on him due to their behavior that night and the information that his sources gave to him. According to a 2005 interview with Jimmy Henchman, in Vibe magazine, after the attack, Shakur immediately accused Henchman, an associate of Bad Boy CEO Sean Combs, of orchestrating the attack. Shakur, therefore, aligned himself with Suge, Death Row's CEO, who was already bitter toward Combs over a 1995 incident at the Platinum Club in Atlanta, Georgia, which culminated in the death of Jake Robles, the friend and bodyguard of Suge Knight; Knight was adamant in voicing his suspicions about Combs' involvement. In the years following their killings, associates of both Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. made comments indicating the pair, were it not for their deaths, would have reconciled. When Shakur recorded "Hit 'Em Up", a diss song toward Biggie, he recruited three members from the former group, Dramacydal, with whom he had worked previously and was eager to do so again. Shakur, with the three New Jersey rappers and other associates, formed the original lineup of the Outlawz. When 2Pac signed to Death Row after his release from prison, he recruited step brother Mopreme Shakur and Big Syke from Thug Life. Hussein Fatal, Napoleon, E.D.I. Mean, Kastro, Yaki Kadafi, and Storm (the only female Outlaw) were also added, and together they formed the original lineup of the Outlaw Immortalz that debuted on 2Pac's Multi-Platinum smash All Eyez on Me. They later dropped the Immortal part of their name after the untimely deaths of 2Pac and Yaki Kadafi and moved on as Outlawz without the members of Thug Life. Young Noble was later added and appeared on 2Pac's second Death Row release The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. It was on 2Pac's Makaveli album that Outlawz first came to the greater rap community's notice, appearing on a few songs. The idea behind the group was for each member to have a rap name coinciding with the names of various tyrants or enemies of America, past, and present. Outlawz chose in later years to make a backronym out of the letters of their group name Operating Under Thug Laws as Warriorz although it does not stand for the group's name and is used infrequently. - IMDb Mini Biography By: ahmetkozan
• Spouse Keisha Morris (April 29, 1995 - 1996) (annulled)
• Parents Afeni Shakur Billy Garland Mutulu Shakur
• Relatives Sekyiwa Shakur (Half Sibling) Mopreme Shakur (Sibling) Nzingha Shakur (Niece or Nephew) Malik Shakur (Niece or Nephew) Billy Lesane (Cousin) Greg Lesane (Cousin) Kenny Lesane (Cousin) Scott Lesane (Cousin) Dante Powers (Cousin) Rose Belle (Grandparent) Walter Williams Jr. (Grandparent) N'Neka Garland (Half Sibling) Gloria Cox (Aunt or Uncle) Jamala Lesane (Cousin)
• Socially conscious lyrics
• Shaved head and goatee
• 'Thug Life' tattoo across stomach
• Wearing a bandana tied at the front
• Nostril piercing
• Recorded close to 150 songs during the final year of his life, and often completed three songs per day in the same period. Shakur also wrote lyrics in the studio and often performed his verses in one take. He felt that rappers who could not perform their verses properly on the first take weren't ready to be rappers. R&B music, on the other hand, was worthy of multiple takes for the vocal tracks, he felt.
• He read for the role of Bubba Blue in Forrest Gump (1994) , which went to Mykelti Williamson .
• 10 albums have been released after his 1996 death; all have gone platinum.
• Shakur renamed his publishing company to "Joshua's Dream" in honor of a young, terminally ill child whose dying wish was to meet him.
• A huge fan of Tim Roth , Shakur was excited when he found out he was going to be in a movie with Roth. However, Roth didn't like the idea of a rapper being in the movie with him, as he didn't know he was an actor before he became a rapper. Roth's attitude changed, when they tested together and the two were very good friends until Shakur's death.
• Everybody's at war with different things...I'm at war with my own heart sometimes". In Vibe interview 2/96
• Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
• The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else.
• I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.

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Tupac shakur (1971-1996).

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Tupac Shakur, the son of two Black Panther members, William Garland and Afeni Shakur, was born in East Harlem, New York on June 16, 1971, and named after Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru II, an 18th century political leader in Peru who was executed after leading a rebellion against Spanish rule. Tupac’s parents separated before he was born.  At the age of 12, Shakur performed in A Raisin in the Sun with the 127th Street Ensemble. Afeni and Tupac later moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he entered the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts as a teenager.  While at the school, he began writing raps and poetry.  He also performed in Shakespearian plays and took a role in The Nutcracker.

In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved to Marin City, California where he joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue a career in entertainment. Seventeen-year-old Shakur became an avid reader absorbing books such as J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Jamaica Kincaid’s At the Bottom of the River , Herman Melville’s Moby Dick , and the feminist writings of Alice Walker and Robin Morgan.

Shakur’s professional career began in 1991 with his hit single “Same Song.”  Later that year he appeared in Sons of the P , the first of his eight films.  He also recorded his first solo album 2Pacalypse Now .  In 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a few of his friends and his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur.  The group released their only album, Thug Life: Thug Life Vol 1 on September 26, 1994.  Despite his short five-year professional career (1991-1996) Shakur became the best selling hip-hop artist in the world with over 75 million albums sold including 44 million in the U.S.

Tupac Shakur also gained notoriety for his violent life and his conflicts with the law. In October 1993, in Atlanta, Georgia, Shakur shot two off-duty police officers who he claimed were harassing a black motorist.  The case was dropped when it was disclosed that the officers were intoxicated.  The following year he was convicted of assaulting a former woman employer while on a music video set. The day before the guilty verdict was handed down on December 1, 1994, Shakur was shot five times in a Manhattan recording studio.  Entering the courthouse in a wheelchair, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail with additional days on a highway work crew as community service, and a $2,000 fine. In April, 1996 he served 120 days in jail for violating the terms of his probation.  On September 7, 1996, shortly after attending the Mike Tyson –Bruce Seldon boxing match in Las Vegas, Nevada Shakur was wounded in a drive-by shooting. He died of his wounds six days later at the age of 25.

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Jonathan Jones, T upac Shakur Legay (New York: Atria Books, 2006; Jacob Hoye, Tupac: Resurrection (New York: Atria Books, 2003; Jonathan Jones, “Tupac Comes to Life for Bay Area Teens”. Northgate News Online , U.C.-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Nov. 18, 2003. Retrieved from http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/stories/001588.html on Apr. 9, 2006; “Rapper Is Sentenced To 120 Days in Jail”. New York Times . April 5, 1996;.

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Tupac Shakur

Decades after his 1996 murder, artist and actor Tupac Shakur remains one of the top-selling and most influential rappers of all time.

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Quick facts, early life: mom, siblings, and more, move to california and rise to fame, legal problems and serving jail time, joining death row records and ‘all eyez on me’, tupac and biggie smalls: the story of “hit ’em up”, movies and other work, romantic relationships: madonna, ex-wife, and more, murder investigation, who was tupac shakur.

One of the top-selling artists of all time, rapper and actor Tupac Shakur embodied the 1990s gangsta-rap aesthetic and, in death, has become an icon symbolizing noble struggle. Tupac began his music career as a rebel with a cause to articulate the still-relevant travails and injustices endured by many Black Americans. The boundaries between his art and life became increasingly blurred, as Shakur faced legal problems and jail time. On his fourth album, All Eyez On Me , Tupac leaned fully into celebrating the thug lifestyle. It was the last album Tupac would live to see released. On September 7, 1996, the 25-year-old was gunned down in Las Vegas and died six days later. Police continue to investigate his murder.

