biography of 2pac amaru shakur

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.
• His favorite singer was Prince .
• 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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Hip Hop Scriptures

Tupac Shakur Biography

The digital biography of Tupac Amaru Shakur - from Hip Hop Scriptures virtual Hip Hop Museum!

Tupac Shakur Digital Bio

GOVERNMENT NAME: TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR

Sun sign: gemini, birthday: june 16, hometown: harlem, nyc, ny, hologram performance:.

Hip-Hop Bio:

Tupac Amaru Shakur was an inspiration to millions.

While  2Pac was most famous for his rap career,  he was also a gifted actor, poet and thoughtful while outspoken advocate for the poor and the overlooked in America. During his life, he produced an immense amount of artistic work, which included studio albums, major Hollywood feature films, and published works.  He was most prolific in the music industry, selling over 75 million albums. 2Pac’s unapologetic lyrics were relevant, important, and reflective of the hard lives led by many. His music earned attention and respect through a poetic style that embraced street vocabulary while being innovative. Today, 2Pac is still considered by many to be one of the biggest influences on modern hip-hop.

2Pac’s career has earned him six Grammy nominations and three MTV Video Music Award nominations. In 1997, Shakur was honored by the American Music Awards as the Favorite Hip Hop Artist.

Born on June 16 1971 in New York City, Shakur’s parents were both members of the Black Panther Party whose militant style and provocative ideologies for civil rights would come to influence 2Pac’s music. 

Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. He was named after Túpac Amaru, an 18th-century South American revolutionary who was executed after leading an indigenous uprising against Spanish rule. Subsequent to Shakur's death, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (as well as the official coroner's report, which lists "Crooks" as an aka) released his name as Lesane Parish Crooks.

His mother, Afeni Shakur, and his father, Billy Garland, were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The infant boy 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" court case.

Shakur lived from an early age with people who were convicted of serious criminal offences and who were imprisoned. His godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was later overturned. His stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his sister Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard) to escape from a penitentiary in New Jersey. She had been imprisoned for killing a state trooper in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for the robbery of a Brinks armored truck in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared in many of his recordings.

At the age of twelve, Shakur 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, the family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker. Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beatbox, 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. He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later 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, and began dating the daughter of the director of the local Communist Party USA.

In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved to Marin City, California, a residential community located 5 miles (8.0 km) north of San Francisco, where he attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley. He began attending the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg in 1989. That same year, Steinberg organized a concert with a former group of Shakur's, "Strictly Dope"; the concert led to him being signed with Atron Gregory. He set him up as a roadie and backup dancer with the young rap group Digital Underground in 1990.

At an early age, Tupac’s love for performance and the arts began to show, as he began acting at age 13 and later enrolled in the Baltimore School of the Arts before dropping out at 17. Shakur broke into the music business with rap group Digital Underground as a back-up dancer and roadie. Eventually Shakur released his first solo album in ’91,  2pacalypse Now . 2Pac’s music career began to grow as his second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z  included two top 20 pop chart tracks:  I Get Around  and  Keep Ya Head Up .

1991–92: 2Pacalypse Now

Shakur's professional entertainment career began in the early 1990s, when he debuted his rapping skills in a vocal turn 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 of the same name. 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. Later, he released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Though the album did not generate any "Top Ten" hits, 2Pacalypse Now is hailed 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, rights of it are now owned by Amaru Entertainment. The album's name is a reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

The album generated significant controversy. Dan Quayle criticized it after a Texas youth's defense attorney claimed he was influenced by 2Pacalypse Now and its strong theme of police brutality before shooting a state trooper. Quayle said, "There's no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society." The record was important in showcasing 2Pac's political conviction and his focus on lyrical prowess. On MTV's Greatest Rappers of All Time List, 2Pacalypse Now was listed as one of 2Pac's "certified classic" albums, along with Me Against the World, All Eyez On Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.

2Pacalypse Now went on to be certified Gold by the RIAA. It featured three singles; "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped", and "If My Homie Calls". 2Pacalypse Now can be found in the Vinyl Countdown and in the instruction manual for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, along with the track "I Don't Give a Fuck," which appeared on the in-game radio station, Radio Los Santos.

1993: Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.

His second studio album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in February 1993. The album did better than the previous one debuting on number 24 on the Billboard 200. The album contains many tracks emphasizing Tupac's political and social views. This album had more commercial success than its predecessor, and there were noticeable differences in production. While Tupac's first effort had an indie-rap-oriented sound, this album was considered his "breakout" album. It spawned the hits "Keep Ya Head Up" and "I Get Around" and reached platinum status. On vinyl, Side A (tracks 1–8) was labeled the "Black Side" and Side B (tracks 9–16) the "Dark Side." It's known as his tenth-biggest selling album with 1,366,000 units moved as of 2004.

1994: Thug Life, Thug Life: Volume 1 and November shooting

"Thug Life" redirects here. For the film, see Thug Life (film). For the album, see Thug Life: Volume 1.

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 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. Due to criticism about gangsta rap at the time, the original version of the album was scrapped and re-recorded with many of the original songs being cut. Among the notable tracks on the album are "Bury Me a G," "Cradle to the Grave," "Pour Out a Little Liquor" (which also appears in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Above the Rim), "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" and "Str8 Ballin'." 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, Tupac performed the planned first single from the album, "Out on Bail" at the 1994 Source Awards. Although the album was originally released on Shakur's label Out Da Gutta, Amaru Entertainment, the label owned by the mother of Tupac Shakur, has since gained the rights to it. Thug Life: Volume 1 was certified Gold. The track "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" appeared later in 1998 from 2Pac's Greatest Hits album.

Shakur was rushed to Bellevue Hospital after a near-fatal shooting in 1994

On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was shot five times and robbed by two armed men in army fatigues after entering the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. He would later accuse Sean Combs, Andre Harrell, and Biggie Smalls —whom he saw after the shooting—of setting him up. Shakur also suspected his close friend and associate, Randy "Stretch" Walker, of being involved in the attack. In a documentary, Biggie says that they were in the recording studio and did not know Shakur would be there. Once they heard he was downstairs, Lil' Cease went to get him but came back with news that he had just been shot. When Biggie 's entourage went downstairs to check on the incident, Shakur was being taken out on a stretcher, still conscious and giving the finger to those around.

According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur had received five bullet wounds; twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. In the documentary " Biggie and Tupac", Tupac's father is interviewed and said that Tupac made a point to show him that no damage was inflicted upon his penis and/or testicles. His father also mentions that when he saw Tupac's groin, he knew that he was his son. He checked out of the hospital against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. In the day that followed, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of molestation, but innocent of six others, including sodomy. On February 6, 1995, he was sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison on a sexual assault charge.

A year later on November 30, 1995, Stretch was killed after being shot twice in the back by three men who pulled up alongside his green minivan at 112th Ave. and 209th St. in Queens Village, while he was driving. His minivan smashed into a tree and hit a parked car.

On March 17, 2008, Chuck Philips wrote a Los Angeles Times article stating that Jimmy Henchman, a hip hop talent manager, ordered a trio of thugs to rough up Shakur. The article, which was later retracted by the LA Times because it partially relied on FBI documents which turned out to be forged was thought to be vindicated in 2011 when Dexter Isaac admitted to attacking Tupac on orders from Henchman. Following Isaac’s public confession, Philips corroborated Isaac as one (among many) of his key unnamed sources. In a June 12, 2012 exclusive for The Village Voice, Philips reported that Jimmy Henchman admitted to setting up Tupac's ambush during one of nine "Queen For A Day" proffer sessions with the government in autumn of 2011, according to prosecutors, key evidence supporting Philips' theory of the attack.

1995: Prison sentence, Me Against the World and bail

Shakur began serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterward, he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World. Shakur became the first artist to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. Me Against the World made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for four weeks. The album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time. While serving his sentence, he married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, on April 4, 1995; the couple divorced in 1996. Shakur stated he married her "for the wrong reasons". While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy. He wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about an adolescent who becomes a drug baron.

The album 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 his fourth biggest selling album with 2,439,000 units moved to date. Me Against the World won best rap album at the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards.

"Dear Mama" was released as the album's first single in February 1995, along with the track "Old School" as the B-side. "Dear Mama" would be the album's most successful single, topping the Hot Rap Singles chart, and peaking at the ninth spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was certified platinum in July 1995, and later placed at #51 on the year-end charts. The second single, "So Many Tears", was released in June, four months after the first single. The single would reach the number six spot on the Hot Rap Singles chart, and the 44th on the Billboard Hot 100. "Temptations", released in August, was the third and final single from the album. The single would be the least successful of the three released, but still did fairly well on the charts, reaching number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100, 35 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and 13 on the Hot Rap Singles charts.

1996: All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory

All Eyez on Me was the fourth studio album by 2Pac, 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. It has been said 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 5 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 on the top 100 with the top one-week Soundscan sales since 1991. 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.

Makaveli The Don - Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, commonly shortened to The 7 Day Theory, is the fifth and final studio album by Tupac Shakur, under the new stage name Makaveli, finished before his death and his first studio album to be posthumously released. The album was completely finished in a total of seven days during the month of August 1996. The lyrics were written and recorded in only three days and mixing took an additional four days. These are among the very last songs he recorded before his fatal shooting on September 7, 1996. In 2005, MTV.com ranked Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory at #9 on their greatest hip hop albums of all time list and, in 2006, recognized it as a classic. The emotion and anger showcased on the album has been admired by a large part of the hip-hop community, including other rappers. Ronald "Riskie" Brent is the creator of the Makaveli Don Killuminati cover painting. George "Papa G" Pryce, Former Head of Publicity for Death Row, claimed that "Makaveli which we did was a sort of tongue and cheek and it was not really to come out and after Tupac was murdered, it did come out. But before that it was going to be a sort of an underground." The album peaked at number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the Billboard 200. The album generated the second-highest debut-week sales total of any album that year, selling 664,000 copies on the first week. This album was certified 4× Platinum on June 15, 1999.

