[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Eleven years ago on Sept 13th 1996, Tupac died in Las Vegas.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Tupac Shakur, born June 16, 1971, was renowned for his rap music, movie roles, poetry, and his social activism. He is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-selling hip-hop artist, with over seventy-five million albums sold worldwide. Most of Shakur's songs were about growing up around violence and the hard life of ghettos, racism, problems in society, and sometimes qualms with other fellow rappers. Shakur's work is known for advocating political, economic, social, and racial equality as well as his raw descriptions of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and conflicts with the law.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Shakur's debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, gained critical recognition and backlash for its controversial lyrics. Shakur became the target of lawsuits and experienced other legal problems. Later, Shakur was shot five times in a recording studio lobby in Manhattan and was robbed. Following the incident, Shakur grew suspicious that other figures in the rap industry had prior knowledge of the shooting and did not warn him; the controversy would help spark the East Coast - West Coast hip hop rivalry. After serving eleven months of his sentence, Shakur was released from prison on an appeal financed byMarion "Suge" Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records. In exchange for Suge's assistance, Shakur agreed to release three records under the Death Row label. Shakur's fifth album, the first double-disc release in hip hop history All Eyez on Me, counted as two albums. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and died six days later of respiratory failure and Cardiac arrest at the Universty Medical Center, Las Vegas.
Túpac Amaru Shakur was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Incan revolutionary who led a Peruvian uprising against Spain and was subsequently sentenced to death. "Shakur" comes from the Arabic word thankful (to God). His mother, Afeni Shakur, was an active member of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Shakur 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. Although officially unconfirmed by the Shakur family, several sources list his birth name as either "Parish Lesane Crooks" or "Lesane Parish Crooks". Afeni supposedly feared her enemies would attack her son, and disguised their relation using a different last name, only to change it three months or a year later, following her marriage to Mutulu Shakur.
[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Struggle and incarceration surrounded Túpac from an early age. Shakur's 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 Shakur, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982, when Túpac was a pre-teen. Mutulu was wanted in part for having helped his sister Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), Túpac's godmother, to escape from prison in New Jersey, where she had been incarcerated for allegedly shooting a state trooper to death in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for an attempted robbery of a Brinks armored car in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Túpac had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older step-brother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared on many of his recordings. I wonder how much this family suffered because of their courage and political activism, and if our government was involved in some way in efforts to put these activists behind bars.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Shakur 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 police. In one incident, a young man claimed his killing of a Texas trooper was inspired 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 album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. Heavily produced by Stretch and the Live Squad, the album generated two hits, "Keep Ya Head Up" and "I Get Around", the latter featuring guest appearances by members of the Digital Underground.
[/FONT] Acting career
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In addition to rapping, Shakur acted in films. He made his first film appearance in the 1991 film Nothing But Trouble, as part of a cameo by Digital Underground. His first starring role was in the 1992 movie juice> as Bishop, a trigger happy teen, for which he was hailed by Rolling Stone's Peter Travers as "the film's most magnetic figure." He went on to star in Poetic Justice (with Janet Jackson) and Above the Rim. After his death in 1996, three of his completed films Bullet, Gridlock'd, and Gang Related were posthumously released.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]He had also been slated to star in the Hughes brothers' Menace II Society but was replaced by Larenz Tate after assaulting the directors. Director John Singleton claimed that he wrote the film Baby Boy with Shakur in mind for the leading role. It was eventually filmed with Tyrese Gibson in his place and released in 2001, five years after Shakur's death. The movie features a mural of Shakur in the protagonist's bedroom as well as featuring "Hail Mary" in the movie's score.[/FONT]
Thug Life
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke, Macadoshis, his step-brother Mopreme Shakur, and Rated R. The group released their first and only album Thug Life Vol. 1. on September 26, 1994. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur.
[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The concept of "Thug Life" was viewed by Shakur as a philosophy for life. Shakur 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 themselves and were proud.