FULL NAME: Tupac Amaru Shakur (born Lesane Parish Crooks) BORN: June 16, 1971 DIED: September 13, 1996 BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York SPOUSE: Keisha Morris (1995-1996) ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971, in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. His mother, Afeni Shakur , had been a political activist and Black Panther Party member who was arrested in 1969 for allegedly planning coordinated attacks on police stations and offices in New York City. She became pregnant with Tupac while out on bail, and she was acquitted in 1971 after defending herself in court.

When Lesane was 1 year old, Afeni changed his name to Tupac Amaru after a Peruvian revolutionary who was killed by the Spanish. She said of the name : “I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood.” Tupac later took his surname from his sister Sekyiwa’s father, another Black Panther named Mutulu Shakur. Tupac also had a stepbrother, Mopreme.

Tupac’s father, Billy Garland, lost contact with Afeni when Tupac was 5, and he didn’t see his dad again until he was 23. “I thought my father was dead all my life,” he told the writer Kevin Powell during an interview with Vibe magazine in 1996. “I felt I needed a daddy to show me the ropes, and I didn’t have one.” Raising Tupac and his half-sister alone , Afeni worked as a paralegal before developing a crack cocaine addiction in the early 1980s. The family had to move often, struggling for money and living off welfare because she couldn’t keep a job.

Friendship with Jada Pinkett-Smith

In 1984, the family moved to Baltimore, where Tupac enrolled at the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts, where he said he was “the freest I ever felt.” This was also where Tupac met the future actor Jada Pinkett-Smith . He wrote poems about her, and she had a cameo in his music video for “Strictly 4 My Niggaz.” Pinkett-Smith later told reporters that she was a drug dealer when she met Tupac, and that she resented the way the movie All Eyez on Me (2017) later “reimagined” their relationship: “It wasn’t just about, oh, you have this cute girl, and this cool guy, they must have been in this—nah, it wasn’t that at all. It was about survival, and it had always been about survival between us.”

Tupac’s Baltimore neighborhood was riven by crime, so the family moved to Marin City, California. It turned out to be a “mean little ghetto,” according to Vanity Fair . It was in Marin City that Afeni succumbed to her crack addiction—a drug that Tupac sold on the same streets where his mother bought her supply. Her behavior led to a falling out between mother and son.

Tupac’s love for hip-hop steered him away from a life of crime (for a while, at least). At 17, in the spring of 1989, he struck up a friendship with Leila Steinberg, who he met when she was hosting holding poetry lessons in an Oakland park, according to Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur by Michael Eric Dyson. Already, Tupac had been obsessively writing poetry and convinced Steinberg, who had no music industry experience, to become his manager. She was eventually able to get Tupac in front of music manager Atron Gregory, who secured a gig for him in 1990 as a roadie and backup dancer for the hip-hop group Digital Underground.

He soon stepped up to the mic, making his recording debut in 1991 on “Same Song,” which soundtracked the Dan Aykroyd comedy Nothing but Trouble . Tupac also appeared on Digital Underground’s album Sons of the P that October. After Gregory also became Tupac’s manager, he landed the up-and-coming rapper a deal with Interscope Records. A month after Sons of the P hit the stores came 2Pacalypse Now , Tupac’s debut album as a solo artist.

Tupac often complained that he was misunderstood. “Everything in life is not all beautiful,” he told journalist Chuck Phillips. “There is lots of killing and drugs. To me a perfect album talks about the hard stuff and the fun and caring stuff... The thing that bothers me is that it seems like a lot of the sensitive stuff I write just goes unnoticed.”

As Tupac first began to achieve success as a rapper, Afeni was unaware of his career until friends told her. “I didn’t know what was happening to my son,” she said . “I thought, ‘What am I doing?’” Afeni became determined to break out of her drug addiction, which she finally did after moving back to New York City in 1991. Tupac and his mother later reconciled and remained close the rest of his life.

Tupac, who only released four albums in his lifetime, has 21 albums to his name, 10 of which have earned platinum, multiplatinum, or diamond certification. As of July 2023, the Recording Industry Association of America listed Tupac as the 45 th top-selling artist of all-time by album sales and streaming figures. Worldwide, more than 75 million Tupac records have sold to date, according to Forbes .

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Tupac’s first album as a solo artist was  2Pacalypse Now  (1991). Although it didn’t yield any hits, it sold a respectable 500,000 copies and established Tupac as an uncompromising social commentator on songs such as “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” which narrates an underaged mother’s fall into destitution, and “Soulja’s Story,” which controversially spoke of “blasting” a police officer and “droppin’ the cop.” The song was cited as a motivation for a real-life cop killing by a teenage car thief called Ronald Ray Howard and was condemned by then–U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle,  who said , “There is absolutely no reason for a record like this to be published... It has no place in our society.” With those words, Tupac’s notoriety was guaranteed.

Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.

Tupac’s second album dropped in February 1993. It continued in the same socially conscious vein as his debut. On the hit song “Keep Ya Head Up,” he empathized with “my sisters on the welfare,” encouraging them to “please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up.” The single was gold-certified by the end of the year and reached platinum status in 2021. The album featured contributions from Tupac’s stepbrother, Mopreme. Mopreme became a member of the hip-hop group Thug Life, which Tupac started and which released the album  Thug Life: Volume 1  in 1994.

Me Against the World

When Tupac’s third solo album came out on March 14, 1995, he was in jail. Its title,  Me Against the World , couldn’t have been more apt. It reached No. 1 in the Billboard 200 chart and is considered by many to be his magnum opus—“by and large a work of pain, anger and burning desperation,”  wrote Cheo H. Coker  of Rolling Stone. But there was vulnerability, too. The lead single, “Dear Mama,” was a  tear-jerking tribute to his mother , Afeni, that hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1995.

All Eyez On Me

The final album Tupac released in his lifetime was 1996’s  All Eyez On Me , his first after signing to Death Row Records.  All Eyez on Me , which featured hit songs “California Love” and “How Do U Want I,” remains one of the rapper’s most successful albums.

Posthumous Albums

Tupac recorded six studio albums that were released following his death. The first,  The  Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory , dropped in November 1996, just eight weeks after he was killed, reaching No. 1 on the charts. Other posthumous albums included 1997’s  R U Still Down? (Remember Me) ,  Until the End of Time  (2001),  Better Dayz  (2002),  Loyal to the Game  (2004), and  Pac’s Life  (2006). Additional compilation and live albums have also been released. 

In April 2017, Tupac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame , one of music’s highest honors. He was the first solo hip-hop artist to be inducted and was selected in his first year of eligibility.

In August 1992, Tupac was attacked by jealous kids in Marin City. He drew his pistol but dropped it in the melee. Someone picked it up, the gun fired, and a 6-year-old bystander, Qa’id Walker-Teal, fell dead. Although Tupac wasn’t charged for Walker-Teal’s death, he was reportedly inconsolable. In 1995, Walker-Teal’s family brought a civil case against Tupac but settled out of court after an unnamed record company—thought to have been Death Row—offered compensation of between $300,000 to $500,000.

In October 1993, Tupac shot and wounded two white off-duty cops in Atlanta, one in the abdomen and one in the buttocks, after an altercation. However, the charges were dropped after it emerged in court that the policemen had been drinking, had initiated the incident, and that one of the officers had threatened Tupac with a stolen gun.

Tupac noted the case illustrated the misrepresentation of Black men in America and the attitude of some police toward them, which he had been talking about in his music. What was portrayed as gun-toting “gangster” behavior by a lawless individual turned out to be an act of self-defense by a young man in fear of his life. All the while, Tupac’s star continued to rise.

Unable to escape punishment entirely, Tupac went to jail for 15 days in 1994 for assaulting movie director Allen Hughes, who had fired him from the set of Menace II Society for being disruptive.

