2pac biography

Tupac Shakur

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

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Latest News: Man Charged with the Murder of Tupac Shakur

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former member of the Crips street gang, was arrested and indicted on one count of murder on September 29, 2023, for his role in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. Davis previously claimed in 2018 that he was inside the car from which the fatal shots against Shakur were fired, but that the gun was in the hands of his now-deceased nephew Orlando Anderson. Davis was indicted by a grand jury in Clark County, Nevada, and is in custody, according to prosecutors. The arrest comes after the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department executed a search warrant at a home in Henderson, Nevada, in July 2023, in connection with the rapper’s unsolved murder.

Who Was Tupac Shakur?

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

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

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

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

afeni shakur looks to her left off camera in this black and white photo, she is holding a film camera and wears glasses on her head and a turtle neck and vest

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

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

tupac shakur and two friends post for a photo, tupac is in the middle and holds some cash in one hand

Friendship with Jada Pinkett-Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

tupac shakur wearing no shirt and jeans, and a bandana on his head, singing into a microphone on a darkened stage

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

2Pacalypse Now

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

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

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

Me Against the World

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

All Eyez On Me

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

Posthumous Albums

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a black and white photo of the notorious big standing next to a car parked on a city street, rolling a cigar, with several people in the background looking at the camera

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

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

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

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

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

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

tupac shakur, wearing a white sweater and blue bandana, and madonna, wearing a pink see through shirt, sit at a table with several bottles of alcohol and glasses of water, speaking with raquel welch, who wears a black sleeveless shirt

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

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

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

black car in which rapper tupac shakur was fatally shot by unknown driveby assassins as he was riding w friend death row records pres marion suge knight, who survived shooting, behind police tape at crime scene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tupac Conspiracies: Is Tupac Alive?

a mural of tupac shakur on a brick wall, with the words live by the gun die by the gun around it, along with stop the violence, and rip tupac shakur

