Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996) was an American rapper and singer, also known as2Pac andMakaveli, who sold manyrecords. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2010.[1] Shakur began his career as aroadie,backup dancer, and MC for thealternative hip hop groupDigital Underground as "MC New York". He eventually branched off as a solo artist.[2][3][4]
He was born asLesane Crooks in East Harlem, New York. Crooks was later renamedTupac Amaru Shakur after Túpac Amaru II, a ruler inPeru. His family later moved to Marin City, California when Tupac was 17. Tupac went to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he found it interesting to read Shakespeare's poems. He got very affected by the beauty of rhyming, choosing the word and expression. He studiedpoetry,acting,jazz, andballet.
In 1990, Shakur joined with theOakland, California-basedalternative hip hop group Digital Underground. He appeared on two of the group's albums in 1991:This Is an EP Release andSons of the P. Later that year he produced and released his first solo album,2Pacalypse Now. The album protested problems such asracism, and made him much more popular.
Shakur won theSoul Train Music Award for Best Rap Album in 1996 for ‘Me Against the World’. He received theAmerican Music Award for the Favorite Rap/Hip Hop artist posthumously in 1997.
Several of Shakur's albums were released posthumously. It contained previously recorded material from when he was alive.
On November 30, 1994, Shakur was shot outside of Quad Studios, arecording studio inManhattan, New York.[9] Shakur had been invited to record, but was later confronted by three armed men in the lobby, who robbed him of his possessions and shot him multiple times. These nonfatalgunshot wounds incited a feud between Shakur and well knownHip-Hop artistChristopher Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., as Shakur believed that it was Wallace's associates who assaulted him. This escalated into a rap beef, when Shakur and his labelmates ofDeath Row Records sided against Wallace and his labelmates ofBad Boy Records. Thiswest coast versuseast coast beef eventually led to the killings of both Shakur and Wallace in the 1990's.[10]
Shakur's friend and labelmate from Death Row Records,Marion "Suge" Knight, was in the car with Shakur. Knight survived the shooting.[13]
In 1998, aprime suspect in Shakur’s murder, Orlando Anderson (aka Baby Lane) was killed in another drive-by shooting.
In 2002, reporter Chuck Phillips wrote in theLos Angeles Times that another rapper calledBiggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.) could have paid members of theCrips street gang to kill Shakur and that he could have given them the gun.[13]
On September 29, 2023, Duane "Keefe D" Davis was named as a suspect and was arrested by the Las Vegas Police Department in connection with the murder of Shakur.[14] Keefe D had previously admitted to killing Tupac on July 2, 2018 when he [thought that he was going to die soon, or] was dying from cancer.[15] The trial against Davis, is delayed until February 2026.[16][17]
There were four people in the car that was used by the suspects during the murder, according to the media. Three of the suspects are dead as of 2023.[18]
ADid not chart on the Hot 100 or Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts (Billboard rules at the time prevented album cuts from charting). Chart peak listed here representsHot 100 Airplay andHot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts data.