He faced much more serious charges in February 1995, when Tupac was sentenced to between 1.5 and 4.5 years of jail time for sexually abusing a woman. The case related to an incident that had taken place in Tupac’s suite in the New York Parker Meridien hotel in November 1993. Tupac maintained that he hadn’t raped the fan, though he confessed to the Vibe magazine journalist Kevin Powell that he could have prevented others who were present in the suite at the time from doing so. “I had a job [to protect her], and I never showed up,” he said .

While Tupac was in prison on rape charges, he was visited by Suge Knight, the notorious head of Death Row records. Knight offered to post the $1.3 million dollar bail Tupac needed to be released pending his appeal. The condition was that Tupac sign on to Death Row, which Tupac did. He was released from the high-security Dannemora facility in New York in October 1995. Even as he was glorifying an outlaw lifestyle for Death Row, Tupac was financing an at-risk youth center, bankrolling South Central sports teams, and setting up a telephone helpline for young people with problems, according to Vanity Fair .

Tupac’s debut for Death Row, the double-length album All Eyez on Me , came out in February 1996. With his new hip-hop group Outlawz debuting on the album, All Eyez on Me was an unapologetic celebration of the thug lifestyle, eschewing socially conscious lyrics in favor of gangsta-funk hedonism and menace. Dr. Dre , who had pioneered G-funk with NWA, produced the album’s first single, “California Love,” which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains Tupac’s best-known song. The third single from the album, “How Do You Want It,” also topped the chart. Within two months of its release, All Eyez on Me had been certified five-times double-platinum. It would eventually become diamond-certified, reaching more than 10 million combined sales and streams.

Before Tupac released his third album, he became a target. In November 1994, he was shot multiple times in the lobby of the Manhattan recording studio Quad by two young Black men. Tupac believed his rap rival Biggie Smalls was behind the shooting, for which nobody has ever been charged. Smalls always denied he knew anything about the incident. In 2011, Dexter Isaac, a New York prisoner serving a life sentence for an unrelated crime, claimed music executive James “Henchman” Rosemond paid him to steal from Tupac and that he shot the rapper during the robbery.

In June 1996, Tupac released a diss track, “Hit ’Em Up,” aimed at Biggie Smalls and his label boss at Bad Boy Records, Sean “Diddy” Combs . The song ratcheted up the tension between East and West Coast rap. In the inflammatory song, Tupac also spat venom at artists Lil Kim , Junior M.A.F.I.A., and Prodigy of Mobb Deep. Tupac and Biggie’s rivalry was fast becoming hip-hop’s most famous—and ugliest—beef.

“Hit ’Em Up” seemed to chillingly presage Tupac’s death and the ensuing conspiracy theories: “Grab ya Glocks, when you see Tupac; Call the cops, when you see Tupac, uh; Who shot me, but ya punks didn’t finish; Now ya bout to feel the wrath of a menace.”

Within three months, Tupac was murdered. Six months after that, Biggie was, too. Neither murder has been solved.

Along with his music, Tupac pursued an acting career. He appeared in several movies, among them starring roles alongside Janet Jackson in 1993’s Poetic Justice and Mickey Rourke in 1996’s Bullet .

After Tupac died, a collection of poems he wrote before becoming a rapper was also compiled and released in a 2000 book called The Rose that Grew from Concrete . “The world moves fast and it would rather pass u by / than 2 stop and c what makes you cry,” reads one verse he wrote as a teenager.

Tupac briefly dated pop star Madonna . However, while serving time in prison in January 1995, Tupac wrote a letter to Madonna ending their relationship because of her race. “For you to be seen with a Black man wouldn’t in any way jeopardize your career—if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting,” he wrote . “But for me, at least in my previous perception, I felt due to my ‘image,’ I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was.”

Tupac married Keisha Morris in April 1995 while he was still in prison. The couple had met several months earlier at a nightclub when Morris was 20 and Tupac was 21. Their marriage was annulled 10 months later after Tupac was released from jail. The pair remained friends until his death.

Soon after his marriage to Morris ended, Tupac began dating Kidada Jones . They had met at a club when Tupac apologized for insulting her father, Quincy Jones , for only dating white women. Jones was in Las Vegas with Tupac the night he was shot.

Tupac died in Las Vegas on September 13, 1996, from gunshot wounds inflicted six days prior. He was 25. His murder remains unsolved.

On September 7, Tupac was in Las Vegas with Suge Knight to watch a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand hotel. There was a scuffle after the bout between a member of the Crips gang and Tupac. Knight, who was involved with the rival Bloods gang, and members of his entourage piled in. Later, as a car that Tupac was sharing with Knight stopped at a red light, a man emerged from another car and fired 13 shots, hitting Tupac in the hand, pelvis, and chest. Tupac later died at the hospital. His girlfriend Kidada and his mother Afeni were both with him in his final days.

Tupac’s body was cremated. Members of his old band, Outlawz, made the controversial claim that they had smoked some of his ashes in honor of him. His mother announced she would scatter her son’s ashes in Soweto, South Africa, the “birthplace of his ancestors,” on the 10 th anniversary of his murder. She later changed the date to June 16, 1997—Tupac’s 26 th birthday as well as the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Police have yet to determine who killed Tupac, and his death remains an open homicide case.

In early 2018, BET aired an episode of Death Row Chronicles in which former Crips member Duane “Keffe D” Keith Davis admitted that he was riding in the car with the man who killed Tupac; he declined to identify the shooter in the interview, revealing only that the shots “came from the back seat,” though he had earlier told federal investigators that the gun was in the hands of his now-deceased nephew Orlando Anderson.

The revelation fueled the launch of a change.org petition that called for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to declare the case “cleared.” It also led to rumors that new arrest warrants were pending, but the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department denied those rumors.

In July 2023, news broke about a possible breakthrough in the investigation. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department executed a search warrant at a home in Henderson, Nevada, on July 17 in connection with the rapper’s unsolved murder. Authorities haven’t shared many details, such as what they were looking for and whether there’s a suspect, citing the ongoing investigation.

On September 29, Davis was arrested and charged with murder for his role in Tupac’s death. He was was indicted by a grand jury in Clark County, Nevada, and is in custody, according to prosecutors.

Tupac Conspiracies: Is Tupac Alive?

Tupac died of gunshot wounds in 1996. However, conspiracy theories have raged ever since he was shot, because his murder has never been solved. Fans have speculated that Tupac faked his death. On his song “Life Goes On,” Tupac rapped about his funeral. His song “I Ain’t Mad at Cha” was released two days after he died. There have been several reported potential Tupac “sightings” since his death, including in 2012 by Kim Kardashian .

In September 2017, music executive Suge Knight hinted that Tupac might be alive in an interview. “When I left that hospital me and ’Pac was laughing and joking. I don’t see how someone can go from doing well to doing bad,” he said , adding that “with Pac you never know” if he could be alive and living in secret somewhere.

In November 2017, A&E aired the six-part Biography Presents: Who Killed Tupac? , which followed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on his investigation into key theories behind Tupac’s 1996 killing.

• My mama always used to tell me, “ If you can ’ t find somethin ’ to live for, you best find somethin ’ to die for. ”
• No matter who committed the crime, they yell at me. And the media is greedier than most.
• I’m a reflection of the community.
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
• Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.
• I feel close to Marvin Gaye , Vincent van Gogh , because nobody appreciated his work until he was dead. Now it ’ s worth millions.
• I’m doing this for the kid who truly lives a “ thug life ” and thinks it ’ s hopeless.
• During your life, never stop dreaming. No one can take away your dreams.
• When I die and they come for me, bury me a G.
• Live by the gun. Die by the gun.
• In my death, people will understand what I was talking about.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy . He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.