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

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

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

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

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

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Tupac Shakur

Born June 16 , 1971 · East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Died September 13 , 1996 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (homicide)
Birth name Lesane Parish Crooks
Height 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith . His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. In the same year he received individual recognition for his album "2Pacalypse Now," but this album was also the beginning of his notoriety as a leading figure of the gangster permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His solo movie career also began in this year with Juice (1992) , and in 1992 he co-starred with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993) . However, law confrontations were soon to come: A 15-day jail term in 1994 for assault and battery and, in 1995, a conviction for sexual assault of a female fan. After serving 8 months pending an appeal, Shakur was released from jail. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bruce Cameron <[email protected]>
Notorious 25-year-old gangsta MC and actor Tupac Shakur was shot and killed before he had a chance to fulfill the promise of a successful career in both fields. He was born in New York City and his mother, Afeni Shakur , was a member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur spent much of his youth in Harlem, then Baltimore, Maryland. In 1988 his family moved to Oakland, California, where he first gained notice as an MC in 1991 with the group Digital Underground. Later that year, he released a solo album, "2Pacalypse Now." Filled with violent lyrics that promoted cop killing and misogyny, it earned both notoriety and acclaim for fans of the genre. Shakur began his acting career in the late 1980s with an appearance on the television series A Different World (1987) . He made his feature film debut in 1992 with the film Juice (1992) and followed it up, co-starring with Janet Jackson , in Poetic Justice (1993) in 1993. Shakur had a certain charisma that always made him stand out in his films. This was especially true in Gridlock'd (1997) which proved that the versatile young artist had the makings of being a major star. Unfortunately, he was murdered during a drive-by shooting outside a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel a few months before its release. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Gilbert Lee
Tupac Amaru Shakur (born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur sold over 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His double-disc albums All Eyez on Me (1996) and his Greatest Hits (1998) are among the best-selling albums in the United States. Shakur is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, and he has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of any genre by many publications, including Rolling Stone, which ranked him 86th on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On April 7, 2017, Shakur was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground, eventually branching off as a solo artist. Most of the themes in Shakur's songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social issues. Both of his parents and several other people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. During the latter part of his career, Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, becoming involved in conflicts with other rappers, producers, and record-label staff members, most notably The Notorious B.I.G. and his label, Bad Boy Records. Aside from his career in music, Shakur was also an actor, starring in six films and one TV show in the 1990s, including Poetic Justice (1993), Gang Related (1997) and Gridlock'd (1997). On September 7, 1996, Shakur was fatally shot four times in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was taken to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died from his injuries six days later. Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, into an African-American family in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks. The following year, he was renamed after Túpac Amaru II, the 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary who was executed after leading an indigenous uprising against Spanish rule. His parents, Afeni Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina) and Billy Garland, were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 trial. Many people in Shakur's life were involved with the Black Liberation Army; some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, had been convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was later overturned. His stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his friend (no relation) Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), Tupac's godmother, to escape from a penitentiary in New Jersey in 1979. She had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for several years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and eventually convicted and sentenced to prison for the 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior. Mopreme performed in many of his recordings. In 1986, the family moved from New York to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Shakur transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts. There he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker. Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beat box, won many rap competitions and was considered to be the best rapper in his school. He was remembered as one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix with all crowds. Shakur developed a close friendship with Jada Pinkett Smith that lasted until his death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life." Pinkett Smith calls him "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime." A poem written by Shakur titled "Jada" appears in his book, The Rose That Grew from Concrete, which also includes a poem dedicated to Pinkett Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes." During his time in art school, Shakur became affiliated with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA. He began dating the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Shakur and his family moved from Baltimore to Marin City, California, a small unincorporated suburban community located 5 miles north of San Francisco. He attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley. Before using his first name as his rap name, Shakur went by the alias MC New York when starting his career in Baltimore. Although Shakur began recording in 1987, his professional entertainment career did not take off until the early 1990s when he debuted in Digital Underground's "Same Song" from the soundtrack to the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, and also appeared with the group in the film. The song was later released as the lead song of the Digital Underground extended play (EP) This Is an EP Release, the follow-up to their debut hit album Sex Packets. Shakur appeared in the accompanying music video. After his rap debut, he performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons of the P. Shakur went on to feature Shock G and Money-B from Digital Underground in his track "I Get Around", which ranked #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In November 1991, Shakur released his debut solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Though the album did not generate any hit singles, 2Pacalypse Now has been acclaimed by many critics and fans for its underground feel, with many rappers such as Nas, Eminem, Game, and Talib Kweli having pointed to it as inspiration. Although the album was originally released on Interscope Records, the rights to its distribution are now owned by Amaru Entertainment, the label owned by Shakur's mother. The album's name is a reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke (Tyruss Himes), Macadoshis (Diron Rivers), his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and the Rated R (Walter Burns). The group released their only album Thug Life: Volume 1 on September 26, 1994, which went gold. The album featured the single "Pour Out a Little Liquor", produced by Johnny "J" Jackson, who went on to produce a large part of Shakur's album All Eyez on Me. