Biography
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks on 16 June 1971 in New York City, New York. Shortly after his birth, his mother changed his name to Tupac Amaru (after Inca revolutionary Túpac Amaru II – meaning “shining serpent”) and also gave him her own taken name, Shakur, meaning “thankful to God” in Arabic). Even before he was born, you could tell he was going to be different. His mother, Black Panther Afeni Shakur, referred to him as her Little Black Prince. Being born only a few days after she was released from prison (after serving time for conspiracy) nobody would have given anything for this young child growing up in one of Americas worst neighbourhoods. Nobody, except one: his mother. Even though without without any means, she was determined to do anything in her powers to let the rose grow from the concrete.
The childhood years
As part of the presidential campaign of Baptist minister Jesse Jackson, Tupac made his first acting performance playing Travis in “A Raisin in the Sun”. Even though only 12 years old, Tupac felt he had found exactly what he wanted to do. While in his early teens, his mother decided to take him and his little half-sister Sekyiwa to Baltimore, Maryland. This would eventually have a big impact on Tupac. It was there that he really started to develop his love for and skills in rapping. Playing his character as ‘MC New York’, he quickly impressed not only his fellow students, but also the local pushers. Studying at the Baltimore School for the Arts opened a new world for him. Not only did he meet friend-for-life Jada Pinkett, it was also the first time he got in real contact with white people, realizing not all of them are ‘devils’.
Leaving that school affected me so much, I see that as the point where I got off track.
Unfortunately, he never graduated from the BSFA. His mother, once again, found it better to move away - this time to the west coast, to a neighbourhood called “The Jungle” in Marin City, California. Because his mother got more and more addicted to crack, Tupac, at the age of 17, decided to leave the house to live on his own. In 1990, Tupac, under his new alias ‘2Pac’, forms a group called Strictly Dope together with Ray Luv. They performed in small shows in front of their community. It is also in this period that Tupac wrote most of the poems you can find in the book “The Rose that Grew from Concrete” (1999, Quartet Books), which would later be the inspiration for 2 posthumous album releases: “The Rose that Grew from Concrete Vol. 1” (2000, Amaru/Interscope) and “The Rose Vol. 2” (2005, Amaru).
The start of a promising career
It was through his poetry that he got acquainted with Leila Steinberg, a publisher who first became the manager of Strictly Dope and later introduced Tupac and Ray Luv to Greg Jacobs, Shock G of Oakland-based, Grammy-nominated hip-hop group Digital Underground (D.U.). Tupac first joined D.U. as a roadie/dancer and made his official recording debut on Digital Undergrounds “This is an EP Release”, rapping on the track “Same Song”. This opened the door for Tupac’s first solo album, entitled “2Pacalypse Now” (1991, Interscope), containing the hit singles “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and “Trapped”. His debut album would soon proof to be very controversial. Around the same time, he also made his first motion picture appearance: in Ernest Dickersons “Juice” (1992, Island World), Tupac plays disturbed teen Bishop, mainly remembered for the line “I am crazy. And you know what else? I don’t give a fuck!”. A promising start, but Tupac soon got to see what it is to be young, black and in the centre of attention.
First he was arrested (and beaten up by the police) for jaywalking, but it got worse quickly. After Ronald Ray Howard shot Texas Trooper Bill Davidson (11 April 1992), his attorney claimed that the 19-year-old was inspired by “2Pacalypse Now” (Howard was executed by lethal injection on 6 October 2005, ed.). In addition to this, during an outdoor festival in Marin City, a 6-year-old boy fell victim to a stray bullet in the head after a fight between Tupac and some others. Both latter events made Vice President Dan Quayle openly criticise (and destroy) the album, stating: “It has no place in our society.”
The price of fame
1993 would turn out to be an even more troubled year. Yes, his second album, “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z…” (1993, Interscope) hit the charts and went platinum thanks to the singles “Keep Ya Head Up” and “I Get Around” and yes, he was nominated for an American Music Award as the best new rap/hip-hop artist, but in 1993, Tupac dominated the news with mostly negative reporting. He was arrested after fighting with a limo driver in Hollywood (the driver accused him of using drugs in the car), but charges were later dropped. He was also arrested and sentenced to 10 days in jail after threatening a Michigan-based rapper with a bat. A more serious incident occurred on Halloween that year: Tupac is arrested for allegedly shooting at two off-duty Atlanta police officers. The case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. To top it all, he is accused of sodomising and sexually abusing a young woman with three of his friends. The case went to trial and was handled in November 1994.
A ray of sunshine through the dark clouds: Tupac stars alongside Janet Jackson in John Singletons second film, “Poetic Justice” (1993, Columbia Pictures). The commencing love on screen was in stark contrast to their relationship off-screen. First, Jackson wanted Tupac to take an H.I.V.-test before doing a love scene (well, they did have to kiss on the mouth!), then she also had her number changed as soon as the shooting of the film was completed. Singleton, however, was impressed by Tupac’s performance, playing a hard-working postman, trying to do the right thing for his baby girl. Singleton wanted to work with Tupac again for his upcoming project “Higher Learning”, but was allegedly forced by Columbia Pictures to drop him from the cast due to the controversy surrounding him. Their decision was unmistakeably related by Tupac’s conviction of serving 15 days in the Los Angeles County jail for beating up one of the directing Hughes brothers, who had just dropped him from their film “Menace II Society”.