Shakur’s legal battles began after he established his rap career. In the early nineties Shakur faced a wrongful death suit which settled out of court, accusations of assaulting police officers where charges were ultimately dropped, and even an incident where Shakur sustained five gunshot wounds from shooter Dexter Isaac. In 1995 2Pac was sentenced one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison for sexual abuse. However, not even prison could slow the success of Shakur’s career.

While incarcerated 2Pac’s latest album at the time,  Me Against the World , was number one in the pop charts and would later go double platinum. Shakur became the first artist to reach number one in the pop charts while serving a prison sentence. Making the most of his time in jail, 2Pac became a passionate reader. Among his favorites were the works of Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance writer whose works were in part the foundation for western political science. Shakur’s appreciation of his work inspired the nickname: Makaveli.

After serving only eight months of his sentence, 2Pac was out on parole thanks to a 1.4 million dollar bond paid by Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records. Now signed with Death Row Records, Shakur went on to create  All Eyez on Me , which featured hits  How Do You Want It  and  California Love .

2Pac’s life was cut short in September of 1996 when Shakur became the victim of a drive-by shooting while his car waited on a red light. While Shakur survived the surgery that followed he was pronounced dead almost a week after the attack.

Even today, 2Pac’s influence is wide-spread. From the Library of Congress where his song Dear Mama was added in 2010 to the National Registry, to artists like 11 time Grammy winner Eminem who in an interview with MTV said:

“He made you feel like you knew him. I think that , honestly, Tupac was the greatest songwriter that ever lived. He made it seem so  easy.  The emotion was there, and feeling, and everything he was trying to describe. You saw a picture that he was trying to paint.”

2Pac leaves a legacy of honesty and passion in his songs. Respected by many,  2Pac has become an inspiration for artists and a standard in rap music.

(sources: 2pac.com, wikipedia.org)

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Tupac Amaru Shakur

Step into the world of the 90s gangsta-rap scene, where Tupac Shakur reigned supreme as both a talented rapper and versatile actor. Even after leaving this world, his musical legacy continues to inspire, with an astonishing 75 million records sold worldwide! Come and celebrate the life of an icon who embodied the spirit of noble struggle.

Who Was Tupac Shakur

The enigmatic Tupac Shakur, a gifted yet tormented artist, met a tragic end in a hail of bullets on the fateful night of September 7, 1996. His untimely death left an unsolved mystery and a gaping hole in the world of music.

Tupac’s groundbreaking career began as a passionate crusader, giving voice to the struggles and injustices faced by African Americans. His powerful message and artistry cemented him as a beacon of hope for generations, transcending time and uniting those seeking equality.

However, the turbulent battle within himself led him down a dangerous path of gangsta rap and into the dubious embrace of Death Row Records’ infamous Suge Knight. As the lines between Tupac’s art and life blurred, his fate steered towards a devastatingly tragic conclusion.

The Early Life of Tupac

Born Lesane Parish Crooks, Tupac’s name change was deeply rooted in activism and revolution, inspired by a Peruvian revolutionary and his sister’s father, who were both influential Panthers. His mother, Alice Faye Williams, experienced her own personal transformation, becoming Afeni Shakur after joining the Black Panther Party, even defending herself in court while pregnant with Tupac. Sharing her passion for oration, Tupac and Afeni’s legacy, both symbolically and literally, carry on the Shakur name, even after Afeni’s passing in 2016 at age 69.

Did you know that the legendary rapper Tupac Shakur grew up without the guidance of his father or a father figure? Billy Garland, his biological dad and a Panther member, disappeared from his life when Tupac was only five. Tupac was convinced his father was dead until a surprising reunion at age 23. His mother Afeni had another child, Sekiya. Tupac’s upbringing lacked the presence of a “daddy” to show him the ropes, yet he still managed to rise to stardom.

Escaping the crime-infested streets of Baltimore, Tupac’s family relocated to Marin City, California, only to find it as a “mean little ghetto,” as described in a 1997 Vanity Fair feature. The vicious cycle continued, with Afeni, Tupac’s mother, developing a crack addiction, and young Tupac eventually selling the same drug on the streets where she had scored her fix.

However, fate had a different path for Tupac, with the melody of hip-hop guiding him towards a brighter future, at least for a while. At age 17, he crossed paths with an older woman, Leila Steinberg, in a park. Sharing a connection over a conversation on Winnie Mandela, Steinberg would fondly remember the captivating aura of Tupac, marveling at his “overflowing charisma” and “infectious laugh.”

When Tupac and Steinberg crossed paths, Tupac’s poetic prowess led him to persuade Steinberg to manage his musical ambitions, despite Steinberg’s lack of experience in the industry. Their journey led them to Atron Gregory, a music manager who introduced Tupac to the world by featuring him as a roadie, dancer, and later, a recording artist for the hip hop crew, Digital Underground. Not long after, Tupac soared to new heights as a solo artist, with Gregory at the helm, landing a deal with Interscope Records and releasing his iconic debut album, 2Pacalypse Now.

Tupac’s Run-ins with the Law

On a fateful day in August 1992, Tupac Shakur found himself in a dangerous altercation with envious rivals in Marin City. Chaos ensued, his own pistol slipping from his grasp amid the chaos. In a tragic twist of fate, the weapon fired, claiming the life of an innocent 6-year-old bystander, Qa’id Walker-Teal. Tupac was never charged for the young boy’s death, but the heartache weighed heavily on his conscience. In 1995, Walker-Teal’s family sought justice in the form of a civil case, but ultimately settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, rumored to be between $300,000 and $500,000, courtesy of a mysterious benefactor – believed to have ties with Death Row Records.

In a thrilling twist of fate back in October 1993, Tupac found himself in a showdown with two off-duty cops in Atlanta. Amidst the chaos, he ended up shooting and injuring them—one in the stomach, the other in the rear. The case took an unexpected turn when it was revealed that the officers, who had been intoxicated at the time, had actually instigated the altercation, with one even threatening Tupac with a stolen gun.

This shocking event highlighted the very issues of misrepresentation of African American males and biased police attitudes that Tupac had been passionately addressing in his music. Initially branded as a “gangster” for his actions, Tupac’s reputation was ultimately vindicated as the truth of his self-defense came to light. Through it all, the young rapper’s fame only continued to skyrocket.

Back in 1995, famed rapper Tupac faced a serious legal battle. Accused of sexually abusing a woman in his swanky New York hotel suite, he was hit with a one and a half to four and a half years sentence. While fiercely protesting his innocence, Tupac did express regret to journalist Kevin Powell, admitting he could’ve stepped in and protected the fan. Reflecting on this intense chapter in the star’s life, it’s a chilling reminder of the vulnerability some face in the presence of fame.

Tupac and The Shooting at Quad Studios

In late 1994, Tupac Shakur was shot multiple times while entering the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio. This violent outreach came after weeks of speculation that his rap rivalry with Biggie Smalls had escalated to dangerous levels and it seemed possible that either he or his label boss Sean “Diddy” Combs could be behind it. The attack marked an unfortunate end for what began as healthy competition between East and West Coast hip hop, culminating in June 1996 when Tuppac released “Hit ‘Em Up” – a fiery diss track aimed at both rivals.

Despite Biggie Smalls’ continuous denial regarding any involvement in Tupac’s shooting, a twist emerged in 2011. Dexter Isaac, a notorious New York inmate, confessed that music industry tycoon James “Henchman” Rosemond paid him to not only rob, but ultimately shoot Tupac.

The Other Women in Tupac’s Life

The young Tupac Shakur and Jada Pinkett-Smith, met back in their high school days at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland, forming a bond that had everything to do with survival. Their connection would later be commemorated when Jada made a cameo in Tupac’s music video, ‘Strictly 4 My Niggaz.’

Many years later he was framing a love story in the midst of chaos, Tupac Shakur tied the knot with 20-year-old Keisha Morris in 1995, despite being behind bars. The couple’s electric encounter at a nightclub a few months prior set the stage for a short-lived, yet unforgettable union. As fate intervened, Tupac’s release from prison led to the marriage’s annulment, yet their friendship remained unshaken until his untimely passing.

In a twist of irony, Tupac soon found love in Kidada Jones, daughter of the legendary Quincy Jones. Their first meeting unfolded when Tupac humbly apologized for a previous insult. Their connection grew stronger, with Kidada becoming an unwavering presence in Tupac’s life – even during his final moments in Las Vegas.

Tupac and Death Row Records

When Tupac found himself imprisoned on rape charges, Suge Knight, the infamous head of Death Row Records, appeared like a guardian angel. Knight offered to foot the hefty $1.3 million dollar bail bill, but only under the condition that Tupac joined his controversial label. Needless to say, Tupac didn’t hesitate to sign the deal, and by October 1995, he was a free man again.

While Death Row had a notorious reputation, Tupac didn’t let it define him. Underneath his tough exterior, he secretly supported at-risk youth initiatives, sponsored sports teams in South Central, and even established a helpline for troubled youngsters. His generous contributions to society were revealed posthumously in a Vanity Fair article by Robert Sam Anson, revealing the complex layers of Tupac’s life beyond his outlaw persona.

The Death of Tupac Shakur

In a whirlwind of events, legendary rapper Tupac met his tragic end on September 13, 1996, after succumbing to injuries sustained in a mysterious shooting in Las Vegas just six days earlier. The fateful night commenced with Tupac and his friend, Knight, enjoying a Mike Tyson fight at the glamorous MGM Grand hotel. Little did they know that a post-bout altercation with a member of the notorious Crips gang would set off a chain reaction leading to Tupac’s untimely demise. As the night unfolded, a surprise attack at a traffic stop found Tupac riddled with bullets, paving the way for an agonizing final chapter with his girlfriend, Kidada, and mother, Afeni, providing solace in his dwindling hours. The haunting enigma of Tupac’s unsolved murder continues to captivate and intrigue fans to this day.

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Shakur, Tupac Amaru

( b . 16 June 1971 in Brooklyn, New York ; d . 13 September 1996 in Las Vegas , Nevada), actor and an originator of the musical style called “gangsta rap,” celebrated for his songs about the black inner city.

Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams), was a member of the Black Panther Party, a radical political organization. His father, William M. Garland, also belonged to the party. At the time of Tupac Shakur ’s conception, Afeni Shakur was married to Lumumba Abdul Shakur, another member of the Black Panthers , who had been incarcerated. Upon hearing of her pregnancy, Lumumba divorced her. During the pregnancy, Afeni Shakur was imprisoned in the Women’s House of Detention in New York City’s Greenwich Village , and she was subsequently acquitted of conspiracy charges involving a bombing. Afeni Shakur and her young son Tupac suffered financial hardship and moved frequently between 1975 and 1983, living in the Bronx, Harlem, and occasionally in homeless shelters.

Because of this urban-nomadic life, Shakur made no long-term boyhood friendships. “I was crying all the time,” he later recalled in an interview. “My major thing was I couldn’t fit in, because I was from everywhere. I didn’t have no buddies that I grew up with.” When the boy asked about the name of his father, Afeni Shakur would tell her son that she did not know who his father was. This lack of knowledge tormented the youth.

In September 1983 twelve-year-old Shakur was offered a role in the 127th Street Ensemble, a theater group in Harlem. He portrayed Travis in the play A Raisin in the Sun . He took to acting and felt that through his life experiences, performing came easily to him.

Meanwhile, his mother had become hooked on crack cocaine. Her lover, known simply as “Legs,” encouraged her addiction. Shakur “adopted” Legs as a surrogate father, but Legs died of a crack-induced heart attack at age fortyone.

Trying to make a fresh start in Baltimore, Shakur’s mother enrolled him in that city’s School for the Arts. He studied acting and ballet. He had already written a rap song under the name “M.C. New York.” Shakur’s teachers recognized the confidence and talent that would later serve him as a successful actor. Shakur remembered in an interview one teacher’s effort to provide some guidance: “Some old white guy, and I was a little black kid from the ghetto. It was beyond him to help me.” Before Shakur could graduate, his family moved to Marin City, California. He never went back to school. “Leaving that [Baltimore] school affected me so much,” Shakur commented. “Even now, I see that as the point where I got off track.”

Yet in a few years Shakur would be on tour as a dancer-rapper for the group Digital Underground. In 1991 he made his recording debut with Digital Underground on the album This Is an EP Release . The album was later certified gold. 2Pacalypse Now , released in November 1991, was hailed as a departure for R&B music and it catapulted Shakur to national recognition. On the album, he rapped to black youth about the world they knew, while a gunshot backbeat kicked with rhythm. There were narratives about teen pregnancy, gang banging, selling drugs, and about being cooped up too long in someone else’s dream. It was the voice of truth to restless and oppressed African American men at the end of the twentieth century.

At this time he formed a philosophy called “Thug Life” and had those words, an acronym containing a vulgarism, tattooed in huge letters across his pelvis. The philosophy contends that the hatred of children ruins everyone’s life. He felt that thugs were essentially unloved and were victims who had no choice but to carry guns to protect what little they had. On his back was tattooed the words “Laugh Now, Cry Later.” This was meant to scare anyone who felt that they could backstab Shakur and get away with it. Through these expressions, he sought to protect all that he had from being taken by a world he did not trust. When questioned as to why he became a “thug,” he answered, “Because if I don’t, I’ll lose everything I have. Who else is going to love me but the thugs?”

In 1992 Tupac earned praise for his big-screen debut in the movie Juice . In April 1993, amid other runins with police, the rap singer was arrested in Lansing, Michigan, for swinging a baseball bat at another performer during a concert. He was sentenced to ten days in jail. Shakur’s many scrapes with the law did not adversely affect record sales, and his Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z . (1993) went platinum. Also in 1993, the movie Poetic Justice , starring singer Janet Jackson and Shakur, was released. At Halloween of that year, Shakur was arrested for allegedly shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers. These charges were eventually dropped.

Then, just eighteen days later, Shakur was picked up in New York City on sexual abuse charges after a teenage girl was attacked in a posh Manhattan hotel. On 10 March 1994 Shakur was sentenced to fifteen days in jail for punching the director Allen Hughes. That year, moviegoers saw Shakur playing a troubled drug dealer in Above the Rim . His real-life troubles continued in 1994, as he was shot and robbed in a Times Square recording studio. The case remained unsolved, and in early 1995 Shakur started his sentence in New York’s Rikers Island penitentiary for his sexual-abuse conviction. While behind bars, he learned that his new album Me Against the World had hit number one on Billboard magazine’s pop charts. On 29 April 1995 he married Keisha Morris while incarcerated, but the couple soon became estranged.

In prison, Shakur abandoned his violent philosophy, saying, “If Thug Life is real, then let somebody else represent it, because I’m tired of it. I represented it too much.” In October 1995 Death Row Records executive Marion “Suge” Knight paid a $1.4 million bond to release Shakur from prison. The performer immediately flew to Los Angeles to sign a recording contract with Death Row, and soon afterward released rap’s first double CD, All Eyez on Me .

Back in New York for the MTV Music Video Awards on 4 September 1996, Shakur managed to get into a scuffle. Three days later, on 7 September 1996, he was shot four times in the chest after leaving a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas . At five foot ten and 168 pounds, the twenty-five-year-old Shakur was diminutive compared to the massive 300-pound “Suge” Knight, who rode in the car with him that evening. Shakur’s shooting was rumored to be part of a long turf war between Knight and Bad Boy Records’ Sean “Puffy” Combs; this could not be substantiated, however, as the gunman was not found. Shakur was rushed to University Medical Center, where his right lung was removed. Six days after the shooting, Shakur was pronounced dead. His body was cremated.

Shakur’s death allegedly created an all-out war between the reigning gangsta rap record companies, Combs’s Bad Boy Records in New York City and Knight’s Death Row Records in Los Angeles . Six months after Shakur’s death, Biggie Smalls, also known as Notorious B.I.G ., a 400-pound gangsta rapper with Bad Boy Records, was gunned down outside of Petersen’s Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. In early 1997 Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison for probation violation in connection with a fight. Fans, sickened by the violence promoted by this music and its impresarios, turned to other music and forms of entertainment. The bad-boy glamour had vanished in gun smoke.

Shakur’s use of lyrics laced with violent, sexual, and profane language, and his self-portrayal as a gangster and an outlaw, helped sell several million records, making him one of the most popular—and tragic—musicians of the 1990s. As the Reverend Jesse Jackson commented after Shakur’s murder, “Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call. Tupac just couldn’t break the cycle.”

Vibe Editors, Tupac Shakur (1997), chronicles the rise and fall of the rap star. See also Katy Scott, The Killing of Tupac Shakur (1997); Armond White, Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur (1997); Newsweek (1 Sept. 1997) and Spin (Apr. 2000). Obituaries are in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times (both 14 Sept. 1996).

Louise Continelli

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NEARBY TERMS

5 Facts About Tupac Shakur

Tupac's last name means 'thankful'

The rapper’s name descends from the Incas of Peru and the Arabic language. Túpac Amaru was the last leader of Peru’s Incan Empire and the name translates to “shining serpent.” “Shakur” comes from Arabic origins and means “thankful” or “appreciative.”

The rapper related to Shakespeare

In a 1994 interview from PBS’ Blank on Blank web series, Shakur said, “I feel like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play, you know what I'm saying?" The quote rings true considering his rise to fame from poverty, his violent death and posthumous success.

He's immortalized in wax

Ten years after Tupac’s death, Madame Tussauds debuted an eerily life-like wax figure of the artist. The creators of the wax Tupac researched hours of videos of the rap star, his personal measurements and photos provided by his mother. They even hand-painted his tattoos to capture the uncanny resemblance.

Tupac was resurrected as a hologram

Although the rap legend died in 1996, he returned to the stage at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival via hologram. Tupac's hologram is one of several digitally projected deceased stars like Michael Jackson , Ol' Dirty Bastard and Easy-E . His hologram and music sales continue to generate major earnings posthumously.

His reported last words were profanity

Tupac's tragic death, shrouded in conspiracy theories, continues to fascinate fans. What really happened? Chris Carroll, a retired sergeant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, was the first officer on the scene after Tupac’s fateful shooting on the strip. In a 2014 interview with Vegas Seven , a local newspaper, he describes the mayhem and reveals what could have been the rapper’s last words. After struggling to get a fatally wounded Shakur out of the vehicle, the officer tried to obtain information from him to identify the shooter. The officer recounts, “He looked at me and he took a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth, and I thought I was actually going to get some cooperation. And then the words came out: 'F**k you.' After that, he started gurgling and slipping out of consciousness." Shakur died six days later at the age of 25.

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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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The Music That Influenced Tupac: A Deep Dive

Rapper, Actor, Activist, Poet, Rebel, Legend East Harlem’s Túpac Amaru Shakur 1971 – 1996

Tupac Amaru Shakur, rapper, actor, activist, thug, poet, rebel, and visionary, born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996, in East Harlem , New York.

Better known by his stage name 2Pac and by his alias Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential rappers of all time.

Much of Shakur’s work has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he has often been considered a symbol of activism against inequality.

Shakur was born in Manhattan , a borough of New York City , but relocated to Baltimore, Maryland in 1984 and then the San Francisco Bay Area in 1988.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to further pursue his music career. By the time he released his debut album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991, he had become a central figure in West Coast hip hop, introducing social issues to the genre at a time when gangsta rap was dominant in the mainstream.

Shakur achieved further critical and commercial success with his follow-up albums Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z… (1993) and Me Against the World (1995).

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In 1995, Shakur served eight months in prison on sexual assault charges, but was released after agreeing to sign with Marion “Suge” Knight’s label Death Row Records in exchange for Knight posting his bail.

Following his release, Shakur became heavily involved in the growing East Coast –West Coast hip hop rivalry.[6] His double-disc album All Eyez on Me (1996) was certified Diamond by the RIAA.

On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada; he died six days later and the gunman was never captured.