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur. The album was originally released by Shakur's label Out Da Gutta Records, though Amaru Entertainment has since gained the rights to it. Among the notable tracks are "Bury Me a G", "Cradle to the Grave", "Pour Out a Little Liquor" (which also appears on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Above the Rim), "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" and "Str8 Ballin'". As a result of criticism of gangsta rap at the time, the original version of the album was scrapped and re-recorded with many of the original songs being cut. The album contains ten tracks because Interscope Records felt many of the other recorded songs were too controversial to release. Although the original version of the album was not completed, Shakur performed the planned first single from the album, "Out on Bail" at the 1994 Source Awards. Thug Life: Volume 1 was certified Gold. The track "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" later appeared on 2Pac's posthumous Greatest Hits album. Shakur's third album, Me Against The World, was released in March 1995 and was very well-received, with many calling it the magnum opus of his career. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time. It is Shakur's fourth-best-selling album with 3,524,567 copies sold in the United States as of 2011. Me Against the World won best rap album at the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards. All Eyez On Me was the fourth studio album by 2Pac, recorded in October 1995 and released on February 13, 1996, by Death Row Records and Interscope Records. The album is frequently recognized as one of the crowning achievements of 1990s rap music. Steve Huey of AllMusic stated that "despite some undeniable filler, it is easily the best production 2Pac's ever had on record". It was certified 5× Platinum after just 2 months in April 1996 and 9× platinum in 1998. The album featured the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "How Do U Want It" and "California Love". It featured five singles in all, the most of any 2Pac album. Moreover, All Eyez on Me (which was the only Death Row release to be distributed through PolyGram by way of Island Records) made history as the first double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released for mass consumption. It was issued on two compact discs and four LPs. Chartwise, All Eyez on Me was the second album from 2Pac to hit number one on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. It sold 566,000 copies in the first week of its release and was charted in the top 100 for one-week Soundscan sales since 1991. By the end of 1996, the album had sold 5 million copies. The album won the 1997 Soul Train R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year Award. Shakur also won the Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist at the 24th Annual American Music Awards. In October 1995, Shakur was released from prison after serving nine months of a sentence for sexual assault and formed a new group called Outlaw Immortalz. Shakur joined the Death Row label, under which he released the single "California Love". On February 13, 1996, Shakur released his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me. This double album was the first and second of his three-album commitment to Death Row Records. It sold more than nine million copies. The record was a general departure from the introspective subject matter of Me Against the World, being more oriented toward a thug and gangsta mentality. Shakur continued his recordings despite increasing problems at the Death Row label. Dr. Dre left his post as in-house producer to form his own label, Aftermath. Shakur continued to produce hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which would be released on his posthumous albums Still I Rise, Until the End of Time, Better Dayz, Loyal to the Game and Pac's Life. He also began the process of recording an album, One Nation, with the New York-based Boot Camp Clik and their label Duck Down Records. On June 4, 1996, he and Outlawz released the diss track "Hit 'Em Up", a scathing lyrical assault on The Notorious B.I.G. and others associated with him. In the track, Shakur claimed to have had sexual intercourse with Faith Evans, the wife of Wallace, Shakur's former friend and rival, and attacked Bad Boy's street credibility. Shakur was convinced that some members associated with Bad Boy had known about the 1994 attack on him due to their behavior that night and the information that his sources gave to him. According to a 2005 interview with Jimmy Henchman, in Vibe magazine, after the attack, Shakur immediately accused Henchman, an associate of Bad Boy CEO Sean Combs, of orchestrating the attack. Shakur, therefore, aligned himself with Suge, Death Row's CEO, who was already bitter toward Combs over a 1995 incident at the Platinum Club in Atlanta, Georgia, which culminated in the death of Jake Robles, the friend and bodyguard of Suge Knight; Knight was adamant in voicing his suspicions about Combs' involvement. In the years following their killings, associates of both Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. made comments indicating the pair, were it not for their deaths, would have reconciled. When Shakur recorded "Hit 'Em Up", a diss song toward Biggie, he recruited three members from the former group, Dramacydal, with whom he had worked previously and was eager to do so again. Shakur, with the three New Jersey rappers and other associates, formed the original lineup of the Outlawz. When 2Pac signed to Death Row after his release from prison, he recruited step brother Mopreme Shakur and Big Syke from Thug Life. Hussein Fatal, Napoleon, E.D.I. Mean, Kastro, Yaki Kadafi, and Storm (the only female Outlaw) were also added, and together they formed the original lineup of the Outlaw Immortalz that debuted on 2Pac's Multi-Platinum smash All Eyez on Me. They later dropped the Immortal part of their name after the untimely deaths of 2Pac and Yaki Kadafi and moved on as Outlawz without the members of Thug Life. Young Noble was later added and appeared on 2Pac's second Death Row release The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. It was on 2Pac's Makaveli album that Outlawz first came to the greater rap community's notice, appearing on a few songs. The idea behind the group was for each member to have a rap name coinciding with the names of various tyrants or enemies of America, past, and present. Outlawz chose in later years to make a backronym out of the letters of their group name Operating Under Thug Laws as Warriorz although it does not stand for the group's name and is used infrequently. - IMDb Mini Biography By: ahmetkozan
Spouse Keisha Morris (April 29, 1995 - 1996) (annulled)
Parents Afeni Shakur Billy Garland Mutulu Shakur
Relatives Sekyiwa Shakur (Half Sibling) Mopreme Shakur (Sibling) Nzingha Shakur (Niece or Nephew) Malik Shakur (Niece or Nephew) Billy Lesane (Cousin) Greg Lesane (Cousin) Kenny Lesane (Cousin) Scott Lesane (Cousin) Dante Powers (Cousin) Rose Belle (Grandparent) Walter Williams Jr. (Grandparent) N'Neka Garland (Half Sibling) Gloria Cox (Aunt or Uncle) Jamala Lesane (Cousin)
Socially conscious lyrics
Shaved head and goatee
'Thug Life' tattoo across stomach
Wearing a bandana tied at the front
Nostril piercing
Recorded close to 150 songs during the final year of his life, and often completed three songs per day in the same period. Shakur also wrote lyrics in the studio and often performed his verses in one take. He felt that rappers who could not perform their verses properly on the first take weren't ready to be rappers. R&B music, on the other hand, was worthy of multiple takes for the vocal tracks, he felt.
He read for the role of Bubba Blue in Forrest Gump (1994) , which went to Mykelti Williamson .
10 albums have been released after his 1996 death; all have gone platinum.
Shakur renamed his publishing company to "Joshua's Dream" in honor of a young, terminally ill child whose dying wish was to meet him.
A huge fan of Tim Roth , Shakur was excited when he found out he was going to be in a movie with Roth. However, Roth didn't like the idea of a rapper being in the movie with him, as he didn't know he was an actor before he became a rapper. Roth's attitude changed, when they tested together and the two were very good friends until Shakur's death.
Everybody's at war with different things...I'm at war with my own heart sometimes". In Vibe interview 2/96
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else.
I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.

