behind a legacy that was based as much on his lifestyle as it was his music.
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in the year 1971 in New York City. His parents had
separated before he was born, and their mother for much of their childhood moved him
and his sister around the country. The family was frequently at poverty level, but Shakur
managed to gain acceptance to the Baltimore School of the Arts as a teenager. While he
was at the school, his creative side developed, as he began writing raps and acting. Before
he could graduate, his family moved to Marin City, California, when he was 17 years old.
Over the next few years, he lived on the streets and began hustling. After a while he met
Shock-G, the leader of the rap group Digital Underground. The Oakland based group
decided to hire him as a dancer and roadie, and as he toured with the group, he worked on
his own material. 2-Pac made his first recorded appearance on the group’s spring 1991
record ‘This is an E.P Release’, and he also appeared on their second album, ‘Sons of the
P’. The following year, his own debut, 2Pacalypse Now. The album became a hit as the
song “Brenda’s Got a Baby” reached the R&B top 30 and the record went gold. However,
the explicit lyrics contained in the song earned criticism from Vice President Dan Quayle,
as he attacked the album while he was campaigning for re-election that year.
Shakur’s profile was raised by his role in the Ernest Dickerson film, ‘Juice’, which lead to a
lead role in John Singleton’s ‘Poetic Justice’ the following year. By the time the film had hit
Theatres, 2-Pac 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 10
R&B hit singles “I Get Around” and “Keep ya head up”, which he had earlier produced with
Digital Underground. Late 1993, he acted in the basketball movie ‘Above The Rim’. 2-Pac
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. The sentence arrived after two
other high-profile incidents. Although Shakur was selling a large amount of records and
becoming known for his music and acting, he began to have serious run-ins with the law.
Before becoming a record artist he had no police record.
He was arrested in 1992 after he was involved in a fight that produced a stray bullet killing
A six-year-old bystander, the charges were later dismissed. In October of 1993, he was
charged with shooting two off-duty police officers in Atlanta. The charges were dismissed,
but the following month, he and two of his followers were charged with sexually abusing a
female fan. 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
recordings studio. Shakur was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on February 7,
1995. Later that month, Tupac Shakur began serving his sentence. He was in jail when his
third album, Me Against the World, was released in March. The record entered the charts
at number one, making 2-Pac the first artist to enjoy a number one record while serving a
prison sentence. While he was in prison, he accused the Notorious B.I.G., Puffy Combs,
Andre Harrell and his own close friend Randy “Stretch” Walker of masterminding his New
York shooting. Shakur only served eight months of his sentence, as Suge Knight, the
President of Death Row Records, arranged for parole and posted a $1.4 million bond for
the rapper. By the end of the year, 2-Pac was out of prison and working on his debut for
Death Row. On November 30 1995, one year after the New York shooting, Walker was
killed in a gangland styled murder in Queens.
2-Pac’s Death Row debut, ‘All Eyez on Me’, was the first-double disc of original material
Hip-hop history. It went to number one upon its February release. 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 black comedy Gridlock’d which
also starred Tim Roth. He also made some recordings for Death Row, which was quickly
Disintegrating without Dr. Dre as the house producer, and as Knight became heavily
involved in illegal activities. At the time of his murder in September 1996, there were
indications that Shakur was considering leaving Death Row, and maybe even rap, behind.
These theories will remain mysterious just as those reasons behind his shooting. Shakur
was shot in the Las Vegas strip as he was riding in the passenger seat of Knight’s car.
They had just seen the Mike Tyson Vs Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand, and as they
were leaving the hotel, 2-Pac got into a fight with an unnamed young black man. This is
suggested to be the cause of 2-Pac’s shooting, however, there has also been a number of
other suggestions including Knight having used his ties with the mob and to gangs to
arrange the shooting and also the theory that the Notorious B.I.G. arranged the shooting
as retaliation for 2-Pac’s comments that he slept with Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans. Either
way, Shakur was shot four times and he was admitted to University of Nevada Medical
Centre. Six days later, he died from his wounds.
Hundreds of mourners appeared at the hospital upon news of his death, and the entire
entertainment industry mourned his passing, especially since there were no leads on his
death. Many believed his death would end the much-hyped East Coast-West Coast rivalry
and decrease Black-on-Black violence.
Sadly, six months after his death, his rival the Notorious B.I.G. was murdered in similar
circumstances. Shakur’s violent reputation only increased in the wake of his death and a
series of album releases followed, among them was the album ‘Don Killuminati: The 7 Day
Theory’, issued under the alias ‘Makaveli’. The last album to be released after his death
was ‘Greatest Hits’, which included tracks from all of his past albums, including his early
Tracks which he did with Digital Underground.