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The story of Tupac Shakur — the man, the myth, the music

• X (formerly Twitter)

Where do you even start with a legacy like Tupac Shakur’s ?

Not only is he an artist who left behind a rich and sizeable body of work, but his life and times have fuelled ongoing dissection, discussion, conspiracy theories, stories – the works.

Nearly three decades on from his untimely demise, Tupac remains an unparalleled influence on modern music - a legacy that seems to swell with age, rather than fade.

But while he never lived long enough to witness his own monumental impact on hip hop and culture, he always possessed a powerful self-awareness and purposeful determination.

“Every time I speak I want the truth to come out,” Tupac once said. “I’m not saying I’m going to rule the world or change the world. But I guarantee I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

One of the many, many brains Tupac sparked belongs to N’fa Jones.

He's the Perth-reared MC known for fronting formative Aussie hip hop group 1200 Techniques .

He said that passion is the key characteristic that comes up time and again in relation to Tupac.

“It was just an energy and life,” he told Double J for the J Files in 2018. "There was something about the way Pac put so much passion into every line, every word, every breath – it hit me like a tonne of bricks.”

“He burnt so hard. Almost like he knew his time was limited so every time he sparked, his flame was just huge. That’s what I loved about him.”

It's that same strong fervour that drew in Australian-Sikh rapper L-FRESH The LION.

“He influenced generations upon generations,” he said. “You can still hear his music bumping in cars in South West Sydney, from young people to my generation, and we’re just talking about in Australia.”

“I’ve heard stories from friends in dangerous situations in rural parts of Africa who formed a common bond with what might’ve been perceived as threats over Tupac.”

“He’s touched all parts of the world, people of all different cultural backgrounds, and brought people together because of who he was. How dynamic and magnetic he was an individual, how much of a force he was through music.

"Not just stylistically, how easy it is to enjoy his music but because he meant something. He lived with a purpose and he wanted to have, and did have, an impact on so many people’s lives.”

A self-described Tupac obsessive since he discovered him at age 14, L-FRESH said one of his favourite songs of all time is ‘Changes’ – the posthumous 1998 single that remains one of Pac’s most enduringly popular hits.

“As a teenager, listening to that song on repeat, it meant so much from the standpoint of: Here’s someone who is speaking about what’s happening around them in such a powerful, passionate way and reflecting on it in just this really strong statement-style.

"I just gravitated towards it and couldn’t put that song down. That for me was the entrypoint. For me, that’s the song that sums up Tupac and his career.”

‘Changes’ is nothing if not bittersweet.

Tupac frames the African-American experience as a vicious cycle of racism, poverty, oppression, drugs, and cultural warfare but pairs those sentiments with a hopeful hook and a melancholy, glittery sample of ‘The Way It Is’ – originally a triple Platinum hit single in the ‘80s for chintzy piano man Bruce Hornsby .

Reflecting on the success of the song 15 years after Tupac’s death, Hornsby told The LA Weekly that (aside from enjoying the royalties) he was struck by the MC’s artistic intent and vision.

"I had never really dealt with him on a listening level. I was sort of floored by his creativity. I thought he was so clever, and really profound, and deep. There's a lot of gravitas to Tupac's music…”

‘Changes’ also sparked the brain of Zambia-born, Botswana-raised artist Sampa The Great , who credits the track for single-handedly inspiring her to follow a career in art and music when she first heard it at the tender age of 9.

“I walked up the stairs to my cousin’s room … and this song was playing. I forgot what I went in there to do. I forgot everything, and I was like ‘what is this song!?,” she told Richard Kingsmill on triple j in 2012.

"This new world of imagination and words and music [opened up]. I was like ‘OK, I want to follow whatever this is because this sounds really good.”

“The words are still relevant to today from back then. How do you write like that? You write timelessly, how do you do that? Still so inspiring - the passion behind Tupac, not the flair or money, just the person who he was.”

A rap revolutionary, Tupac was a prolific recording artist and powerful voice in pop culture, but what he brought that really changed the game was his passionate ideals and perspectives on how the world ticked, and making those views accessible for people en masse.

He only ever rapped about what we knew, but the specifics of his songs didn't stop his words having a universal appeal.

Ambitionz Az A Ridah: Tupac's early years

Before he was immortalised as a god of the West Coast rap scene, Tupac was, ironically, born on the East Coast.

He was raised in East Harlem in New York by his mother Afeni Shakur, who was a Black Panther and herself from a long family line of high-ranking party officials and activists.

“People often think of the Black Panthers as a hardcore militant group,” said N’fa Jones. “But originally it was mostly women in their communities trying to find safety houses and ways of feeding the youth, taking care of people.”

Tupac’s mother was one such figure. The subject of his 1995 song ‘Dear Mama’, Afeni was a fierce woman who largely raised the future rapper alone on welfare while fighting for the Black Panther Party’s causes, and her own addictions.

In 1969, while pregnant with Tupac, she represented herself, with no legal background, in an eight-month court case after being arrested in connection to a New York bombing.

“Being born from that, no matter what kind of success you have or what you achieve, I think deep inside you is always going to be that fight,” N’fa Jones reflected.

That revolutionary spirit would become self-evident in Pac’s work as he railed against the oppression of Black America, committing himself to becoming a voice for the communities he was embedded in, speaking fearlessly for them in his music.

Balancing that political edge was his skill as a storyteller, a talent he first cultivated as a teenager.

In 1986, his family moved to Maryland where he studied drama and theatre at the Baltimore School of Performing Arts, developing a deep appreciation of Shakespeare.

“He wrote some of the rawest stories, man” Shakur told The LA Times in 1995, likening Romeo and Juliet to the Crips and Bloods gang warfare of Compton.

“That’s some serious ghetto [expletive] … real tragic stuff. And look how Shakespeare busts it up with Macbeth.”

“…After he commits the murder, the dude starts having delusions just like in a Scarface song.” Tupac would even pay explicit tribute to Macbeth on his 1991 track, ‘Something Wicked’.

If his love for The Bard wasn’t fascinating enough, consider that Tupac’s career first kicked off when he moved to the Bay Area of San Francisco, cutting his teeth as a back-up dancer, hype man, and occasional roadie for Digital Underground – a late ‘80s, funkadliec Tommy Boy staple who had a big hit with ‘The Humpty Dance’.

He eventually convinced the group’s leader Shock G to let him rap on a track, ‘Same Song’, which helped land his first movie role, in 1991’s Nothing But Trouble .

Digital Underground understood Tupac’s value, too.

“It’s a lucky thing in the other direction. Pac discovered us, man, we didn’t discover his ass. No way,” Shock G declared in a comprehensive oral history with Rolling Stone on Pac’s ties with the group.

Shock G would later feature on Tupac's 1991 debut solo album 2Pacalypse Now (on ‘Trapped’) and Digital Underground would produce and feature on one of his first Top 10 singles, ‘I Get Around’. A watershed moment for his career that N’fa Jones remembers fondly.

“My favourite thing about Tupac... Was what he could do to a track. Every time he would come in and drop a rhyme it felt like it was on. It didn’t matter who he was following, what else was going, it was always ‘Nah, they didn’t match Pac.’”

Even at this early point in his career, Tupac had hustled hard to achieve every step of his building success.

“He fought so hard, moved so fast and made his way up to the top of the world. I think of this beautiful [1992 film] Juice – there’s a line: ‘Made it Ma, top of the world!’

"His character’s slightly crazy but it felt like everything about him was so real. It didn’t feel like an act, even when he was acting, it was always him.”

Only God Can Judge Me: Tupac's multi-dimensional message

By the early ‘90s Gangsta Rap boom, Tupac was becoming a West Coast fixture among famous N.W.A. alumni like Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube , as well as Snoop Dogg . But he stood out from his contemporaries for his eloquence and depth of character.