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Tupac shakur (1971-1996).

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

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

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

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

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

OLD PAGINATION BELOW

FAMOUS AFRICAN AMERICANS

Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur (also known by his stage name of 2Pac) was legendary rap and hip-hop musician. He was born in New York City in 1971 to Billy Garland and Afeni Shakur, both activists of a revolutionary black nationalist organization named “Black Panthers”. His name, Tupac Amaru Shakur, means “shining serpent”. His mother was in jail when she was expecting Tupac, but she was later acquitted of all charges. His father was largely absent from his life. He grew up in the Bronx and Harlem, where he faced the grim realities of gang life, violence, drugs and sexual abuse at an early age. He joined a theater company by the name of 127th Street Ensemble, where he learned to act.

He also attended the Baltimore School for the Arts where he learned ballet and other forms of dance. As a teenager, he moved with his family to the West Coast where he joined the hip-hop and rap group Digital Underground. He recorded two albums with them, that is, “This is an E.P.” and “Sons of the P” before leaving the group to go solo. In 1991, he was signed by the label “Interscope Records” and shortly released his debut album “Tupacalypse Now”. Although, it did not make it to the Top 10 charts, it definitely helped him to make his presence felt. In fact, this album has been quoted by many famous rappers to be their inspiration, including Eminem and Nas . The album had a very real, underground feel to it and included the hit single “Brenda’s Got a Baby”.

His second studio album was released in February 1993 and titled “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.”. The album debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and the deep, meaningful and sometimes excessively profane lyrics were both the subject of praise, as well as controversy. Tupac spoke of his political and social views in his songs, and described the thug life he used to live. The album was commercially successful, and achieved Platinum status. Tupac also formed the group “Thug Life” with some of his friends. The group released one album called “Thug Life: Volume 1” which achieved Gold status. Tupac’s third album, “Me Against The World” became a huge hit and is regarded by some critics as his best work. It sold more than 3.5 million copies in the U.S. and won the award for best rap album at the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards.

Tupac’s fourth studio album, titled “All Eyez on Me” was released in February 1996 by Death Row Records and Interscope Records. This was his best selling album, achieving 9X Platinum status. This was his second album to reach No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, and won the 1997 Soul Train “R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year Award” as well as the Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist at the American Music Awards. His final studio album was called “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” and released posthumously under Tupac’s new stage name “Makaveli”. The writing, recording and production of the album took 7 days to complete. In addition to his music career, Tupac appeared in several films such as “Nothing but Trouble”, “Juice”, “Poetic Justice”, “Above the Rim”, “Bullet”, “Gridlock’d” and Gang “Related”.

Tupac was involved in countless legal brawls. 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 the label Bad Boy Records. In November 1994, Tupac was himself attacked and shot 5 times at Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. He underwent surgery and discharged himself three hours later to appear in court for a previous case. The court decided that he was guilty of first degree sexual abuse and sentenced to between 1.5 and 4.5 years in prison. He served his sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility in February 1995, and was in prison when his album “Me Against the World” reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts. He was bailed out after 9 months by Suge Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records. On September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot and fatally wounded by a member of a violent gang from California. He died 5 days later and amongst the suspects was Notorious B.I.G., who denied any knowledge of the shooting. Tupac was 25 years old at the time of his death. No arrests were made in the matter due to lack of evidence but in September 2011, Dexter Isaac admitted to the shooting.

Tupac was very well read and enjoyed the works of Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, J. D. Salinger, Hermann Hesse, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Khalil Gibran, to name a few. His music shows the influence of these authors and his work in turn influenced countless others rappers. He has been included in several all time greatest lists such as Rolling Stone magazine’s named him No. 86 on the “100 Immortal Artists of All Time” list and 69th on the VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time list. Several of his works were released posthumously and also went on to become best sellers. Tupac has album sales in excess of 75 million which make him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Even almost two decades after his death, he remains one of the most influential and talked about rappers.