Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in New York City, but his mother Afeni couldn’t shield him from every problem. They were often broke, and his stepfather went underground, landing on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Tupac’s refuge was short-lived, but it was in those tough times that he met some of the most important people in his life, including a woman who would remain significant until the end. He even wrote his first rap song under the name MC New York, earning a measure of respect.
Tupac never lost touch with Mutulu, and they stayed connected throughout his life. He later recorded with Raw Fusion and rapped again with Digital Underground on their second album, Sons of the Pee. His acting talent caught the attention of industry professionals; critic Peter Travers called him the film’s most magnetic figure in his review of Juice for Rolling Stone. His sophomore album produced two number-one hits, but his time on set was mixed.
The film had mixed reviews, but critics and fans seemed to enjoy Tupac’s performance. The movie had sad parts and could be abrasive due to the rough language and subject matter, but Tupac stayed out of trouble. However, after a fight with two off-duty officers, he shot both—one in the leg, one in the butt. This led to growing legal bills, negative press, and canceled shows.
A producer offered him $7,000 for a job, but he assumed the people were security for the notorious B. I. Then, two men forced him and his friends to the floor. One searched him, taking $40,000 in jewelry, and stuck a gun into his stomach before pulling the trigger.
The only other wounded party was accidentally hit by a bullet that had passed through Pac’s leg. Despite the danger, Tupac didn’t hide out for long. Soon after his jailing, his album Me Against the World was released, making him the only artist with a number-one album while serving a prison sentence. In prison, he went through withdrawals from stopping weed, but he and his co-defendants denied all allegations.
Old-school New York rappers criticized the West Coast for overusing sampling, but Tupac felt his poetry addressed the same issues, though not everyone understood. One month after releasing All Eyes on Me, East and West literally battled as members of Death Row and Bad Boy Records clashed after the Soul Train Awards, with guns drawn. By April 1996, All Eyes on Me had gone quintuple platinum, and Tupac headed back to jail for four months for refusing road cleanup as part of his parole. But for the moment, he and Snoop were filming the video for “2 of Americaz Most Wanted,” which Tupac directed.
He said, “We all move as one cuz death row. 2 of Americaz Most Wanted was written when Snoop’s murder trial was beginning and my jail sentence had ended. You can take one of us, but you can’t take both of us. ” The video depicted Biggie and Puffy getting punished for setting up Tupac.
Then, on September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot in Las Vegas. No one got the man’s name. He may have left us, but Pac still has a lot to say. His posthumous albums—Gridlocked, Bullet, and Gang Related—were released.
Two months after his death, Death Row released his first posthumous album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The most popular theory presumes Tupac is still alive, maybe in Cuba with his aunt. A police chief said, “I provided the chief with enough information and evidence that would warrant a full probe, and at that meeting I was ordered not to investigate any further. ” This announcement followed news that a federal probe had reopened its investigation into Tupac’s 1994 ambush at Quad Studios.
The Outlaws only revealed that the pair were half brothers after their demise. Tupac’s professional recording career spanned just five short years. In 2001, his recordings with his first Oakland group, Strictly Dope, were released as Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes. More projects are underway, including the Makaveli clothing line, upcoming videos from unseen footage, unreleased tracks, and his sister’s clothing line for women.
He wrote, “I will die before my time because I feel the shadow’s depth. Stay fresh when I’m strolling. A circle the cipher brings the light through tag walls with names. I stay focused.
” His legacy lives on, even decades later.