On his first two solo albums, he brought an emotional range to a genre where it was not only rare, but often suppressed - a storyteller documenting the realities of street and thug life beyond just clashes with law enforcement and hustling.

2Pacalypse Now ’s ‘Brenda’s Got A Baby’ is a complex and bleak tale of a pregnant 12-year-old, and he offered messages of empowerment to women in ‘Keep Ya Head Up’ (from 1993’s Strictly For My N.I.G.G.A.Z. ) – songs that would live side-by-side with riotous protests like ‘Holler If You Hear Me’ and ‘Point The Finga’, which rallied for violent action.

It seems like Tupac was rife with contradictions.

He rapped about refusing to be a role model, yet took up the mantle. A socially conscious and progressive rhymer who was also a gangster, an intellectual who ran with thugs and killers. A hard-hitting, diss-hurler one track, a positive party-goer the next.

But upon closer inspection, these contradictions aren’t inconsistencies but reflect the complexity of Tupac’s experience.

The anger and joy of his private life spilled into his rhymes and onto his records. He wasn’t projecting a cultivated image, he was living it.

“There was so much perfection in his art and in how he presented himself,” said N’fa Jones. “But he was also comfortable with presenting his flaws, his mistakes. His thuggery as he would’ve called it.”

“I think that’s special, people who can just show and be who they are, so when others try to dig up the dirt it’s like, 'Well, I already presented it to you – there it is'. I think Pac was very brave and was able to always be what he says he was.”

The way Tupac mixed moments of beauty and ugliness was fearless, but also challenging.

While he is held up for views that were progressive compared to his peers at the time - championing black women and highlighting the specific struggles of his world that held them down - how to reconcile that with the derogatory language, extreme masculinity, and misogyny that flowed through other parts of his catalogue?

L-FRESH The LION thinks we can’t.

Or at least, in 2018, we can feel uncomfortable about the degrading descriptions of women in Tupac’s music but we can’t dismiss positive portrayals either, or the cultural context in which they existed.

“When I think about his music, it’s kind of like a time capsule,” he says. “[It’s] reflective of that era.

"That comes across in the language they use and the way they speak about things, and what gets glorified or promoted, and they’re products of their environment. It’s something we can appreciate from a distance, and also be critical of.”

"It’s easy for me to be on the other side of the world, foreign from where hip hop was born and have a critical stance on that. I think I’ve come to a place where I try to appreciate the artist from a contextual point of view and to view them with respect with the time and place they grew up in and with respect to their journey."

"Who am I to criticise another person’s rise from the bottom to get to a point where they can have an influence, that’s largely positive? That’s not to say they’re immune from criticism but I try to appreciate the whole picture in that regard.”

Lauren Lazin, whose debut film was the 2005 Oscar-nominated Tupac: Resurrection , thinks that Tupac’s contradictory views on women was a symptom of expressing all aspects of his self.

“His hard side, his soft side, looking at it from so many perspectives, taking accountability,” she told Double J in 2018.

Having pored through archival material for the film, from personal letters to Tupac’s flirty  1995 interview with MTV’s Tabitha Soren , she saw both the romantic and feminist side of Pac, as well as the problematic.

“He was not politically correct but he understood, he saw the big picture, he expressed it.

"He was a multi-dimensional person and all sides of himself were expressed.”

You didn’t have to agree with Tupac’s views, but they were always interesting, even when they offend or make you feel uncomfortable.

Whatever his takes, he always owned them regardless of the consequences. And that was especially and tragically true when it came to how he put himself at the centre of one of music’s most famous rivalries.

The rise, fall, and fatal feud of the Death Row Records era

On 7 September 1996, Tupac and his entourage started a brawl in the lobby of a Las Vegas hotel after seeing Mike Tyson fight Bruce Seldon. The details of what happened next led to Shakur being gunned down in his car on the Vegas strip in a shooting that remains unsolved. He was 25.

One thing is certain, it was the gory finale to an increasingly violent feud between the biggest players in the West Coast and East Coat rap game.

The seeds for that rivalry were planted nearly a year before, after Tupac served a nine-month sentence on charges of sexual assault, something he strongly denied.

It was while serving time that he was visited by Death Row Records mogul Suge Knight , “and Suge helped him get his [$1.2million] bail and that’s how he became involved with this most infamous label.”

Ben Westhoff is an American journalist and the author of Original Gangstas , a detailed tome about the birth of West Coast Rap, who interviewed over 100 of Tupac’s family, friends, and principal players.

“Tupac himself said that signing the jailhouse deal with Suge Knight and Death Row was like making a deal with the devil,” Westhoff told Double J for J Files in 2018.

“On the one hand, Suge Knight helped Tupac be a bigger star than he ever was before and his first album on Death Row, All Eyez On Me , went Diamond Platinum [10 million sold] and he reached an unprecedented level of fame.”

“But at the same time, he and Suge were caustic, larger-than-life personalities. Suge may have brought out the worst in him and vice versa. With all this money and power at their control, some of their worst instincts were indulged. At the same time, Tupac was feeling very paranoid.”

Before he went to jail over rape allegations, in November 1994, Tupac was robbed and shot five times in the lobby of a New York recording studio.

He believed that his friend Biggie Smalls , then New York’s biggest MC thanks to the success of his blockbuster debut Ready To Die , and Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs , Biggie’s producer and leader of his label Bad Boy Records, had known about the shooting and hadn’t warned Tupac.

“So while he was in jail,” Westhoff said, “he stewed and thought about all the ways he was going to pay Biggie back. It turned into a beef with the whole East Coast.

"When Tupac signed with Suge Knight, it was kind of an implicit agreement that they were going to take up going to war with Biggie and the East Coast. Once he got out of jail and arrived in L.A., it was fireworks again.”

“Creatively, Tupac was in peak form after he got out of jail. He had these frenzied recording sessions with Death Row, arrive early and stay all night until the producers fell asleep at their boards, making songs.”

Tupac had a lot to say and unloaded that verbal ammunition in a barrage of urgent, fiery tracks. 

There was his new group called Outlawz Immortalz , collabs with Tha Dogg Pound producer Daz Dillinger , and most famously, Dr. Dre on the mega-hit ‘California Love’.

It was an intensely prolific period; in the 11 months between signing to Death Row in October 1995, and his death in September 1996, Tupac completed two albums, dozens of music videos, three feature films (the posthumously released Bullet , Gridlock’d and Gang Related ), and enough material for several posthumous albums.

You can hear the urgency on 1996's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory , credited under Tupac’s alter-ego Makaveli and released just months after his demise.

It was recorded in seven days and sounds like it in, on tracks like ‘Hail Mary’ and ‘The Life of An Outlaw’, reportedly recorded in just a handful of takes.

But this latter work would also take on a darker tone that would lead to Tupac’s undoing.

“A lot of it left behind the conscious, black activist themes of his earlier work and took on a more nihilistic, chip-on-his-shoulder viewpoint,” said Westhoff.

“He called out Biggie, by name; the sound was very compelling and exciting. But at the same time, everybody knew it could spell trouble.”

And of course, it did.

‘Hit ‘Em Up’, a diss track squarely targeted at Biggie and Puffy in both verse and music video, blew up upon its release in June 1996 and saw the East Coast-West Coast camps engage in a back-and-forth of musical insults.

Three months after ‘Hit ‘Em Up’, rap’s most notorious beef came to a grisly end when Tupac was shot and killed in Vegas.

Less than a year later, on 9 March 1997, Biggie was killed in L.A. by unknown assailants in a drive-by. The end of a golden era.

