Tupac Shakur

Tupac Amaru Shakur, born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971, in East Harlem, Manhattan, became one of the most influential musical artists of the 20th century. Known by the stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, he was an American rapper, actor, and a prominent political activist for Black America. His career was brief, ending with his death on September 13, 1996, but his reach was vast: he sold more than 75 million records worldwide and became one of hip-hop’s defining figures.

Shakur came of age in a family deeply tied to Black political struggle. His parents, Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, had been active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A month before his birth, Afeni was acquitted of more than 150 charges in the Panther 21 criminal trial. At age one, he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur after Túpac Amaru II, who was executed in Peru in 1781 after a revolt against Spanish rule. Afeni said she wanted him to have “the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world” and to know he was part of a world culture, not only a neighborhood.

His early life moved between New York, Baltimore, and California. In Baltimore, he attended Roland Park Middle School, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, and then the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in The Nutcracker, won school rap competitions with Dana “Mouse” Smith as a beatbox, and became friends with Jada Pinkett, who was the subject of some of his poems. He was known for humor, moved easily among different student groups, and listened to a wide range of music, including Kate Bush, Culture Club, Sinéad O’Connor, and U2. In 1988, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Shakur’s debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, was released in 1991 and established him as a central figure in West Coast hip-hop through its political rap lyrics. He followed it with Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... in 1993 and Me Against the World in 1995, gaining both critical and commercial success. His 1996 album All Eyez on Me, the first hip-hop double album, was certified Diamond and included the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “California Love” and “How Do U Want It.” Alongside his solo work, he formed the group Thug Life and collaborated with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and the Outlawz.

He also built a film career, starring in Juice in 1992, Poetic Justice in 1993, Above the Rim in 1994, Bullet in 1996, and the later-released Gridlock’d and Gang Related in 1997. His later years were marked by violence and legal trouble. He was shot five times in the lobby of a New York recording studio and served eight months in prison on sexual abuse charges before being released pending appeal in 1995. After signing to Death Row Records, he became tied to the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry and a feud with the Notorious B.I.G. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Paradise, Nevada, and died six days later.

After his death, Shakur’s music continued to reach new listeners. Greatest Hits, released in 1998, became one of only nine hip-hop albums certified Diamond in the United States, and five more posthumous albums were certified multi-platinum. He was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, and he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023. His words still carry because they joined anger, ambition, fear, and hope in plain speech. “For every dark night, there’s a brighter day” fits the tension that ran through much of his work: pain named directly, but never left without the possibility of light.