Shakur’s friend-turned-rival, The Notorious B.I.G., was at first considered a suspect due to the pair’s public feud, but was also murdered in another drive-by shooting six months later in Los Angeles, California. Five more albums have been released since Shakur’s death, all of which have been certified platinum in the United States.

Shakur is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide. In 2002, he was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Rolling Stone named Shakur in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Outside music, Shakur also found considerable success as an actor, with his starring roles as Bishop in Juice (1992), Lucky in Poetic Justice (1993) where he starred alongside Janet Jackson, Ezekiel in Gridlock’d (1997), and Jake in Gang Related (1997), all of which garnered praise from critics.

Personal life

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in East Harlem in New York City. While born Lesane Parish Crooks, he was renamed, at age one, after Túpac Amaru II (the descendant of the last Incan ruler, Túpac Amaru), who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his failed revolt against Spanish rule.

Amsterdam News wrote He was enrolled in the 127th Street Repertory Ensemble at age 12, taking on his first major role with the accomplished acting troupe in a 1984 production of “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Apollo Theater.

Shakur’s mother explained, “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.”

Shakur had an older stepbrother, Mopreme “Komani” Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior.

Panther heritage

A month before Shakur’s birth, his mother Afeni was tried in New York City as part of the Panther 21 criminal trial. She was acquitted of over 150 charges.

Other family members who were involved in the Black Panthers’ Black Liberation Army were convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned, including Shakur’s stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, who spent four years among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.

Mutulu Shakur was apprehended in 1986 and subsequently convicted for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which police officers and a guard were killed.

Shakur’s godfather, Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery.

His sentence was overturned when it was revealed that the prosecution had hidden evidence that he was in a meeting 400 mi away at the time of the murders.

School years

In 1984, Shakur’s family moved from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland. He attended eighth grade at Roland Park Middle School, then two years at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. On transfer to the Baltimore School for the Arts, he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet.

He performed in Shakespeare’s plays—depicting timeless themes, now seen in gang warfare, he would recall—and as the Mouse King role in The Nutcracker ballet. With his friend Dana “Mouse” Smith as beatbox, he won competitions as reputedly the school’s best rapper.

Also known for his humor, he could mix with all crowds. As a teen, he listened to musicians including Kate Bush, Culture Club, Sinéad O’Connor, and U2.

At Baltimore’s arts high school, Shakur befriended Jada Pinkett, who would become a subject of some of his poems. After his death, she would call 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.” Upon connecting with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA, Shakur dated the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA.

In 1988, Shakur moved to Marin City, California, a small, impoverished community, about 5 miles north of San Francisco. In nearby Mill Valley, he attended Tamalpais High School, where he performed in several theater productions.

Later relations

In Shakur’s adulthood, he continued befriending individuals of diverse backgrounds. His friends would range from Mike Tyson and Chuck D to Jim Carrey and Alanis Morissette, who in April 1996 said that she and Shakur were planning to open a restaurant together.

Shakur briefly dated Madonna in 1994. On April 29, 1995, Shakur married his then-girlfriend Keisha Morris, a pre-law student.

The marriage was annulled ten months later. In a 1993 interview published in The Source, Shakur berated record producer Quincy Jones for his interracial marriage to actress Peggy Lipton.

Their daughter Rashida Jones responded with an irate open letter. Years later, Shakur apologized to her sister Kidada Jones, who he was dating at the time of his death in 1996.

Music career

In January 1991, Shakur debuted under the stage name 2Pac on rap group Digital Underground’s single “Same Song.” The song was featured on the soundtrack of the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble.

His first two solo albums, 2Pacalypse Now (1991) and Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z… (1993), preceded Thug Life: Volume 1 (1994), the only album with his side group Thug Life. Rapper/producer Stretch guests on the three albums.

Here is a rare video of 2Puc in his old neighborhood in East Harlem:

2Pac’s third solo album, Me Against the World (1995), features rap clique Dramacydal, reshaping as Outlawz on 2Pac’s fourth solo album, and last in his lifetime, All Eyez on Me (1996).

At the time of his death, another solo album was already finished. The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996), under the stage name Makaveli, was recorded in one week in August 1996, whereas later posthumous albums are archival productions.

Later posthumous albums are R U Still Down? (1997), Greatest Hits (1998), Still I Rise (1999), Until the End of Time (2001), Better Dayz (2002), Loyal to the Game (2004), Pac’s Life (2006).

Beginnings: 1989–1991

Shakur began recording using the stage name MC New York in 1989. That year, he began attending the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg, and she soon became his manager. Steinberg organized a concert for Shakur and his rap group Strictly Dope.

Steinberg managed to get Shakur signed by Atron Gregory, manager of the rap group Digital Underground. In 1990, Gregory placed him with the Underground as a roadie and backup dancer.

Under the stage name 2Pac, he debuted on the group’s January 1991 single “Same Song,” leading the group’s January 1991 EP titled This Is an EP Release, while 2Pac appeared in the music video.

It also went on the soundtrack of the February 1991 movie Nothing but Trouble, starring Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Chevy Chase, and Demi Moore.

Rising star: 1992–1993

2Pac’s debut album, 2Pacalypse Now—alluding to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now—arriving in November 1991, would bear three singles. Some prominent rappers—like Nas, Eminem, Game, and Talib Kweli—cite it as an inspiration.

Aside from “If My Homie Calls,” the singles “Trapped” and “Brenda’s Got a Baby” poetically depict individual struggles under socioeconomic disadvantage.

But once a Texas defense attorney, with a young client who had shot a state trooper, rationalized the defendant had been listening to the album, which touches upon police brutality, controversy ensued.

US Vice President Dan Quayle partially reacted, “There’s no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society.” Tupac, finding himself misunderstood, explained, in part, “I just wanted to rap about things that affected young Black males.

When I said that, I didn’t know that I was gonna tie myself down to just take all the blunts and hits for all the young Black males, to be the media’s kicking post for young Black males.”

In any case, 2Pacalypse Now was certified Gold, half a million copies sold. Altogether, the album sits well within the context of socially conscious rap, addressing urban Black concerns still prevalent in rap to this day.

2Pac’s second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z…, arrived in February 1993. A critical and commercial advance, it debuted at No. 24 on the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200.

An overall more hardcore album, it emphasizes Tupac’s sociopolitical views and has a metallic production quality. It features Ice Cube, the famed primary creator of N.W.A’s “Fuck tha Police,” who, in his own solo albums, had newly gone militantly political, along with L.A.’s original gangsta rapper, Ice-T, who in June 1992 had sparked controversy with his band Body Count’s track “Cop Killer”.

In fact, in its vinyl release, side A, tracks 1 to 8, is labeled the “Black Side,” while side B, tracks 9 to 16, is the “Dark Side.”

Nonetheless, the album carries the single “I Get Around,” a party anthem featuring Digital Underground’s Shock G and Money-B, which would render 2Pac’s popular breakthrough, reaching No. 11 on the pop singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100.

And it carries the optimistic compassion of another hit, “Keep Ya Head Up,” an anthem for women empowerment.

This album would be certified platinum, with a million copies sold. As of 2004, among 2Pac albums, including of posthumous and compilation albums, the Strictly album would be 10th in sales, about 1 366 000 copies.

Stardom: 1994–1995

In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with Tyrus “Big Syke” Himes, Diron “Macadoshis” Rivers, his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and Walter “Rated R” Burns.

Thug Life released its only album, Thug Life: Volume 1, on October 11, 1994, which is certified Gold. It carries the single “Pour Out a Little Liquor”, produced by Johnny “J” Jackson, who would also produce much of Shakur’s album All Eyez on Me. Usually, Thug Life performed live without Tupac. The track also appears on the 1994 film Above the Rim’s soundtrack.

But due to gangsta rap being under heavy criticism at the time, the album’s original version was scrapped, and the album redone with mostly new tracks. Still, along with Stretch, Tupac would perform the first planned single, “Out on Bail,” which was never released, at the 1994 Source Awards.

2Pac’s third album, arriving in March 1995 as Me Against the World, is now hailed as his magnum opus, and commonly ranks among the greatest, most influential rap albums. The album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a then-record for highest first-week sales for a solo male rapper.

The lead single, “Dear Mama,” arrived in February with the B side “Old School.” The album’s most successful single, it topped the Hot Rap Singles chart, and peaked at No. 9 on the pop singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100. In July, it was certified Platinum. It ranked No. 51 on the year-end charts.

The second single, “So Many Tears,” released in June, reached No. 6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and No. 44 on Hot 100. August brought the final single, “Temptations,” reaching No. 68 on the Hot 100, No. 35 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and No. 13 on the Hot Rap Singles.

At the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards, Tupac won for best rap album.[74] In 2001, it ranked 4th among his total albums in sales, with about 3 524 567 copies sold in the US.

Superstardom: 1995–1996

While imprisoned from February to October 1995, Tupac wrote only one song, he would say.

Rather, he took to political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli’s treatise The Prince and military strategist Sun Tzu’s treatise The Art of War. And on Tupac’s behalf, his wife Keisha Morris communicated to Suge Knight of Death Row Records that Tupac, in dire straits financially, needed help, his mother about to lose her house. In August, after sending $15,000 for her, Suge began visiting Tupac in prison.

In one of his letters to Nina Bhadreshwar, recently hired to edit a planned magazine, Death Row Uncut, Tupac discusses plans to start a “new chapter.” Eventually, music journalist Kevin Powell would say that Shakur, once released, more aggressive, “seemed like a completely transformed person.”

2Pac’s fourth album, All Eyez on Me, arrived on February 13, 1996. Of two discs, it basically was rap’s first double album – meeting two of the three albums due in Tupac’s contract with Death Row – and bore five singles while perhaps marking the peak of 1990s rap. With standout production, the album has more party tracks and often a triumphant tone.

As 2Pac’s second album to hit No. 1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200, it sold 566,000 copies in its first week and was it was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in April. “How Do U Want It” as well as “California Love” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At the 1997 Soul Train Awards, it won in R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year. At the 24th American Music Awards, Tupac won Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist. The album was certified 9× Multi-Platinum in June 1998, and 10× in July 2014.