[/FONT] Legal issues
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Even as he garnered fame as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law. In October 1991, he filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him over a jaywalking incident. The suit was later settled for $42,000.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In October 1993, in Atlanta, Georgia, Shakur shot two off-duty police officers (one in the leg, one in the buttocks) who were harassing a black motorist. Charges against Shakur were dismissed when it was discovered that both officers were intoxicated and were in possession of stolen weapons from an evidence locker during the incident.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In December 1993, Shakur was charged with sexually abusing a woman in his hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur sodomized the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur vehemently denied the charges. He had prior relations days earlier with the woman who was pressing the charges against him. She performed oral sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had sex in his hotel room. The allegations were made after she revisited his hotel room for the second time where she engaged in sexual activity with his friends and claimed Shakur's entourage had gang-raped her, saying to him while leaving, "How could you do this to me?" Shakur stated he had fallen asleep shortly after she arrived and later awoke to her accusations and legal threats. He later said he felt guilty for leaving her alone and did not want anyone else to go to jail, but at the same time he did not want to go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Shakur was convicted of "sexual abuse (forcibly touching the buttocks)". In sentencing Shakur to one-and-a-half years in prison, the judge described the crime as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman".[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In 1994, he was convicted of attacking a former employer while on a music video set. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail with additional days on a highway work crew, community service, and a $2,000 fine. In 1995, a wrongful death lawsuit was brought against Shakur for a 1992 shooting that left Qa'id Walker-Teal, a six-year old of Marin City, California dead. The child had been the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout between Shakur's entourage and a rival group, though the ballistics tests proved the bullet was not from any members Shakur's entourage's guns. Criminal charges were not sought, and Shakur settled with the family for an amount estimated between $300,000 and $500,000. After serving part of his sentence on the sexual abuse conviction, he was released on bail pending his appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of probation.[/FONT]
November 1994 shooting
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]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 in the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan by two black men in an apparent robbery attempt. He would later accuse Puff Daddy — whom he saw after the shooting — of setting him up. According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur was shot five times, twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital, against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. The day following the shooting, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of sexual abuse, but innocent of six others, including sodomy.
Prison sentence[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]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 is the only artist ever to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks. The album had first week sales of 240,000 copies which was the record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time. He married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, while serving his sentence. This marriage was later annulled. He also wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about a teenager who becomes a drug lord.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In October 1995, Shakur's case was on appeal but due to all of Shakur's legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. After serving eleven months of his one and a half year to four and a half year sentence, Shakur was released from prison, 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.
Makaveli[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]While in prison Shakur read and studied Niccolo Machiavelli and his works, which inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur 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).
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]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 album debuted at number one and sold 663,000 copies in the first week. Shakur had plans of starting Makaveli Records which would have included the Wu-Tang Clan, The Outlawz, Big Daddy Kane, Big Syke, and Gang Starr.
[/FONT] September 1996 shooting
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]On September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After the boxing match, Shakur spotted twenty-one year-old Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the Southside Crips in the MGM Grand lobby. Shakur rushed him and knocked Anderson down, and Shakur's entourage beat him. The incident was captured on the hotel's video surveillance. Anderson and a group of Crips had beaten up a member of Death Row's entourage in a Foot Locker store a few weeks earlier, precipitating Shakur's attack. After the fight with Anderson, Shakur rendezvous with Suge Knight to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). Shakur rode with Knight in Knight's 1996 black BMW 750i sedan as part of a larger convoy of cars including some of Shakur's friends, The Outlawz, and bodyguards.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]At 10:55 p.m., while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took their picture. At about 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, which were then found in the trunk of Knight's vehicle and he was not fined, being released a few minutes later. At approximately 11:10 p.m., while stopped by a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle accompanied by two women pulled over to an intersection on the right side of Shakur, whom was standing up through the sunroof, and exchanged words with the two women further inviting them to go to Club 662. At approximately 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model, Cadillac turned over to Shakur's side and rapidly fired thirteen shots; Shakur was shot several times in a drive-by shooting, being struck by four bullets out of the thirteen fired at him; he was hit twice in the chest, and once each in his left arm and thigh. Knight was grazed in the head by shrapnel, though some sources claim that a bullet grazed him. According to Knight, a bullet from the gunfire had been lodged in his skull, which medical reports later contradicted.
