Companies
Tupac was a true workaholic – always had been and probably always would have been as well. Very passionate about what he could accomplish with all his talents, he was constantly looking for ways to bring it to his audience. Being an intelligent business man – on top of being a gifted rapper, talented actor and sensitive poet – Tupac set up a lot of companies to manage whatever he produced.
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Ghetto Gospel Music/Joshua's Dream Corporation
In 1993, Tupac had received a letter from the parents of a dying little boy, who’s last wish was to meet Tupac. As soon as he could, he flew in to Maryland to visit the boy. After the boy died, Tupac changed the name of his “Ghetto Gospel Music” publishing company to “Joshua’s Dream Corpration” in memory of the little Joshua.
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Makaveli Records
After reading the famous book “The Prince” during his time at Rikers Island, Tupac adopted his new alias Makaveli, named after the Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli and author of the book. Having nearly finished his 3-record-deal with with Death Row Records, Makaveli Records was going to be his own record label to release upcoming material. Its logo appeared for the first time in the booklet of its only (co-)release: “The Don Kiluminati: the 7-Day Theory” and shows the word ‘Makaveli’ with a crown on top and a sword through it. The diamond on the letter ‘I’ has 7 lines coming out of it. This could refer to the Bible, Revelation 1:16-3:1.
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Euphansia
The biggest project Tupac started before his death, based around the company called “Euphanasia”, was not only meant to be a production company, but also had to help finance many community-minded projects. Tupac had always wanting to give back to the community and with Euphanasia he was planning to start up inner-city youth sports teams, a toll-free number children could call whenever they would have a problem, a chain of care centres, etc. Another idea was to create a youth league in California, funded by himself and other rappers. Children wanting to participate would have to get at least a C average at school in order to join in.
Euphanasia’s logo consists of a kneeling black angel of death with an angel-like halo. Tupac was wearing a chain with that logo on the night he was fatally shot. Euphansia was also stated as his employer on the coroner’s report. -
Amaru Records/Amaru Entertainment
Founded by his mother, Afeni Shakur, shortly after his death, “Amaru Records” holds the rights of all unreleased material. The first release of the label was “R U Still Down? [Remember Me]”, containing songs from the period 1993-’94. Now the company evolved to “Amaru Entertainment” and focusses not only on releasing music albums. In 2003, it released the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Tupac: Resurrection”
Fans have reportedly complained about Amaru Entertainment, claiming they lost touch with the true 2Pac-sound, due to using wrong samples and replacing original feature artists with contemporary ones. This is especially the case for “Loyal to the Game” and “Pac’s Life”.