Tupac’s fifth and final studio album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, commonly called simply The 7 Day Theory, was released under a newer stage name, Makaveli.

The album had been created in seven days total during August 1996. The lyrics were written and recorded in three days, and mixing took another four days. In 2005, MTV.com ranked The 7 Day Theory at No. 9 among hip hop’s greatest albums ever, and by 2006 a classic album.

Its singular poignance, through hurt and rage, contemplation and vendetta, resonates with many fans. But according to George “Papa G” Pryce, Death Row Records’ then director of public relations, the album was meant to be “underground,” and “was not really to come out,” but, “after Tupac was murdered, it did come out.” It peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and on the Billboard 200, with the second-highest debut-week sales total of any album that year.

On June 15, 1999, it was certified 4× Multi-Platinum.

Film career

Tupac’s first film appearance was in the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, a cameo by the Digital Underground. In 1992, he starred in Juice, where he plays the fictional Roland Bishop, a militant and haunting individual. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers calls him “the film’s most magnetic figure.”

Then, in 1993, Tupac starred alongside Janet Jackson in John Singleton’s romance film, Poetic Justice. Tupac then played another gangster, the fictional Birdie, in Above the Rim. Soon after Tupac’s death, three more films starring him were released, Bullet (1996), Gridlock’d (1997), and Gang Related (1997).

Director Allen Hughes had cast Tupac as Sharif in the 1993 film Menace II Society, but replaced him once Tupac assaulted him on set due to a discrepancy with the script.

Nonetheless, in 2013, Hughes appraises that Tupac would have outshone the other actors, “because he was bigger than the movie.”

For the lead role in the eventual 2001 film Baby Boy, a role played by Tyrese Gibson, director John Singleton originally had Tupac in mind.

Ultimately, the set design includes in the protagonist’s bedroom a Tupac mural, and the film’s score includes the 2Pac song “Hail Mary.”

Criminal and civil cases

1991 Oakland Police Department lawsuit

In October 1991, Shakur filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department for allegedly brutalizing him over jaywalking. The case was settled for about $43,000.

Shooting of Qa’id Walker-Teal

On August 22, 1992, in Marin City, Shakur performed outdoors at a festival. For about an hour after the performance, he signed autographs and posed for photos.

A conflict broke out and Shakur allegedly drew a legally carried Colt Mustang but dropped it on the ground.

Shakur claimed that someone with him then picked it up when it accidentally discharged. About 100 yards (90 meters) away in a schoolyard, Qa’id Walker-Teal, a boy aged 6 on his bicycle, was fatally shot in the forehead.

Police matched the bullet to a .38-caliber pistol registered to Shakur.

His stepbrother Maurice Harding was arrested, but no charges were filed. Lack of witnesses stymied prosecution.

In 1995, Qa’id’s mother filed a wrongful death suit against Shakur, settled for about $300,000 to $500,000.

Shooting two policemen

In October 1993, in Atlanta, Mark Whitwell and Scott Whitwell, two brothers who were both off-duty police officers, were out celebrating with their wives after one of them had passed the state’s bar examination. Drunk, the officers were crossing the street when a passing car carrying Shakur allegedly almost struck them.

The Whitwells, later found to have stolen guns, argued with the car’s occupants.

When a second car arrived, the Whitwells ran away, as Shakur shot one officer in the buttocks and the other in the leg, back, or abdomen. Shakur was charged in the shooting. Mark Whitwell was charged with firing at Shakur’s car and later with making false statements to investigators.

Prosecutors ultimately dropped all charges against both parties.

Both brothers filed civil suits against Shakur; Mark Whitwell’s was settled out of court, while Scott Whitwell’s $2 million lawsuits resulted in a default judgment entered against the rapper’s estate.

Assault convictions

On April 5, 1993, charged with felonious assault, Shakur allegedly threw a microphone and swung a baseball bat at rapper Chauncey Wynn, of the group M.A.D., at a concert at Michigan State University.

On September 14, 1994, Shakur pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, twenty of them suspended, and ordered to 35 hours of community service.

Slated to star as Sharif in the 1993 Hughes Brothers’ film Menace II Society, Shakur was replaced by actor Vonte Sweet after allegedly assaulting one of the film’s directors, Allen Hughes.

In early 1994, Shakur served 15 days in jail after being found guilty of the assault. The prosecution’s evidence included a Yo! MTV Raps interview where Shakur boasts that he had “beat up the director of Menace II Society.”

Sexual assault conviction

In November 1993, Shakur and three other men were charged in New York with sexually assaulting a woman in his hotel room.

The woman, Ayanna Jackson, alleged that after consensual oral sex in his hotel room, she returned a later day, but then was raped by him and other men there.

Interviewed on The Arsenio Hall Show, Shakur said he was hurt that “a woman would accuse me of taking something from her.”

On December 1, 1994, Shakur was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, but acquitted of associated sodomy and gun charges.

In February 1995, he was sentenced to 18 months to 4+1⁄2 years in prison by a judge who decried “an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman.”

On October 12, 1995, pending judicial appeal, Shakur was released from Clinton Correctional Facility,[29] once Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, arranged for posting of his $1.4 million bond.

On April 5, 1996, Shakur was sentenced to 120 days in jail for violating his release terms by failing to appear for a road cleanup job, but on June 8, his sentence was deferred via appeals pending in other cases.

New York scene 1990s

In 1991, 2Pac debuted on a new record label, Interscope Records, that knew little about rap music. Until that year, Ruthless Records, formed during 1986 in Los Angeles county’s Compton city, had prioritized rap, and its group N.W.A had led gangsta rap to platinum sales, but N.W.A’s lyrics, outrageously violent and misogynist, precluded mainstream breakthrough.

On the other hand, also specializing in rap, Profile Records, in New York City, had a mainstream, pop breakthrough, Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way”, in 1986.

In April 1991, N.W.A disbanded via Dr. Dre’s departure to, with Suge Knight, launch Death Row Records, in Los Angeles city. With its very first two albums, Death Row became the first record label both to prioritize rap and to regularly release mainstream, pop hits with it.

Released by Death Row in late 1992, Dre’s The Chronic—its “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” ubiquitous on pop radio and “Let Me Ride” winning a Grammy—was trailed in late 1993 by Snoop’s Doggystyle.

Gangsta rap, no less, these albums and more propelled the West Coast, for the first time, ahead of New York to rap’s center stage. But meanwhile, in 1993, Andre Harrell of Uptown Records, in New York, fired his star A&R man, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, later “P. Diddy.”

Puffy, while leaving behind his standout projects Jodeci and Mary J. Blige—two R&B acts—took to his own, new record label, Bad Boy Records, the promising gangsta rapper Biggie Smalls, soon also known as The Notorious B.I.G. His debut album, released in late 1994 as Ready to Die, promptly returned rap’s spotlight to New York.

Stretch and Live squad

In 1988, Randy “Stretch” Walker, along with his brother, dubbed Majesty, and a friend debuted with an EP as rap group and production team, Live Squad, in the Queens borough of New York City.

Tupac’s early days with Digital Underground made his acquaintance with Stretch, who featured on a track of the Digital Underground’s 1991 album Sons of the P. Becoming fast friends, Tupac and Stretch recorded and performed together often.

Stretch as well as Live Squad contributed tracks on 2Pac’s first two albums, first November 1991, then February 1993, and on 2Pac’s side group Thug Life’s only album of September 1994.

The end of Tupac’s and Stretch’s friendship in late 1994 surprised the New York rap scene. The next 2Pac album, released in March 1995, lacks Stretch, and 2Pac’s album after that, released in February 1996, has lines suggesting Stretch’s impending death for betrayal.

No objective evidence would publicly emerge to tangibly incriminate Stretch in the gun attack on Tupac, while with Stretch and two others, at about 12:30 am on November 30, 1994.

In any case, after a Live Squad production session for the second album of Queens rapper Nas, Stretch’s vehicle was chased while receiving fatal gunfire at about 12:30 am on November 30, 1995.

Biggie and Junior M.A.F.I.A.

During 1993 and 1994, the Biggie Smalls guest verses on several singles, often R&B, like Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411? Remix,” set high expectations for his debut album.

The perfectionism of Puffy, still forming his Bad Boy label, extended its recording to 18 months. In 1993, visiting Los Angeles, Biggie asked a local drug dealer for an introduction to Tupac, who then welcomed Biggie and Biggie’s friends to Tupac’s house and treated them to recreational activities. On later visits to Los Angeles, Biggie would stay at Tupac’s place. And when in New York, Tupac would go to Brooklyn and hang out with Biggie and his circle.

During this period, at his own live shows, Tupac would call Biggie onto stage to rap with him and Stretch. Together, they recorded the songs “Runnin’ from the Police” and “House of Pain.” Reportedly, Biggie asked Tupac to manage him, whereupon Tupac advised him that Puffy would make him a star.

Yet in the meantime, Tupac’s lifestyle was comparatively lavish, whereas Biggie appeared to continue wearing the same pair of boots for perhaps a year.

Tupac welcomed Biggie to join his side group Thug Life. Biggie would instead form his own side group, the Junior M.A.F.I.A., with his Brooklyn friends Lil’ Cease and Lil’ Kim, on Bad Boy.

Despite the “weird” timing of Stretch’s shooting death, a theory implicates gunman Ronald “Tenad” Washington both here and in the 2002 murder of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay via, as the unverified theory speculates, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff punishing the rap mentor for recording 50 Cent despite Supreme’s prohibition after this young rapper’s 1999 song “Ghetto Qu’ran” had mentioned activities of the Queens drug gang Supreme Team.

Supreme was a friend, rather, of Irv Gotti, cofounder of Murder Inc Records, whose rapper Ja Rule would vie among New York rappers after the March 1997 shooting death of Biggie, visiting Los Angeles.

Haitian Jack

By some accounts, the role Birdie, played by Shakur in the 1994 film Above the Rim, had been modeled on a New York underworld tough, Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant, a manager and promoter of rappers.