Until The End of Time

It’s a morbid fortune, but being cut down in his prime only made Tupac more successful and beloved.

Despite their many achievements, contemporaries like Snoop, Dre, Jay-Z , and Nas have had plenty of missteps – reggae albums, lacklustre follow-ups, and sour Lemonade mixers among them – that only show how mortal they are.

Like Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jeff Buckley, and a host of gone-too-soon icons, Tupac never lived long enough to undo his legacy.

He had his faults but the controversy, violence, and legal drama that punctuated his brief career wasn’t enough to dent the way he continues to be admired and celebrated.

“There’s no doubt that when a celebrity, particularly a big music star, dies young there’s a tendency to overstate their legacy or give them more credit than they should,” Westhoff reflects.

“Some people have made the joke that, if Ice Cube had have died [young] and Tupac had kept living, it would’ve been Tupac who made the silly family-friendly movies and comedies. There may be some truth to that.”

By contrast, Lauren Lizen thinks if Tupac were still around, he could’ve “slayed” as an Academy Award-winning actor or even try his hand at politics.

“He could have contributed so much more… but I think his biggest influence was as a thinker,” she said.

“Tupac had a great mind; he spoke his truth from the heart and had an appreciation for a brilliant turn of phrase but really it’s his ideas that still resonate.”

“I really believe Tupac had the goods and he was able to do things that have never been done since and might never have been done,” said Westhoff.

“The way he fused his populist appeal, his ability to make hit songs, with these deep messages that were in his heart, in his politics. He was able to speak to people that transcended music and even America and the English language, you have people all over the world today who are drawn to him who might not even understand all his lyrics.”

It's fascinating, if ultimately fruitless, to speculate on what Tupac would be doing if he were alive today.

Even as new waves of rappers make claims to be the heir to the Tupac throne or name his as their biggest influence, it’s strange to picture how an aging Shakur would fit in a contemporary rap scene alongside Drake, Kanye West, or the the trap-infused beats of a younger generation raised on Soundcloud and Spotify.

Perhaps that’s why there’s been so many attempts to resurrect him – in word, on film, and on stage at Coachella festival in 2012, when Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performed alongside a hologram Tupac.

Through some studio wizardry, and his own deep fandom, Kendrick Lamar eerily " conversed" with Tupac on the closing moments of 'Mortal Man' , from his 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly .

The Compton native has spoken at length about the influence of Tupac on his music, and told Richard Kingsmill in a 2012 triple j interview about meeting his idol as a child.

“I seen him on a video set with Dr Dre, [the] ‘California Love’ video set in Compton. There was just a spectrum of people out there watching them shoot this video," Lamar said.

"I was one of the kids out there and on my father’s shoulders and being inspired that these people I see on TV every day actually came back, to the city and show their faces and let us know they’re real. It probably inspired me to be an artist, who knows? But that was a monumental day for me.”

Along with Kendrick Lamar, L-FRESH The Lion names J. Cole as another “direct descendent” of Tupac who is carrying the torch of his influence.

"It comes through in his storytelling style and delivery,” he said. “He has that same passion and grit and desire to express his music in a powerful way, and moves with purpose as an artist.”

Speaking on Kendrick and Tupac and "that passing of the crown of the West Coast mantle," he added.

"Both iconic artists in their own right as individuals and as movements, both who stand for something greater than themselves and just making great music.”

Ben Westhoff agrees on Kendrick’s brilliance and impact but thinks “he’s more measured and calculated than Tupac was.”

“To me, though, someone that might even be a more perfect example is The Game because he has a dual personality, like Tupac, his conscious side but he’s also got his bombastic side and he gets himself in trouble.

"He says what he feels, it’s not always pretty but you always know that he’s speaking from the heart.”

“It’s incredible what Tupac has done,” said N’fa Jones. “He’s still the coolest guy - everybody tries to get on his vibe.”

“There was something about the revolutionary powerful energy of Tupac Shakur that no-one will ever be able to emulate. There’s just people in history who do great things – a small handful of people.

"To be alive for that period myself, of hearing Tupac Shakur, seeing his journey but also unfortunately having to see it taken away so early, it’s beautiful and it’s bittersweet. One of a kind.”

Check out more highlights from the past 50 years of hip hop  right here .

The J Files gives you a dose of music history every week,  tap here to check out the full catalogue .

The J Files: '90s hip hop

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DL: 2Pac – O.H. 2 N.O. (Live)

DL: Dante Presents OG Vibe series

Evil Mind Gangsta’s – All Hell Breakin’ Loose [1992] [CD]

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2Pacalypse Now Notebook

Tupac Is Finally Honored With A Star On The Hollywood Walk…

DL Book: From Friends to Enemies as Told by Dexter Isaac

DL: Live Squad – A Game Of Survival (Unreleased Promo) 1993…

Never-heard 2Pac’s 1991 Interview with Michael Small

1996-06-29 / Tupac Interview in Italy with Paola Zukar of “Aelle…

DL: 2Pac Video Collection 3 DVD Discs (ISO) by DeathRowRecords.Com

New Exclusive Leaks of 2Pac Mugshots, November 18, 1993

1995-09-10 / 2Pac Loves Tronya, Rare Photo at Clinton Correctional Facility

1991-06-29 / 2Pac and Digital Underground during the “Budweiser Superfest”

How Tupac Shakur Changed Hip-Hop

Surprising Facts About Tupac Shakur

”Nothing 2 Lose” Handwritten Lyrics

2Pac’s Influence on Street Art: A Graffiti Journey

Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Tupac’s Stepfather, Dies at 72

Tupac’s Biological Father Billy Garland Opens Up On How He Felt…

Tupac and Jada Pinkett Smith: The Never-Ending Story

After 36 Years Behind Bars: Mutulu Shakur Speaks Out For The…

Tupac Shakur Biography

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City, New York. He was named after  Tupac Amaru II , an Incan revolutionary who led an indigenous uprising against Spain and subsequently received capital punishment. The names “Tupac Amaru” and “Shakur” mean Shining Serpent or Royal Serpent in Quechua and Thankful (to God) in Arabic, respectively.

His mother,  Afeni Shakur , was an active member of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Tupac was born just one month after her acquittal on more than 100 charges of “Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks” in the New York Panther 21 court case Tupac grew up around nothing but self-delusion. His mother, thought she was a “revolutionary. ” She called herself “ Afeni Shakur ” and associated with members of the ill-fated Black Panther Party, a movement that wanted to feed school kids breakfast and earn civil rights for African Americans.

During her youth she dropped out of high school, partied with North Carolina gang members, then moved to Brooklyn: After an affair with one of Malcolm X’s bodyguards, she became political. When the mostly white United Federation of Teachers went on strike in 1968, she crossed the picket line and taught the children herself.

After this she joined a New York chapter of the Black Panther Party and fell in with an organizer named Lumumba. She took to ranting about killing “the pigs” and overthrowing the government, which eventually led to her arrest and that of twenty comrades for conspiring to set off a race war. Pregnant, she made bail and told her husband, Lummuba, it wasn’t his child. Behind his back she had been carrying on with Legs (a small-time associate of Harlem drug baron Nicky Barnes) and Billy Garland (a member of the Party). Lumumba immediately divorced her.

Tupac said, “I never knew where my father was or who my father was for sure.” His godfather, Geronimo Pratt, was also a high-ranking Panther. His step-father, Mutulu, was a drug dealer who, according to Tupac, was rarely present to give him the discipline he needed.

Tupac 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 1986 Tupac’s mother brought him and his sister to live in Baltimore, Maryland. The Shakurs lived on Greenmount Ave. in East Baltimore. There, Tupac was disliked because of his looks, name, and lack of trendy clothing. He attended Roland Park Middle School, then spent his freshman year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High.