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]At the time of the shooting, Shakur was riding alongside with Suge Knight, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Suge 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 shootings, 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.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Shakur and Knight to the University Medical Center. According to one of Shakur's closest friends and music video director Gobi, while at the hospital he received news that the shooters were sending death threats aimed at Shakur; one of Death Row's marketing employees received a call from the shooters, who told him they were coming to the hospital to kill Shakur and upon hearing this, he immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police were understaffed and no one could be sent. [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Although the shooters never came to the hospital, Shakur was later placed on life support until his death six days later, on September 13, 1996, at 4:03 p.m. at the age of twenty-five. The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. After his death, Shakur's body was cremated. His ashes were spread over Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean, Shakur's aunt's land, and his mother's land in North Carolina, and some was mixed with cannabis and smoked by The Outlawz. Family and friends plan to spread the remaining ashes during a ceremony in Soweto, South Africa. The ceremony was delayed from September 13, 2006 to June 16, 2007, which would have been Shakur's 36th birthday.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Wallace's family and associates have vehemently denied Wallace's involvement in Shakur's death. In support of their claims, Wallace's family submitted documentation to MTV indicating that Wallace was working in a New York recording studio the night of Shakur's murder. Wallace's manager Wayne Barrow and rapper James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Wallace's involvement in the murder and claiming further that they were both with Wallace in the recording studio the night of the shooting.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made the documentary film Biggie & Tupac which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those close to Wallace, Shakur, and the investigation. Shakur's close childhood friend and member of The Outlawz, Yafeu "Yaki Kadafi" Fula, was in the convoy when the shooting happened and indicated to police that he might be able to identify the assailants. He was killed shortly thereafter in a housing project in Irvington, New Jersey.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In the first few seconds of the song "Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply)" on the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur can be heard saying "Shoulda shot me." Many theorists mistook the statement as "Suge shot me" or "Suge shot 'em" until confirmation by multiple audio tests and confirmation from members of The Outlawz. This, along with reports of Knight's strong-arm tactics with artists and other illegal business tactics including involvement with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang gave rise to a theory that Knight was complicit in Shakur's murder, as it was reported that Suge Knight owed Tupac up to seventeen million dollars in back royalties, but no evidence has been provided to support this theory.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Other theories have been put forth, including a conspiracy theory that Shakur is alive and well, but in hiding. Many supporters of these theories point to the symbolism in Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album and in the video for the single "I Ain't Mad at Cha". Efforts exposing these conspiracy theories include 2Pac Lives: The Death of Makaveli / The Resurrection of Tupac Amaru (Volume 1) released in 2005.
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]A new DVD, titled, [/FONT]Tupac Revelation[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] was be released on September 7, 2007, eleven years after the shooting. It will explore the murder and provide new information about the murder case with the help of Shakur's bodyguard, Frank Alexander. All I know is that it had to be about hate or money, and that's no reason to lose a life.[/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Tupac Shakur, born June 16, 1971, was renowned for his rap music, movie roles, poetry, and his social activism. He is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-selling hip-hop artist, with over seventy-five million albums sold worldwide. Most of Shakur's songs were about growing up around violence and the hard life of ghettos, racism, problems in society, and sometimes qualms with other fellow rappers. Shakur's work is known for advocating political, economic, social, and racial equality as well as his raw descriptions of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and conflicts with the law.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Shakur's debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, gained critical recognition and backlash for its controversial lyrics. Shakur became the target of lawsuits and experienced other legal problems. Later, Shakur was shot five times in a recording studio lobby in Manhattan and was robbed. Following the incident, Shakur grew suspicious that other figures in the rap industry had prior knowledge of the shooting and did not warn him; the controversy would help spark the East Coast - West Coast hip hop rivalry. After serving eleven months of his sentence, Shakur was released from prison on an appeal financed byMarion "Suge" Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records. In exchange for Suge's assistance, Shakur agreed to release three records under the Death Row label. Shakur's fifth album, the first double-disc release in hip hop history All Eyez on Me, counted as two albums. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and died six days later of respiratory failure and Cardiac arrest at the Universty Medical Center, Las Vegas.