Reportedly, Shakur met him at a Queens nightclub, where, noticing him amid women and champagne, Shakur asked for an introduction.

Reportedly, Biggie advised Tupac to avoid him, but Tupac disregarded the warning.

In November 1993, in his Manhattan hotel room, Shakur received a woman’s return visit. Soon, she alleged sexual assault by him and three other men there: his road manager Charles Fuller, aged 24, one Ricardo Brown, aged 30, and a “Nigel,” later understood as Haitian Jack. In November 1994, Jack’s case was split off and closed via misdemeanor plea without incarceration.

In 2007, for shooting at someone, he would be deported. Yet in November 1994, A. J. Benza, in the New York Daily News, reported Tupac’s new disdain for Jack.

Jimmy Henchman

Through Haitian Jack, Tupac had met James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond. Another underworld figure formidable, Jimmy Henchman doubled as music manager.

Bryce Wilson’s Groove Theory was an early client. The Game as well as Gucci Mane were later clients. In 1994, a client lesser known, and signed to Uptown Records, was rapper Little Shawn, friend of Biggie and Lil’ Cease.

Eventually, Jack and Henchman would reportedly fall out, allegedly shooting at each other in Miami. And for his major drug trafficking, Henchman would be sent to prison on a life sentence. But in the early 1990s, Jack and Henchman reputedly shared interests, including a specialty of robbing and extorting music artists.

Shootings of Shakur

November 1994

On November 30, 1994, while in New York, Tupac was recording verses for a mixtape of Ron G. Tupac was repeatedly distracted by his beeper. It was music manager James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, reportedly offering $7,000 for Tupac to stop by Quad Studios, in Times Square, that night to record a verse for his client Little Shawn.

Tupac was leery, but needing cash to offset steepening legal costs, took the gig. Tupac arrived with Stretch and one or two others. In the lobby, three men robbed and beat him at gunpoint; Tupac resisted and was shot. Shakur speculated that the shooting had been a set-up.

Three hours after surgery, against doctor’s advice, Shakur checked out of Bellevue Hospital Center. The next day, in a Manhattan courtroom bandaged in a wheelchair, he received the jury’s verdict in his ongoing criminal trial for a November 1993 sexual assault in his hotel room.

Convicted of three counts of sexual assault, he was acquitted of six other charges, including sodomy and gun charges.

In a 1995 interview with Vibe magazine, Shakur accused Sean Combs, Jimmy Henchman, and Biggie, among others, of setting up or being privy to the November 1994 robbery and shooting. Vibe alerted the names of the accused.

The accusations were significant to the East-West Coast rivalry in hip-hop, the accusation was because Sean Combs and Christopher Wallace were at Quad Studios at the time, and in 1995, months later, Combs and Wallace releasing the song “Who Shot Ya?”, whereas the song made no direct reference or naming of Shakur, Shakur took it as a mockery of his shooting and thought they could be responsible, so he released a (direct) diss song called “Hit ‘Em Up”, where he targeted Wallace, Combs, their record label, Junior M.A.F.I.A., and at the end of “Hit ‘Em Up”, he mentions rivals Mobb Deep and Chino XL.

In March 2008, Chuck Philips, in the Los Angeles Times, reported on the 1994 ambush and shooting. The newspaper later retracted the article since it relied partially on FBI documents later discovered forged, supplied by a man convicted of fraud.

In June 2011, convicted murderer Dexter Isaac, incarcerated in Brookyn, issued a confession that he had been one of the gunmen who had robbed and shot Shakur at Henchman’s order. Philips then named Isaac as one of his own, retracted article’s unnamed sources.

Death Row signs Shakur

During 1995, imprisoned, impoverished, and his mother about to lose her house, Tupac had his wife Keisha Morris get word to Marion “Suge” Knight, in Los Angeles, boss of Death Row Records. Reportedly, Tupac’s mother promptly received $15,000.

After an August visit to Clinton Correctional Facility in northern New York state, Suge traveled southward to New York City to join Death Row’s entourage to the 2nd Annual Source Awards ceremony.

Already reputed for strongarm tactics on the Los Angeles rap scene, Suge used his brief stage time mainly to belittle Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, boss of Bad Boy Entertainment, the label then leading New York rap scene, who routinely performed with his own artists.

Before closing with a brief comment of support for Tupac, Suge invited artists seeking the spotlight for themselves to join Death Row.

Eventually, Puff recalled that to preempt severe retaliation from his Bad Boy orbit, he had promptly confronted Suge, whose reply – that he had meant Jermaine Dupri, of So So Def Recordings, in Atlanta – was politic enough to deescalate the conflict.

Still, among the fans, the previously diffuse rivalry between America’s two mainstream rap scenes had instantly flared already. And while in New York, Suge visited Uptown Records, where Puff, under its founder Andre Harrell, had started in the music business through an internship.

Apparently without paying Uptown, Suge obtained the releases of Puff’s prime Uptown recruits Jodeci, its producer DeVante Swing, and Mary J. Blige, all then signing with Suge’s management company.

On September 24, 1995, at a party for Dupri in Atlanta at the Platinum House nightclub, a Bad Boy circle entered a heated dispute with Suge and Suge’s friend Jai Hassan-Jamal “Big Jake” Robles, a Bloods gang member and Death Row bodyguard.

According to eyewitnesses, including a Fulton County sheriff, working there as a nightclub bouncer, Puff had heatedly disputed with Suge inside the club, whereas several minutes later, outside the club, it was Puff’s childhood friend and own bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones, who had aimed a gun at Big Jake, fatally shot while entering Suge’s car.

The attorneys of Puff and his bodyguard both denied any involvement by their clients, while Puff’s added that Puff had not even been with his bodyguard that night. Over 20 years later, the case remains officially unresolved.

Yet immediately and persistently, Suge blamed Puff, cementing the enmity between the two bosses, whose two record labels dominated the rap genre’s two mainstream centers. In the late 1990s, Southern rap’s growth into the mainstream would dispel the East–West paradigm.

But in the meantime, in October 1995, violating his probation, Suge visited Tupac in prison again. Suge posted $1.4 million bonds. And with the appeal of his December 1994 conviction pending, Shakur returned to Los Angeles and joined Death Row.

On June 4, 1996, it released the 2Pac B side “Hit ‘Em Up.” In this venomous tirade, the proclaimed “Bad Boy killer” threatens violent payback on all things Bad Boy—Biggie, Puffy, Junior M.A.F.I.A., the company—and on any in New York’s rap scene, like rap duo Mobb Deep and obscure rapper Chino XL, who allegedly had commented against Shakur about the dispute.

East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, where the murder occurred On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was in Las Vegas, Nevada, to celebrate his business partner Tracy Danielle Robinson’s birthday and attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight at the MGM Grand.

Afterward in the lobby, someone in their group spotted Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, an alleged Southside Compton Crip, whom the individual accused of having recently in a shopping mall tried to snatch his neck chain with a Death Row Records medallion.

The hotel’s surveillance footage shows the ensuing assault on Anderson. Shakur soon stopped by his hotel room and then headed with Knight to his Death Row nightclub, Club 662, in a black BMW 750iL sedan, part of a larger convoy.

At about 11 pm on Las Vegas Boulevard, bicycle-mounted police stopped the car for its loud music and lack of license plates.

The plates were found in the trunk and the car was released without a ticket. At about 11:15 pm at a stop light, a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac sedan pulled up to the passenger side and an occupant rapidly fired into the car.

Shakur was struck four times: once in the arm, once in the thigh, and twice in the chest with one bullet entering his right lung. Shards hit Knight’s head. Frank Alexander, Shakur’s bodyguard, was not in the car at the time. He would say he had been tasked to drive the car of Shakur’s girlfriend, Kidada Jones.

Shakur was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada where he was heavily sedated and put on life support. In the intensive-care unit on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died from internal bleeding. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 pm.

The official causes of death are respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds. Shakur’s body was cremated the next day.

Members of the Outlawz, recalling a line in his song “Black Jesus,” (although uncertain of the artist’s attempt at a literal meaning chose to interpret the request seriously) smoked some of his body’s ashes after mixing them with marijuana.

In 2002, investigative journalist Chuck Philips, after a year of work, reported in the Los Angeles Times that Anderson, a Southside Compton Crip, having been attacked by Suge and Shakur’s entourage at the MGM Hotel after the boxing match, had fired the fatal gunshots, but that Las Vegas police had interviewed him only once, briefly, before his death in an unrelated shooting.

Philips’s 2002 article also alleges the involvement of Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace and several within New York City’s criminal underworld. Both Anderson and Wallace denied involvement, while Wallace offered a confirmed alibi. Music journalist John Leland, in the New York Times, called the evidence “inconclusive.”

In 2011, via the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI released documents related to its investigation which described an extortion scheme by the Jewish Defense League that included making death threats against Shakur and other rappers but did not indicate a direct connection to his murder.

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Biography of Túpac Amaru, the Last of the Incan Lords

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Túpac Amaru (1545–September 24, 1572) was the last of the indigenous rulers of the Inca. He ruled during the time of the Spanish occupation and was executed by the Spanish after the final defeat of the Neo-Inca state.

Fast Facts: Túpac Amaru

• Known For : The last indigenous ruler of the Inca
• Also Known As : Túpac Amaru, Topa Amaru, Thupa Amaro, Tupaq Amaru, Thupaq Amaru
• Born : 1545 (exact date unknown) in or near Cusco
• Parents : Manco Capac (father); mother unknown
• Died : September 24, 1572 in Cusco
• Spouse: Unknown
• Children : One son
• Notable Quote : "Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yawarniy hichascancuta." ("Pacha Kamaq, witness how my enemies shed my blood."

Tupac Amaru, a member of the Incan royal family, grew up in the Incan convent Vilcabamba, the "religious university" of the Incas. As a young adult, he was against the Spanish occupation and rejected Christianity. Indigenous Incan leaders supported him because of that.