For his sophomore year Tupac was accepted to the Baltimore School for the Arts. He enjoyed his classes there, studying theater, ballet, and other arts. It was during this time that Tupac became close friends with another student named Jada Pinkett. Even at this young age, Tupac was outspoken on the subject of racial equality. His teachers remembered him as being a very gifted student. He was an avid reader, delving into books on eastern religions, and even entire encyclopedia sets. Hiding his love of literature from his peers, he gained the respect of his peers by acting like a tough guy. Tupac composed his first rap in Baltimore under the name “MC New York”. The song was about gun control and was inspired by the fatal shooting of one of his close friends.

From childhood, everyone called him the “ Black Prince .” For misbehaving, he had to read an entire edition of The New York Times. But she had no answer when he asked about his daddy. “She just told me, ‘I don’t know who your daddy is.’ It wasn’t like she was a slut or nothing’. It was just some rough times. “When he was two, his sister, Sekyiwa, was born. This child’s father, Mutulu, was a Black Panther who, a few months before her birth, had been sentenced to sixty years for a fatal armoured car robbery.

With Mutulu away, the family experienced hard times. No matter where they moved-the Bronx, Harlem, homeless shelters Tupac was distressed. “I remember crying all the time. My major thing growing up was I couldn’t fit in. Because I was from everywhere. I didn’t have no buddies that I grew up with.”

At the age of twelve, Tupac enrolled in Harlem’s 127th Street Repertory Ensemble and was cast as the Travis Younger character in the play A Raisin in the Sun, which was performed at the Apollo Theater. In 1986, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts. There he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker.

In June 1988 , a drug-addicted Afeni was having trouble finding work (her Panther past did not help, either). She uprooted the family again and brought Tupac and Sekyiwa to live with a family friend in Marin City, California,  where Tupac attended Tamalpais High School . He joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in entertainment.

Tupac move into Leila Steinberg’s home with his friend Ray Luv at the age of seventeen and he eventually dropped out of high school. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Tupac, an avid reader.

In August of 1988, Tupac’s stepfather Mutulu was sentenced to sixty years in prison for armed robbery after being on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for several years. Shakur soon moved in with a neighbor and started selling drugs on the street, but also made friends who helped spark his interest in rap music. One of these was Ray Luv, and with a mutual friend named DJ Dize (Dizz-ee), they started a rap group called Strictly Dope . Their recordings were later released in 2001 under the name Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes. Their neighborhood performances brought Tupac enough acclaim to land an audition with Shock G of Digital Underground.

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. It has been said that Tupac was, in fact, more well-read and intellectually well-rounded at that age than the average student in the first year class of most Ivy League institutions In 1989, Leila Steinberg organized a concert with Tupac’s group, Strictly Dope . The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with Digital Underground .

Tupac’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, Tupac 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.

Tupac 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” 2Pacalypse Now 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, produced mostly in part 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 .

Shakur’s profile was raised considerably by his acclaimed role in the Ernest Dickerson film Juice, which led to a lead role in John Singleton’s Poetic Justice the following year. By the time the film hit theaters, 2Pac had released his second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z… , which became a platinum album, peaking at number four on the R&B charts and launching the Top Ten R&B hit singles “I Get Around” and “Keep Ya Head Up,” which peaked at number 11 and 12, respectively, on the pop charts. Late in 1993, he acted in the basketball movie ”Above the Rim”.  Tupac was filming ” Menace II Society ” in the summer of 1993 when he assaulted director Allen Hughes; he was sentenced to 15 days in jail in early 1994. Although Tupac was selling records and earning praise for his music and acting, he began having serious altercations with the law; prior to becoming a recording artist, he had no police record.

By the time he was twenty, Tupac had been arrested eight times, even serving eight months in prison after being convicted of sexual abuse. In addition, he was the subject of two wrongful-death lawsuits, one involving a six-year-old boy who was killed after getting caught in gang-war crossfire between Tupac’s gang and a rival group.

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 Vol. 1 on September 26, 1994. The group usually performed their concerts without Tupac.

The concept of “Thug Life” was viewed by Tupac 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. In 1994, he was found guilty of sexual assault . The day after the verdict was announced, he was shot by a pair of muggers while he was in the lobby of a New York City recordings studio. Shakur was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on February 7, 1995.

He married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris , while serving his sentence. This marriage was later annulled. While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolo Machiavelli, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy.

Read for Keisha Morris, here .

He also wrote a screenplay titled ” Live 2 Tell ” while incarcerated, a story about an adolescent who becomes a drug baron.

After serving eleven months of his one-and-a-half year to four-and-a-half year sentence, Tupac was released from the penitentiary, due in large part to the help and influence of Marion “ Suge ” Knight, 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.

It debuted at number one upon its February release, and would be certified quintuple platinum by the fall. Although he had a hit record and, with the Dr. Dre duet “California Love,” a massive single on his hands, Shakur was beginning to tire of hip-hop and started to concentrate on acting. During the summer of 1996, he completed two films, the thriller Bullet and the dark comedy Gridlock’d, which also starred Tim Roth. He also made some recordings for Death Row, which was quickly disintegrating without Dre as the house producer, and as Knight became heavily involved in illegal activities.

The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Tupac continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Tupac 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. Tupac had plans of starting Makaveli Records which would have included Outlawz, Wu-Tang Clan, Big Daddy Kane, Big Syke, and Gang Starr.

On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson – Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the match, one of Suge Knight’s associates spotted 21 year-old Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson , a member of the Southside Crips, in the MGM Grand lobby and had Shakur aware. Shakur immediately rushed Anderson and knocked him to the ground. Shakur’s entourage, as well as Knight and his followers assisted in beating down Anderson. The fight was captured on the hotel’s video surveillance. A few weeks earlier, Anderson and a group of Crips robbed a member of Death Row’s entourage in a Foot Locker store, precipitating Shakur’s onset. After the brawl, Shakur went to rendezvous with Knight to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven).

He rode in Knight’s 1996 black BMW 750i sedan as part of a larger convoy with some of Tupac’s friends, Outlawz, and bodyguards. At 10:55 p.m., while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took their photo 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 Knight’s vehicle; they were released without being fined a few minutes later.

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 Tupac.

At the time of the drive-by, Tupac was riding alongside Knight, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur’s then-fiance. 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 Knight and a fatally wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center. According to an interview with one of Shakur’s closest friends and 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”.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; heavily sedated, breathed 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. Despite having been resuscitated in a trauma center and surviving a multitude of surgeries (as well the removal of a failed right lung), Shakur had gotten through the critical phase of the medical therapy and had 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 stop his hemorrhaging.

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2Pacalypse Now 1991 Biography Part 1

Some of the earliest words music fans heard from 2Pac that were not in a song were in the press biography that accompanied publicity copies of 2Pacalypse Now in late 1991. Journalist Sal Manna had been commissioned by Interscope Records to interview the relatively unknown rapper and write his biography. No agenda, no preconceptions. No subject too controversial, no holds barred. The two of them sat down on August 21, 1991 at a San Fernando Valley house where 2Pac and his mother Afeni were living. No manager, no posse, no record company. Just 2Pac and the interviewer in a room together. This was the beginning of his career—so early, in fact, that neither Interscope nor Afeni were sure whether 2Pac was one word or two, and went with 2 Pac in the original draft. The resulting biography and cut-by-cut, in which 2Pac talked about each song on the album, were both fiercely confrontational and shockingly insightful. This was 2Pac at 20 years old, yet much of what he said then is still true today, 25 years later.