Túpac Amaru Shakur was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Incan revolutionary who led a Peruvian uprising against Spain and was subsequently sentenced to death. "Shakur" comes from the Arabic word thankful (to God). His mother, Afeni Shakur, was an active member of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Shakur 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. Although officially unconfirmed by the Shakur family, several sources list his birth name as either "Parish Lesane Crooks" or "Lesane Parish Crooks". Afeni supposedly feared her enemies would attack her son, and disguised their relation using a different last name, only to change it three months or a year later, following her marriage to Mutulu Shakur.
[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Struggle and incarceration surrounded Túpac from an early age. Shakur's 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 Shakur, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982, when Túpac was a pre-teen. Mutulu was wanted in part for having helped his sister Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), Túpac's godmother, to escape from prison in New Jersey, where she had been incarcerated for allegedly shooting a state trooper to death in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for an attempted robbery of a Brinks armored car in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Túpac had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older step-brother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared on many of his recordings. I wonder how much this family suffered because of their courage and political activism, and if our government was involved in some way in efforts to put these activists behind bars.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's famous "127th Street. In 1984, his family relocated to Baltimore. After completing his second year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, and jazz. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in the role of the Mouse King in The Nutcracker. Túpac, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beatbox, won most of the many rap competitions that he participated in and was considered to be the best rapper in his school.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] Although he lacked trendy clothing, he was one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix in with all crowds. He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until Shakur's death. In the documentary Túpac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life," and Smith calls Shakur "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 Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes".A Raisin In The Sun. Ensemble." His first major role with this acting troupe was as Travis in "A Raisin In The Sun."[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved once again, this time to Marin City, California, where he met and befriended Leila Steinberg. In high school he joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in entertainment. His mother's crack addiction ultimately led him to move into Leila Steinberg's home in Oakland with his friend Ray Luv at the age of seventeen he eventually dropped out of school. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Shakur, an avid reader. Steinberg has kept copies of the books that Túpac 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 claimed that Shakur 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 Shakur's group, Strictly Dope. The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with Digital Underground. In 1990, he was hired as a back-up dancer and roadie for up-and-coming rap group Digital Underground.[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Shakur's professional entertainment career began in early 1991, when he debuted his rap skills on the single "Same Song" from the Digital Underground album This is an EP Release. Also in 1991, he appeared in the music video for "Same Song". In late 1991, after his rap debut, Tupac Shakur performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons Of The P. Later that year, 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.[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] Although he lacked trendy clothing, he was one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix in with all crowds. He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until Shakur's death. In the documentary Túpac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life," and Smith calls Shakur "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 Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes".A Raisin In The Sun. Ensemble." His first major role with this acting troupe was as Travis in "A Raisin In The Sun."[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved once again, this time to Marin City, California, where he met and befriended Leila Steinberg. In high school he joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in entertainment. His mother's crack addiction ultimately led him to move into Leila Steinberg's home in Oakland with his friend Ray Luv at the age of seventeen he eventually dropped out of school. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Shakur, an avid reader. Steinberg has kept copies of the books that Túpac 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 claimed that Shakur 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 Shakur's group, Strictly Dope. The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with Digital Underground. In 1990, he was hired as a back-up dancer and roadie for up-and-coming rap group Digital Underground.[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Shakur 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 police. In one incident, a young man claimed his killing of a Texas trooper was inspired 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 album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. Heavily produced by Stretch and the Live Squad, the album generated two hits, "Keep Ya Head Up" and "I Get Around", the latter featuring guest appearances by members of the Digital Underground.
[/FONT] Acting career
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In addition to rapping, Shakur acted in films. He made his first film appearance in the 1991 film Nothing But Trouble, as part of a cameo by Digital Underground. His first starring role was in the 1992 movie juice> as Bishop, a trigger happy teen, for which he was hailed by Rolling Stone's Peter Travers as "the film's most magnetic figure." He went on to star in Poetic Justice (with Janet Jackson) and Above the Rim. After his death in 1996, three of his completed films Bullet, Gridlock'd, and Gang Related were posthumously released.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]He had also been slated to star in the Hughes brothers' Menace II Society but was replaced by Larenz Tate after assaulting the directors. Director John Singleton claimed that he wrote the film Baby Boy with Shakur in mind for the leading role. It was eventually filmed with Tyrese Gibson in his place and released in 2001, five years after Shakur's death. The movie features a mural of Shakur in the protagonist's bedroom as well as featuring "Hail Mary" in the movie's score.[/FONT]
Thug Life
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke, Macadoshis, his step-brother Mopreme Shakur, and Rated R. The group released their first and only album Thug Life Vol. 1. on September 26, 1994. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur.