When the Spanish arrived in the Andes in the early 1530s, they found the wealthy Inca Empire in turmoil. Feuding brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar ruled over two halves of the mighty Empire. Huáscar was killed by Atahuallpa’s agents and Atahualpa himself was captured and executed by the Spanish, effectively ending the time of the Inca. A brother of Atahualpa and Huáscar, Manco Inca Yupanqui, managed to escape with some loyal followers and established himself head of a small kingdom, first at Ollantaytambo and later in Vilcabamba.

Manco Inca Yupanqui was assassinated by Spanish deserters in 1544. His 5-year-old son Sayri Túpac took over and ruled his small kingdom with the help of regents. The Spanish sent ambassadors and relations between the Spanish in Cusco and the Inca at Vilcabamba warmed. In 1560, Sayri Túpac was eventually persuaded to come to Cusco, renounce his throne, and accept baptism. In exchange, he was given vast lands and a profitable marriage. He died suddenly in 1561, and his half-brother Titu Cusi Yupanqui became the leader of Vilcabamba.

Titu Cusi was more cautious than his half-brother had been. He fortified Vilcabamba and refused to come to Cusco for any reason, although he did allow ambassadors to stay. In 1568, however, he finally relented, accepting baptism and, in theory, turning over his kingdom to the Spanish, although he consistently delayed any visit to Cusco. Spanish Viceroy Francisco de Toledo repeatedly attempted to buy off Titu Cusi with presents such as fine cloth and wine. In 1571, Titu Cusi became ill. Most of the Spanish diplomats were not in Vilcabamba at the time, leaving only Friar Diego Ortiz and translator Pedro Pando.

Túpac Amaru Ascends the Throne

The Inca lords in Vilcabamba asked Friar Ortiz to ask his God to save Titu Cusi. When Titu Cusi died, they held the friar accountable and killed him by tying a rope through his lower jaw and dragging him through town. Pedro Pando was also killed. Next in line was Túpac Amaru, Titu Cusi’s brother, who had been living in semi-seclusion in a temple. About the time Túpac Amaru was made leader, a Spanish diplomat returning to Vilcabamba from Cusco was killed. Although it is unlikely that Túpac Amaru had anything to do with it, he was blamed and the Spanish prepared for war.

War with the Spanish

Túpac Amaru had only been in charge for a few weeks when the Spanish arrived, led by 23-year-old Martín García Oñez de Loyola, a promising officer of noble blood who would later become governor of Chile. After a couple of skirmishes, the Spanish managed to capture Túpac Amaru and his top generals. They relocated all the men and women who had been living in Vilcabamba and brought Túpac Amaru and the generals back to Cusco. Dates of birth for Túpac Amaru are vague, but he was approximately in his late 20s at the time. They were all sentenced to die for insurrection: the generals by hanging and Túpac Amaru by beheading.

The generals were thrown in prison and tortured, and Túpac Amaru was sequestered and given intense religious training for several days. He eventually converted and accepted baptism. Some of the generals had been tortured so badly that they died before making it to the gallows—although their bodies were hung anyway. Túpac Amaru was led through the city escorted by 400 Cañari warriors, traditional bitter enemies of the Inca. Several important priests, including the influential Bishop Agustín de la Coruña, pleaded for his life, but Viceroy Francisco de Toledo ordered the sentence to be carried out.

The heads of Túpac Amaru and his generals were put on pikes and left at the scaffold. Before long, the locals—many of whom still considered the Inca ruling family to be divine—started worshiping the head of Túpac Amaru, leaving offerings and small sacrifices. When notified of this, Viceroy Toledo ordered the head to be buried with the rest of the body. With the death of Túpac Amaru and the destruction of the last Inca kingdom in Vilcabamba, Spanish domination of the region was complete.

Historic Context

Túpac Amaru never really had a chance; he came into power at a time when events had already conspired against him. The deaths of the Spanish priest, interpreter, and ambassador were not of his doing, as they took place before he was made the leader of Vilcabamba. As a result of these tragedies, he was forced to fight a war he may not have even wanted. In addition, Viceroy Toledo had already decided to stamp out the last Inca holdout at Vilcabamba. The legality of the conquest of the Inca was being seriously questioned by reformers (primarily in the religious orders) in Spain and in the New World, and Toledo knew that without a ruling family to which the Empire could be returned, questioning the legality of the conquest was moot. Although Viceroy Toledo was reprimanded by the crown for the execution, he did the king a favor by removing the last legitimate legal threat to Spanish rule in the Andes.

Today Túpac Amaru stands as a symbol for the indigenous people of Peru of the horrors of the conquest and Spanish colonial rule. He is considered the first indigenous leader to seriously rebel against the Spanish in an organized way and, as such, he has become the inspiration for many guerrilla groups over the centuries. In 1780, his great-grandson José Gabriel Condorcanqui adopted the name Túpac Amaru and launched a short-lived but serious rebellion against the Spanish in Peru. The Peruvian communist rebel group Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (“Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement”) took their name from him, as did the Uruguayan Marxist rebel group the Tupamaros .

Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971–1996) was an American rapper who was named after Túpac Amaru II.

• De Gamboa, Pedro Sarmiento, "History of the Incas." Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1999. (written in Peru in 1572)
• MacQuarrie, Kim. " The Last Days of the Incas ," Simon & Schuster, 2007.
• What Was the Age of Exploration?
• Manco Inca’s Rebellion (1535-1544)
• Biography of Manco Inca (1516-1544): Ruler of the Inca Empire
• Biography of Atahualpa, Last King of the Inca
• Biography of Francisco Pizarro, Spanish Conqueror of the Inca
• 10 Facts About the Conquest of the Inca Empire
• The Capture of Inca Atahualpa
• The Inca Empire: South America's Kings
• Huáscar and Atahualpa Inca Civil War
• Biography of Hernando Pizarro
• Cuzco, Peru
• History of Ecuador's San Francisco De Quito
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• Biography of Diego de Almagro, Spanish Conquistador
• About the Ransom of Atahualpa
• Coricancha: Inca Temple of the Sun in Cusco

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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.”

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The Inca Ruler And Peruvian Revolutionary Who Inspired 2Pac’s Persona

The Inca Ruler And Peruvian Revolutionary Who Inspired 2Pac's Persona

While most of the time there’s not really a relation between a person’s name and their deeds, with some famous people it seems as if their awesome name had guided them through their lives to achieve great things. That, of course, is the case of Tupac Shakur, the rapper whose controversial life and music became a legend. He was named Lesane Parish Crooks at birth, but his parents decided to rename him Tupac Amaru Shakur after two important figures from Peruvian history: the sixteenth-century Inca ruler Tupac Amaru, and the eighteenth-century revolutionary Tupac Amaru II. But why did his parents change his name, who were these characters, and what impact did they have on his persona?

Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, once said that she wanted her son to carry the name of a revolutionary to honor indigenous people in the world, so that he would learn that “he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood.” For that reason, she chose a name that celebrated the ideals she wanted her son to embrace. Now, we don’t really know whether she had both men in mind when she renamed her son or just one in particular. It’s most likely she had the revolutionary in mind rather than the ruler, or perhaps both, but what we do know is that both had similar paths in life in their fight for the rights of their people, even though they lived about two centuries apart.

The first Tupac Shakur was the last indigenous Inca chief ruling at the time of the Spanish conquest. Though his reign lasted less than two years, he is known for fighting tirelessly against the invaders to protect not only his people, but also their culture and legacy. When the Spaniards conquered the main settlements of the Inca empire, some members of the royal family decided to flee and establish a new Inca state to plan their fight against the invaders. This state grew for about a decade, when it passed to Tupac Amaru, but just when he was getting used to the throne, the Spanish army declared war on their settlement. Tupac and his people fought bravely, but eventually, they were defeated by the enemy’s superior weaponry.

Fearing for his life, he and some other high-ranking warriors and nobles, decided to escape in multiple small groups to avoid capture, but eventually, all of them were either arrested or killed, including chief Tupac. Most of those arrested were condemned to die by hanging, but Tupac was different: he was the chief, so the Spanish wanted the Incas to see who was in charge now. Unlike many of his predecessors who had bowed to the Spanish conquest, he was seen as an insurgent who had rebelled against the King and God’s will and thus had to be punished for that. At least, that was the perception Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo had. In many of the accounts by Spanish monks and soldiers, it’s said that many had actually opposed Toledo’s sentence, but he had the ultimate authority in the new colony. Tupac was taken to the main plaza in front of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in Cusco tied in a donkey and was beheaded in front of a massive crowd of both indigenous Inca and Spaniards. According to the reports of Baltasar de Ocampa and Friar Gabriel de Oviedo, Tupac’s last words were “Pacha Kamaq (the deity that translates from Quechua as “Creator of the World), witness how my enemies shed my blood.”

That’s for the first important Tupac Amaru in history, but it’s also very likely that Shakur’s mother was thinking about the second Tupac we mentioned. José Gabriel Condorcanqui, known as Túpac Amaru II, was the son of a kuraka (some sort of governor or representative) during the eighteenth century. As some of the privileged native Peruvians, he was educated under Jesuit precepts, the best education one could have in the Spanish colonies. However, he was also very much in touch with his indigenous roots (it’s highly debated whether he was of pure indigenous blood or a mestizo) and always saw the defense of indigenous rights as his main purpose in life. In 1760, he inherited the caciqueship of the towns of Tungasuca and Pampamarca as the substitute of the Spanish governor.

Seeing the injustices that all the indigenous people suffered under the Spanish yoke, and being amazed and allured by the history of the lost Inca empire, he decided to organize a rebellion in an attempt to bring Inca glory back. To do so, he changed his name to Tupac Amaru II and claimed his direct lineage to the last Inca chief. His rebellion started by capturing and executing the corregidor (governor) of the states where he was chief, but he didn’t stop there. At the time, other provinces would revolt as well and follow in his footsteps in an attempt to free the Peruvian region from the colonizers. Little by little, his army would grow and take over town after town until he was betrayed by two of his officers and eventually captured by the Spanish troops. He was sentenced to die for insurrection. He was first forced to witness the execution of his family only to be tortured right afterward. His tongue was cut off, his limbs tied to horses to be stretched, and later on, he was dismembered and beheaded in the same public plaza his namesake was murdered.