“Life for the Young Black Male is hard, it’s not ‘The Cosby Show,’” says underground hip hop’s 2Pac. “I’m not perfect, I’m not half good, I’m all bad. The Young Black Male can identify with me and all that pain growing up poor. We need someone who’s been through that and narrowly escaped. We need someone who’s still in the streets, someone who stands for something.” That’s the straight Word is Bond from 2Pac (pronounced two-pock, whose full name is Tupac Amaru Shakur), an intensely outspoken and charismatic member of Digital Underground. On 2Pacalypse Now (Interscope Records), his provocative solo debut album, the rebellious 20-year-old challenges not only American society and the Young Black Male but the rap audience as well. “2pacalypse Now is a battle cry,” he explains, “a no-bullshit record about how we really live, really feel. Hip hop’s a mirror reflection of our culture today. Everything put on wax will be remembered and ‘Pray’ is not how we’re living in the ‘90s. It’s up to the rap audience to decide the future of rap music. If you want it to be that bubblegum ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’ bullshit, that’s what it’s gonna be. But if you want it to be real, you have to stick with the real NIGGAs. If not, they’re going to take this industry away from us. It’s gonna be a white thing, just like they did with rock ‘n’ roll. I’m speaking truth. We’ve got to stand strong.”

For 2Pac, NIGGA means Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished. 2Pac is and has. His life has been very real from the start. His mother, a Black Panther, was pregnant with him when she was sent to jail on suspicion of conspiracy to blow up the New York Botanical Gardens. “I was in jail even as a fetus,” says 2Pac. “So I have no mercy for the system.” Still, his mother acted as her own attorney and beat the case. His father? He died the day after he got out of jail. His stepfather? On the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. A godfather? Famed Panther Geronimo Pratt. Says 2Pac, “All my heroes have been in jail.” After being born and raised in a rough-and-tough section of New York City, he moved with his mother to the impoverished ghettos of Baltimore, where he attended the High School of Performing Arts to learn to become an actor. “I saw black people on TV and thought maybe I could be one of the few”, he recalls. But when a high school friend was shot and killed while playing with guns, he was inspired to write and perform his first rap. The gun control rhyme quickly spread his name around the city and he decided to find his future in music. Dropping out of high school (he later earned his G.E.D.), he set out for Northern California. “There’s supposed to be palm trees, sand and easy money,” 2Pac says with a laugh. “It ain’t so.”

Two years ago, he found himself homeless and hungry, sleeping on a public bench in The Jungle—Oakland, California. In desperation, he turned to “a rough crowd, a mix of bad people. But everyone around me now had money. Anti-drug? I’m anti-poverty. All this ‘drop the weapons, drop the dope’ don’t work. I want to tell that man out there that he can’t sell drugs but I can’t—because he’s got a family to feed. You have to give people more. They have to see a purpose to life. When you’ve never had shit, you have nothing to lose. I was lost, so what?” “Let’s face it, the war on drugs is a war on us. How dumb can the American public be? You can’t wage war on inanimate objects. There’s no poppy fields in my neighborhood. It’s a war on the Young Black Male, we’re who they’re locking up.” Though he began giving out tapes of his raps and performing, he admits he never thought he’d make it big. But finally he got his break—and was invited to audition for Shock G from Digital Underground. Shock liked what he heard but 2Pac would have to earn his way on stage. “He told me, ‘Come on the road as a roadie and by next year everyone will know who you are.’ He’s been Word to the Mutha.” Still, following months of roadwork, 2Pac had yet to appear in concert. Then someone tried to kill him: After talking peace on stage during a solo appearance at a Martin Luther King, Jr. festival, his pursuer shoved a 12-gauge in his face and almost succeeded in snuffing him. 2Pac immediately gave Shock an ultimatum: “Yo! Let me rap or I’m leaving. And Shock came through. If not for him, I would’ve gone down.”

Song Meanings and Facts

by Amanda London · Published October 15, 2020 · Updated September 20, 2023

Tupac Amaru Shakur, known by the stage name 2Pac Shakur, was one of the highly-rated American rappers, actor, and songwriters in the 1990s. He won the hearts of many music lovers with his works which sought to address issues in the society. The rapper started his musical career in 1989 and was then known as MC New York. His association with Leila Steinberg, a poet and businesswoman, helped in the development of his career.

It was through this union that the rapper had the opportunity to join the hip hop group known as the ‘Digital Underground’. He shot to stardom after he was featured in the group’s 1991 single entitled “Same Song”, and was known by the name 2Pac. He later released series of hit singles with the popular ones titled “Trapped” and “ Brenda’s Got a Baby “.

That same year, he released his first studio album which was under the name “2Pacalypse Now”. The album created lots of controversies with the then vice-President of the country, Dan Quayle, describing it as a social misfit. In his explanation, Tupac said the album was to highlight some things that young African-American males go through in the society. He later dropped other albums like “Me Against the World” and “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory”.

After becoming one of the leading arts in the country, 2Pac formed a hip hop group known as ‘Thug Life’ in 1993. Aside from him, the group had members like Mopreme, Big Syke, and Stretch. A year later, the group dropped their first studio album called “Thug Life: Volume 1”.

Aside from music, Shakur was also a renowned actor and was used in many movies. He starred as Birdie in the 1994 American movie entitled “Above the Rim”. His other movie credits include “Poetic Justice” and “Bullet”.

Birth to Death

He was born as Lesane Parish Crooks, but was later named after the former Peruvian leader, Túpac Amaru II. His parents were Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland. He had a step-sibling named Mopreme “Komani” Shakur who was also a member of his group, ‘Thug Life’.

He got married to Keisha Morris, a movie actress, in 1995, but the couple went their separate ways a year later. The same year after he divorced, he started dating movie actress cum model, Kidada Jones.

On September 7, 1996, 2Pac moved to Las Vegas to attend a birthday celebration of Tracy Danielle Robinson who happened to be his business partner. Later that night, the rapper, together with other friends and members of his team, decided to move to the Club 662 nightclub to continue with their personal stuffs.

On their way, they were attacked by a group of people in a white Cadillac car and the rapper was shot four times. He was rushed to the hospital and after series of treatments, the artistes was announced dead on September 13. After some investigations, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who was a member of the group known as Southside Compton Crips was named as the chief suspect, though he pleaded not guilty.

It should be noted that decades after Pac’s death, there are still persistent conspiracy theories that Pac is still alive .

2Pac’s brush with the Law

He was said to be involved in a shootout at the Qa’id Walker-Teal schoolyard which led to the death of one child. He was also charged for shooting a policeman in 1993. The following year, he was sentenced to 30-days imprisonment after he pleaded guilty for assaulting fellow rapper, Chauncey Wynn. In 1995, he was given an 18 months – 4.5 years jail sentence after he was found guilty of first-degree sexual assault.

Notable 2Pac Songs

“ Changes ”

“Dear Mama”

“Hit ‘Em Up”

“I Ain’t Mad at Cha”

“Ghetto Gospel”

“Only God Can Judge Me”

“California Love”

“Brenda’s Got a Baby”

“Ambitionz Az a Ridah”

“All Eyez On Me”

“Me and My Girlfriend”

Related posts:

• “California Love” by 2Pac (ft. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman)

“Dear Mama” by 2Pac

• 2Pac’s “Ghetto Gospel” Lyrics Meaning
• “Only God Can Judge Me” by 2Pac (ft. Rappin’ 4-Tay)
• “Brenda’s Got a Baby” by 2Pac
• “Unconditional Love” by 2Pac
• Meaning of “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” by 2Pac
• Meaning of “All Eyez On Me” by 2Pac (ft. Big Syke)
• Meaning of “Me and My Girlfriend” by 2Pac
• Is Tupac Shakur Still Alive?

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