[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The concept of "Thug Life" was viewed by Shakur as a philosophy for life. Shakur 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 themselves and were proud.
[/FONT] Legal issues
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Even as he garnered fame as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law. In October 1991, he filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him over a jaywalking incident. The suit was later settled for $42,000.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In October 1993, in Atlanta, Georgia, Shakur shot two off-duty police officers (one in the leg, one in the buttocks) who were harassing a black motorist. Charges against Shakur were dismissed when it was discovered that both officers were intoxicated and were in possession of stolen weapons from an evidence locker during the incident.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In December 1993, Shakur was charged with sexually abusing a woman in his hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur sodomized the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur vehemently denied the charges. He had prior relations days earlier with the woman who was pressing the charges against him. She performed oral sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had sex in his hotel room. The allegations were made after she revisited his hotel room for the second time where she engaged in sexual activity with his friends and claimed Shakur's entourage had gang-raped her, saying to him while leaving, "How could you do this to me?" Shakur stated he had fallen asleep shortly after she arrived and later awoke to her accusations and legal threats. He later said he felt guilty for leaving her alone and did not want anyone else to go to jail, but at the same time he did not want to go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Shakur was convicted of "sexual abuse (forcibly touching the buttocks)". In sentencing Shakur to one-and-a-half years in prison, the judge described the crime as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman".[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In 1994, he was convicted of attacking a former employer while on a music video set. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail with additional days on a highway work crew, community service, and a $2,000 fine. In 1995, a wrongful death lawsuit was brought against Shakur for a 1992 shooting that left Qa'id Walker-Teal, a six-year old of Marin City, California dead. The child had been the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout between Shakur's entourage and a rival group, though the ballistics tests proved the bullet was not from any members Shakur's entourage's guns. Criminal charges were not sought, and Shakur settled with the family for an amount estimated between $300,000 and $500,000. After serving part of his sentence on the sexual abuse conviction, he was released on bail pending his appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of probation.[/FONT]
November 1994 shooting
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]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 in the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan by two black men in an apparent robbery attempt. He would later accuse Puff Daddy — whom he saw after the shooting — of setting him up. According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur was shot five times, twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital, against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. The day following the shooting, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of sexual abuse, but innocent of six others, including sodomy.
Prison sentence[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]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 is the only artist ever to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks. The album had first week sales of 240,000 copies which was the record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time. He married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, while serving his sentence. This marriage was later annulled. He also wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about a teenager who becomes a drug lord.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In October 1995, Shakur's case was on appeal but due to all of Shakur's legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. After serving eleven months of his one and a half year to four and a half year sentence, Shakur was released from prison, 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.
Makaveli[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]While in prison Shakur read and studied Niccolo Machiavelli and his works, which inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur 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).
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]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 album debuted at number one and sold 663,000 copies in the first week. Shakur had plans of starting Makaveli Records which would have included the Wu-Tang Clan, The Outlawz, Big Daddy Kane, Big Syke, and Gang Starr.
[/FONT] September 1996 shooting
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]On September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After the boxing match, Shakur spotted twenty-one year-old Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the Southside Crips in the MGM Grand lobby. Shakur rushed him and knocked Anderson down, and Shakur's entourage beat him. The incident was captured on the hotel's video surveillance. Anderson and a group of Crips had beaten up a member of Death Row's entourage in a Foot Locker store a few weeks earlier, precipitating Shakur's attack. After the fight with Anderson, Shakur rendezvous with Suge Knight to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). Shakur rode with Knight in Knight's 1996 black BMW 750i sedan as part of a larger convoy of cars including some of Shakur's friends, The Outlawz, and bodyguards.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]At 10:55 p.m., while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took their picture. At about 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, which were then found in the trunk of Knight's vehicle and he was not fined, being released a few minutes later. At approximately 11:10 p.m., while stopped by a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle accompanied by two women pulled over to an intersection on the right side of Shakur, whom was standing up through the sunroof, and exchanged words with the two women further inviting them to go to Club 662. At approximately 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model, Cadillac turned over to Shakur's side and rapidly fired thirteen shots; Shakur was shot several times in a drive-by shooting, being struck by four bullets out of the thirteen fired at him; he was hit twice in the chest, and once each in his left arm and thigh. Knight was grazed in the head by shrapnel, though some sources claim that a bullet grazed him. According to Knight, a bullet from the gunfire had been lodged in his skull, which medical reports later contradicted.