Neither Peruvian Tupac succeeded in their rebellion, but they became the spark that kindled entire revolutions that sought freedom and the people’s rights. Several centuries later, in a very different country and context, a mother decided to name his son after these figures in the hopes to make him a strong and righteous person. In an interview he gave in 1996 during the shooting of the movie Gang Related, he said: “there’s a gentleman by the name of Tupac Amaru who was a freedom fighter, warrior -similar to myself- a chief, a leader for his people.” I wouldn’t be that sure that he actually became this enlightened and exemplary figure, but what it’s true is that, as his namesakes, he ended up being an inspirational character and a cultural icon. As many black Americans at the time he was born, mainly those whose parents were involved in the Civil rights movements, they were looking for non-white revolutionary characters in history to embrace their ideals, and characters like Tupac Amaru II especially were highly popular at the time.

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Tupac Amaru Shakur

(gangsta rapper, actor), rapper tupac amaru shakur died on september 13, 1996, due to respiratory failure..

Quick Facts of Tupac Amaru Shakur

Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.

Don’t change on me. Don’t extort me unless you intend to do it forever.

I don’t have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated.

Tupac Amaru Shakur is married to Keisha Morris. He does not have any kids as of now. Tupac Amaru Shakur is not having an affair with anyone presently. His sexual orientation is straight.

What is the relationship of Tupac Amaru Shakur? In 1995, Tupac Amaru Shakur married a very young bride of 20 years, Keish Morris . Sadly their marriage was annulled before the year was over. Today, Tupac’s estranged wife devotes her time to TASC and educates youngsters to make a life for themselves.

Tupac Amaru Shakur: Biography in Details

Table of Contents

Who was Tupac Amaru Shakur?

Tupac amaru shakur was one of the greatest american rappers that ever lived. he was also known by his stage names 2pac and makaveli. tupac was an actor too..

Tupac passed away on 13 September 1996 , at University Medical Center, Las Vegas . He was shot four times once in the arm, once in the thigh, and twice in the chest.

Tupac Amaru Shakur: Age, Parents, Siblings, Ethnicity

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks on 16th June 1971, in Harlem near New York City.

His parents are his father Billy Garland and his mother, Afeni Shakur. Afeni renamed him Tupac Amaru, which in Inca, Amaru means the ‘shining serpent.’ Their ethnicity is Afro-American.

His siblings are Mopreme Shakur and Bobby Shmurda. He has a step-sister, Sekyiwa Shakur who was born after his death. Sekyiwa suffers from a form of delusion and posts them regularly on her social sites.

In which school did Tupac Amaru Shakur attend?

As a teenager, Tupac studied drama at Baltimore’s School for the Arts . He also rhymed himself as MC New York.

Tupac Amaru Shakur: Profession, Career

From the Harlem neighborhood, Tupac Amaru Shakur relocated to the San Francisco Bay area in 1988. He again moved to Los Angeles in 1993, this time it was it was to pursue a career in music.

In 1992 he was already a key figure in the West Coast Hip Hop by the time he released his first album, 2Pacalypse Now. Shakur also introduced gangsta rap into the mainstream and received critical and commercial success with 1993, ‘Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.’

The Unravelling

Around this time, Tupac’s life started to unravel. He became very much involved in the East Coast-West Coast Hip Hop rivalry. Tupac was a member of Outlawz, a digital underground thug life, or rather Digital Underground Thug Life.

7 September 1996, on a night on a lonely road, Shakur was shot multiple times by a drive-by-shooter in Las Vegas. He died 6 days later.

Listen to Coolio’s Gangsta Paradise from the movie Dangerous Minds, 1995.

To preserve her son’s legacy, Afeni founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation in 1997 (TASF). Here Keisha Morris, Tupac’s estranged wife educates youngsters.

How much is the net worth of Tupac Amaru Shakur?

The year he died, Tupac’s net worth was $200k US. However, his earnings for 1996 were posted as:

Today his net worth amounts to $50 million US.

Legal Controversy

Shakur’s net worth is listed at more than $50 million as of date. After his death, his mother Afeni was the sole arbitrator of the estate which earns almost $1 million annually. After receiving more than $20,000 a month.

Her death in 2016 without a will has caused the State of North Carolina to use discretion and choose an heir. This could mean that Tupac’s wife would be entitled to half the estate via alimony as requested while retaining his sister, Sekyiwa Shakur as the sole executor.

And if Tupac has a love child, she/he may also come into the picture as per the State of North Carolina.

Tupac attacked and robbed

In 1994, Tupac became the victim of one of the infamous attacks in hip-hop. The robbers robbed Tupac  at Quad Studios in New York City and shot five times. Luckily, Tupac survived the big incident.

But on the other side, the incident inflamed the East Coast versus West Coast rap beef.

Body Measurements: Height, Weight

Tupac Amaru Shakur had black hair and black eyes. He was 5 ft 9 inches tall and has an average weight.

Social Media

Tupac likes to keep his profile low. he has not opened social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

You may also want to know more about the life, marriage, family, and achievements of  Michelle Pfeiffer and  Courtney B. Vance.

Tupac Amaru Shakur's Birthday Dates

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Jim Carrey Wrote Funny Letters to Tupac When He Was in Prison?

Social media users claimed carrey was tupac's favorite actor., aleksandra wrona, published may 28, 2024.

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In May 2024, a rumor went viral on Reddit, claiming that actor Jim Carrey wrote funny letters to the rapper Tupac Shakur when he was incarcerated. "When Tupac was in jail, Jim Carrey used to write him funny letters in an attempt to cheer him up. Tupac was a huge fan of the comedian," an image in the post read:

Posts from the wholesomememes community on Reddit

The same claim has circulated online for years, on platforms such as X , Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , YouTube and  Pinterest . "According to a 2017 report, Jim Carrey – who happened to be the iconic rapper's favourite actor – took it upon himself to write his friend letters while he was in jail," one viral Instagram post claimed . Some of the posts were accompanied by a fake photograph of Carrey and Shakur we debunked in May 2024. The rumor was also reposted by numerous websites .

In short, because we have found no demonstrable evidence to support the claim that Carrey wrote funny letters to Shakur when he was incarcerated, and it originated as a groundless rumor, we have rated this claim as "Unfounded."

In 1995, a judge  sentenced  Skaur to 1½ to 4½ years in prison for sexually abusing a fan. A Vintage News post  on the topic claimed that Shakur received letters from Carrey while in prison, but "Carrey has refused to share their contents" (emphasis ours):

By the time he was imprisoned, Tupac Shakur had long been entrenched in the Hollywood lifestyle, developing friendships with many famous individuals, including Mike Tyson and Jim Carrey. As aforementioned, he kept in contact with the latter while he was incarcerated. It's alleged Carrey contacted the rapper on several occasions, with the two eventually becoming close confidantes. Unsurprisingly, the letters the actor to Shakur wrote were on the comedic side, providing some much-needed light relief during what was a rather difficult time in Shakur's life. While he's been asked what he wrote in the letters, Carrey has refused to share their contents, showing the mutual respect the two had for each other while Shakur was alive.

Similarly, a post on the Hip Hop Hero website claimed  "Carrey has repeatedly refused to share these documents that he sent to Shakur, and it remains a mystery what precisely he said." An account on X, Letters of Note, wrote : "Reminds me: I wrote to Jim Carrey a few years back, to ask him about the letters he and Tupac Shakur used to send each other. No reply. Sad!"

However, we have not found any reliable sources confirming that Carrey ever wrote letters to Shakur or refused to share them. Moreover, we have not found any confirmation that Tupac ever said Carrey was his favorite actor, as viral posts and articles  claimed. 

"I've read this story a million times over the last 20+ years, but I still don't know if it's true. PAC never mentioned it nor have I heard Jim Carrey talk about it. Also the photo is fake. That's Mickey Rourke with Jim Carrey's head," one Instagram user commented  under a post with the  fake photograph  of the pair. 

In August 2023, the YouTube channel 03'n8  published a video with the title "Jim Carrey and Tupac (probably) weren't friends" on the topic, investigating not only whether Carrey actually wrote to Shakur, but also whether the two were even friends.

The video underscored that neither Shakur nor Carrey ever spoke publicly about exchanging letters. Its author found that the book "Got Your Back: Protecting Tupac in the World of Gangsta Rap" by Frank Alexander mentions only that Shakur loved Carrey and used to imitate him. Another book, "Original Gangstas," the video reports, included the sentence: "He got mail from Jim Carrey and Tony Danza, the latter of whom urged him to stay strong." However, the book's author wrote in an email to the video's creator that he could not determine where he got that information. 

We have reached out to Carrey's representatives, as well as the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, and will update this article if we receive a response. 

We've fact-checked other Shakur -related claims in the past. For instance, in April 2024, we  investigated  a photograph allegedly showing him posing next to Jada Pinkett Smith in high school. In October 2023, we  debunked  a photograph purportedly showing Shakur posing next to Osama bin Laden

03'n8. Jim Carrey and Tupac (Probably) Weren't Friends . 2023. YouTube , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuDQ1ng7p80.

James, George. "Rapper Faces Prison Term For Sex Abuse." The New York Times , 8 Feb. 1995. NYTimes.com , https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/08/nyregion/rapper-faces-prison-term-for-sex-abuse.html.

Wrona, Aleksandra. "Is This a Real Pic of Tupac with Osama Bin Laden?" Snopes , 21 Oct. 2023, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/osama-bin-laden-tupac-pic/.

---. "Photo Shows Tupac Shakur and Jada Pinkett Smith in High School?" Snopes , 17 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/tupac-jada-pinkett-smith-high-school/.

---. "Viral Photo Shows Jim Carrey and Tupac Shakur Clubbing Together?" Snopes , 20 May 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/tupac-and-jim-carrey/.

By Aleksandra Wrona

Aleksandra Wrona is a reporting fellow for Snopes, based in the Warsaw area.

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