Tupac Shakur: The Rose That Grew From The Concrete

"I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world but I guarantee I will spark the brain that will change the world". 

                                          Tupac Shakur

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. He is widely considered one of the most influential and successful rappers of all time. Shakur is among the best selling music artists having sold more than 75million records worldwide. Much of Tupac's music has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities.

Tupac was born on June 16, 1971 in East Harlem Upper Manhattan, New York City. While born Lesane Parish Crooks, at age one he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur. He was named after Tupac Amaru 11, the descendant of the last Incan ruler who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his failed revolt against Spanish rule.

Tupac's mother Afeni Shakur explained "I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary indigenious people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood". Tupac had an older stepbrother Mompreme Komani Shakur and a half sister Sekyiwa Shakur two years his junior.

Tupac's parents Afeni Shakur born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina and his biological father William Billy Garland, had been active Black Panther Party members in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A month before Tupac's birth, his mother 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 Panther's Black Liberation Army were convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned, including Tupac's step father Mutulu Shakur who spent four years among the FBI'S Ten most wanted fugitives. Mutulu Shakur was aprehended in 1986 and subsequently convicted for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armoured truck, during which police officers and a guard were killed.

Tupac's godfather Elmer Geronimo Pratt, a high ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery. After spending 27 years in prison, his conviction was overturned due to the prosecution's having concealed evidence that proved his innocence. Tupac's godmother Assata Shakur is a former member of the Black Liberation Army who was convicted of the first degree murder of a New Jersey State Trooper and is still wanted by the FBI.

In the 1980s, Tupac's mother found it difficult to find work and she struggled with drug addiction. In 1984, his family moved from New York City to Baltimore Maryland. He attended eight grade at Roland Park Middle School, then ninth grade at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. He transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts in the tenth grade where 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 Bullet. At the Baltimore School for the Arts Shakur befriended actress Jada Pinkett, who became a subject of some of his poems.

                  MUSIC CAREER

      With the release of his debut album 2pacalypse Now in 1991, he became a central figure in West Coast hip-hop for his conscious rap lyrics. Tupac 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). His Diamond certified album All Eyez On Me (1996), the first double length album in hip-hop history, abandoned his introspective lyrics for volatile gangsta rap.

In addition to his music career, Tupac also found considerable success as an actor with his staring roles in Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), Above the Rim (1994), Bullet(1996), Gridlock'd (1997), and Gang Related (1997).

During the later part of his career, career was shot five times in the lobby of a New York recording studio and experienced legal troubles including incarceration. Tupac served eight months in prison on sexual abuse charges but was released pending an appeal of his conviction in 1995. Following his release, he signed to Marion Suge Knight's label Death Row Records and became heavily involved in the growing East Coast - West Coast hip-hop rivalry.

On September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot four times by an unidentified assailant in a drive by shooting in Las Vegas; he died six days later. Following his murder Shakur's friend turned rival, the Notorious Big was first considered a suspect due to their public feud; he was also murdered in another drive-by shooting six months later in March 1997 while visiting Los Angeles.

     Tupac's double length posthumous album Greatest hits (1998) is one of his two releases and one of only nine hip-hop albums to have been certified Diamond in the United States. Five more albums have been released since Tupac's death, including his critically acclaimed posthumous album The Don Killumunati The 7 Day Theory (1996) under his stage name Makaveli, all of which have been certified Platinum in the United States.

In 2002, Tupac 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 ranked Tupac among the 100 Greatest Artists of all time. In 2023, he was awarded a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tupac died six days later after he was shot in Las Vegas. It was said that he wrote 3-5 songs a day. Incredible. He was indeed a workaholic. His life was somehow complicated in that he faced a lot of legal troubles during his life time. A motivational rapper. 

What he brought to Hip Hop was a level of rawness and a poetic drive in the way he delivered his words. He had a level of self empowerment that made people want to listen to what he had to say. 

Even today you could fly anywhere and surely there'd be someone who knows Tupac Shakur. He died on September 13, 1996, at the age of 25.

9 Platinum albums, 7 posthumous albums, 75 million records sold, 713 songs and 7 movies, all by the age of 25.

                       RIP  LEGEND