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]At the time of the shooting, Shakur was riding alongside with Suge Knight, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Suge 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 shootings, 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.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Shakur and Knight to the University Medical Center. According to one of Shakur's closest friends and music video director Gobi, while at the hospital he received news that the shooters were sending death threats aimed at Shakur; one of Death Row's marketing employees received a call from the shooters, who told him they were coming to the hospital to kill Shakur and upon hearing this, he immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police were understaffed and no one could be sent. [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Although the shooters never came to the hospital, Shakur was later placed on life support until his death six days later, on September 13, 1996, at 4:03 p.m. at the age of twenty-five. The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. After his death, Shakur's body was cremated. His ashes were spread over Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean, Shakur's aunt's land, and his mother's land in North Carolina, and some was mixed with cannabis and smoked by The Outlawz. Family and friends plan to spread the remaining ashes during a ceremony in Soweto, South Africa. The ceremony was delayed from September 13, 2006 to June 16, 2007, which would have been Shakur's 36th birthday.[/FONT]
Due largely to the perceived lack of progress on the case by law enforcement, many independent investigations and theories of the crime have emerged. Because of the acrimony between Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.) and Shakur, there was speculation from the outset about the possibility of Wallace's involvement in the murder. Wallace vehemently denied involvement. However, in a notable 2002 investigation by the Los Angeles Times, writer Chuck Phillips claimed to have uncovered evidence implicating Wallace, in addition to Anderson and the Southside Crips, in the murder. In the article, Phillips quoted unnamed gang-member sources who claimed Wallace had ties to the Crips, often hiring them for security during West Coast appearances. Phillips' informants also state that Wallace gave the gang members one of his own guns for use in the attack on Shakur, and that he put out a $1 million contract on Tupac's life. By the time Phillips' specific allegations were published, however, Wallace himself had been murdered.
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Wallace's family and associates have vehemently denied Wallace's involvement in Shakur's death. In support of their claims, Wallace's family submitted documentation to MTV indicating that Wallace was working in a New York recording studio the night of Shakur's murder. Wallace's manager Wayne Barrow and rapper James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Wallace's involvement in the murder and claiming further that they were both with Wallace in the recording studio the night of the shooting.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made the documentary film Biggie & Tupac which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those close to Wallace, Shakur, and the investigation. Shakur's close childhood friend and member of The Outlawz, Yafeu "Yaki Kadafi" Fula, was in the convoy when the shooting happened and indicated to police that he might be able to identify the assailants. He was killed shortly thereafter in a housing project in Irvington, New Jersey.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In the first few seconds of the song "Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply)" on the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur can be heard saying "Shoulda shot me." Many theorists mistook the statement as "Suge shot me" or "Suge shot 'em" until confirmation by multiple audio tests and confirmation from members of The Outlawz. This, along with reports of Knight's strong-arm tactics with artists and other illegal business tactics including involvement with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang gave rise to a theory that Knight was complicit in Shakur's murder, as it was reported that Suge Knight owed Tupac up to seventeen million dollars in back royalties, but no evidence has been provided to support this theory.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Other theories have been put forth, including a conspiracy theory that Shakur is alive and well, but in hiding. Many supporters of these theories point to the symbolism in Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album and in the video for the single "I Ain't Mad at Cha". Efforts exposing these conspiracy theories include 2Pac Lives: The Death of Makaveli / The Resurrection of Tupac Amaru (Volume 1) released in 2005.
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]A new DVD, titled, [/FONT]Tupac Revelation[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] was be released on September 7, 2007, eleven years after the shooting. It will explore the murder and provide new information about the murder case with the help of Shakur's bodyguard, Frank Alexander. All I know is that it had to be about hate or money, and that's no reason to lose a life.[/FONT]