Although spending more and more time in courtrooms and in jail, Tupac still found the time to release a more underground record, entitled “Volume 1” (1994, Interscope), with a group called ‘Thug Life’. The single “Pour Out a Little Liquor” also appeared on the soundtrack of “Above the Rim” (1994, New Line Cinema), a basketball drama in which Tupac plays Birdie, a conflicted drug dealer. Thug Life would be much more than just a rap group it was a whole program which had to serve the community, including a special code for gang members, which Tupac wrote down together with Mutulu. Meanwhile, Tupac is again accused of having his music inspire cop-killers, as two Milwaukee teens murdered a police officer, claiming 2Pacs “Soulja’s Story” incited them.
While on trial for the alleged rape incident in 1993, Tupac gets gunned down in New York on 30 November 1994. During his short stay at the hospital, his biological father, Billy Garland, visited him. Less than 24 hours after being shot five times, Tupac shows up in court in a wheelchair to listen to the verdict. He is acquitted of all sodomy and weapons charges, but is sentenced to a maximum of 4.5 years in a maximum security prison for sexual abuse.
Serving time
With the release of his fourth official album, “Me Against the World” (1995, Interscope), Tupac sets the record of being the first and for now only incarcerated artist to have a number one album in the U.S. The album contains a very open and personal tribute to his mother, Afeni (“Dear Mama”), but is also a perfect example of the complexity and contradiction that characterises his personality. On the one hand he is encouraging young, black man to achieve something in life (“Young Niggaz”), but on the other hand, he found himself encouraging an eleven-year-old to be a gangsta on the album’s closing “Outlaw”… Because he was behind bars at the time, fellow artists felt it necessary to represent in the “I Get Around” successor “Temptations”. The video shows, among others, Ice-T, Coolio, Treach from Naughty by Nature and Jada Pinkett.
During his time in prison, Tupac spent most of his days reading one book after the other. The one that influenced him the most, is without a doubt Niccolò Machiavellis “The Prince”. Machiavellis thinking struck Tupac so much, he would later on even change his artist name from ‘2Pac’ to ‘Makaveli’. But apart from time to read, being locked up also gave him time to think things through: he renounced his “Thug Life” persona, expressing his wish to commit more time to positive work. But being away from the rap industry was hard on him. Not only was he mentally unable to write songs in his cell, he could see other rappers, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and The Notorious B.I.G. come up and take over the scene Tupac-style! Fed by the prison-rumours, Tupac implicated Biggie Smalls, Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, Andre Harrell and even his close friend Randy ‘Stretch’ Walker – who was with him that night – in his robbery the year before. Biggie, Puffy and Harrell always denied any involvement and exactly one year after the attack, Stretch was killed. Still in jail, Tupac married his long-time girlfriend Keisha Morris the marriage was soon after annulled.
All eyes on him
Once somebody buys you, they own you.
After serving nearly 8 months of his sentence, Tupac was released from prison after Death Row Records C.E.O. Marion ‘Suge’ Knight posted a $1.4 million bond. In return, Tupac signed a 3-album deal with the west-coast based record label, home to Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and many others. His mother Afeni would later look back at this moment: “I don’t think he had a choice. And I’m sure he didn’t feel like he had a choice under the circumstances.” Immediately after being set free, Tupac starts paying of his debt, by working non-stop on what would be his most popular (and most commercial) CD. Raps first double album “All Eyez On Me” (1996, Death Row) put Tupac back where he belonged: at the top of the charts. The album turned out to be a bumping combination of Dre’s and Johnny J’s beats and Tupac’s lyrical skills and many tracks feature top guest stars, including Snoop Doggy Dogg (“2 of Amerikkaz Most Wanted”), George Clinton (“Can’t C Me”) and of course Dr. Dre (“California Love”). It also contained the highly controversial “How Do U Want It”, which single release featured the infamous “Hit ’em Up” as a B-side a classic battle/diss song addressing, among others, Bad Boy Records and Mobb Deep and a perfect example of the (commercial) “war of the coasts”.
A predictable ending
On 7 September 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tupac suffers another attack on his life. This time, his attackers didn’t fail as Tupac is pronounced dead one week later, on Friday 13 September, at 04:03p.m. He was only 25.
Over 10 years after that fatal September night, Tupac’s spirit is still alive through the music that is still being released and through the unconditional love of all his fans around the world. Since his death, a good 10 new (official) albums have been brought out, as have three Tupac-featuring movies and thousands of web pages have been created to tell his story. Love him or hate him: Tupac’s (short) presence on Earth has not gone by unnoticed, as he influenced not only the rap industry, but many lives as well.
