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What was Tupac Shakur’s family like?

What did tupac shakur’s music concern, who killed tupac shakur.

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Tupac Shakur

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• Rolling Stone - 8 ways Tupac Shakur changed the World
• AllMusic - Biography of 2Pac
• Turner Classic Movies - Biography of Tupac Shakur
• BlackPast - Biography of Tupac Shakur
• Tupac Shakur - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Tupac Shakur’s mother and stepfather, Afeni and Mutulu Shakur, were both members of the Black Panther Party . Afeni had been in jail in New York City on bombing charges before she gave birth to her son. Mutulu was a party leader and was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list until the 1980s.

How did Tupac Shakur start rapping?

In his teenage years, Tupac Shakur attended the Baltimore School for the Arts in Baltimore, Maryland. During that time one of his friends was shot while playing with a gun. This accident inspired Shakur to write and perform his first rap, which was about gun control.

Tupac Shakur’s music often glorified the violent, misogynistic, drug-filled “thug life” led by many 1990s gangsta rappers . However, several of Shakur’s songs signaled the bleak and racist reality of the ghetto that forced black youth down that path. He also wrote songs that uplifted women and emphasized the importance of fatherhood.

Tupac Shakur died on September 13, 1996, six days after a gunman in a white Cadillac shot him four times in the chest at a stoplight in Las Vegas. A 2002 Los Angeles Times investigation determined that uncooperative witnesses and minimal pursuit of gang-related leads resulted in an unresolved homicide case. In 2023 a witness to the shooting, Duane Davis, was arrested and charged with murder. Learn more.

Is Tupac Shakur actually dead?

Tupac Shakur’s family, the Las Vegas Police Department, and a formal autopsy report all corroborate the legitimacy of Shakur’s death. Nevertheless, conspiracy theories persist among fans and the media about his murder, two of the most popular being that he faked his death and escaped to Cuba or Malaysia.

Tupac Shakur (born June 16, 1971, Brooklyn, New York , U.S.—died September 13, 1996, Las Vegas, Nevada) was an American rapper and actor who was one of the leading names in 1990s gangsta rap .

Lesane Crooks was born to Afeni Shakur (née Alice Faye Williams), a member of the Black Panther Party , and she renamed him Tupac Amaru Shakur—after Peruvian revolutionary Túpac Amaru II —when he was a year old. He spent much of his childhood on the move with his family, which in 1986 settled in Baltimore , Maryland , where Shakur attended the elite Baltimore School for the Arts. He distinguished himself as a student, both creatively and academically, but his family relocated to Marin City, California, before he could graduate. There Shakur took to the streets, selling drugs and becoming involved in the gang culture that would one day provide material for his rap lyrics. In 1990 he joined Digital Underground, an Oakland-based rap group that had scored a Billboard Top 40 hit with the novelty single “The Humpty Dance.” Shakur performed on two Digital Underground albums in 1991, This Is an EP Release and Sons of the P , before his solo debut, 2Pacalypse Now , later that year.

2Pacalypse Now was a radical break from the dance party sound of Digital Underground, and its tone and content were much closer to the works of Public Enemy and West Coast gangsta rappers N.W.A . The lack of a clear single on the album limited its radio appeal, but it sold well, especially after U.S. Vice Pres. Dan Quayle criticized the song “Soulja’s Story” during the 1992 presidential campaign. That same year Shakur joined the ranks of other rappers-turned-actors, such as Ice Cube and Ice-T, when he was cast in the motion picture Juice , an urban crime drama . The following year he appeared in Poetic Justice , opposite Janet Jackson , and he released his second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. The album did not stray far from the activist lyricism of his debut, but singles such as “Holler If Ya Hear Me” and “Keep Ya Head Up” made it much more radio-friendly.

With increased fame and success came greater scrutiny of Shakur’s gangsta lifestyle. A string of arrests culminated with a conviction for sexual assault in 1994; he was incarcerated when his third album, Me Against the World , was released in 1995. Shakur was paroled after serving eight months in prison, and he signed with Suge Knight’s Death Row Records for his next release. That album, All Eyez on Me (1996), was a two-disc paean to the “thug life” that Shakur embodied. It debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and sold more than five million copies within its first year of release. Quick to capitalize on his most recent success, Shakur returned to Hollywood, where he starred in Bullet (1996) and Gridlock’d (1997).

On the evening of September 7, 1996, Shakur was leaving a Las Vegas casino , where he had just attended a prizefight featuring heavyweight champion Mike Tyson , when he was shot by an unknown assailant. The incident, believed by many to be the result of an ongoing rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast rap communities , shocked the entertainment world. Shakur died six days later. Decades would pass without significant developments in the investigation of Shakur’s murder , and two of the parties of interest— Crips street gang member Orlando Anderson and East Coast rapper The Notorious B.I.G. —were themselves shot and killed. In September 2023 Anderson’s uncle Duane Davis was arrested and charged as the ringleader of the group that carried out the shooting.

In spite of his relatively short recording career, Shakur left an enduring legacy within the hip-hop community . His popularity was undiminished after his death, and a long succession of posthumous releases (many of them were simply repackaged or remixed existing material, and most were of middling quality) ensured that “new” 2Pac albums continued to appear well into the 21st century. Shakur was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

Tupac Shakur

• Born June 16 , 1971 · East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
• Died September 13 , 1996 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (homicide)
• Birth name Lesane Parish Crooks
• Height 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
• Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith . His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. In the same year he received individual recognition for his album "2Pacalypse Now," but this album was also the beginning of his notoriety as a leading figure of the gangster permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His solo movie career also began in this year with Juice (1992) , and in 1992 he co-starred with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993) . However, law confrontations were soon to come: A 15-day jail term in 1994 for assault and battery and, in 1995, a conviction for sexual assault of a female fan. After serving 8 months pending an appeal, Shakur was released from jail. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bruce Cameron <[email protected]>
• Notorious 25-year-old gangsta MC and actor Tupac Shakur was shot and killed before he had a chance to fulfill the promise of a successful career in both fields. He was born in New York City and his mother, Afeni Shakur , was a member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur spent much of his youth in Harlem, then Baltimore, Maryland. In 1988 his family moved to Oakland, California, where he first gained notice as an MC in 1991 with the group Digital Underground. Later that year, he released a solo album, "2Pacalypse Now." Filled with violent lyrics that promoted cop killing and misogyny, it earned both notoriety and acclaim for fans of the genre. Shakur began his acting career in the late 1980s with an appearance on the television series A Different World (1987) . He made his feature film debut in 1992 with the film Juice (1992) and followed it up, co-starring with Janet Jackson , in Poetic Justice (1993) in 1993. Shakur had a certain charisma that always made him stand out in his films. This was especially true in Gridlock'd (1997) which proved that the versatile young artist had the makings of being a major star. Unfortunately, he was murdered during a drive-by shooting outside a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel a few months before its release. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Gilbert Lee
• Tupac Amaru Shakur (born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur sold over 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His double-disc albums All Eyez on Me (1996) and his Greatest Hits (1998) are among the best-selling albums in the United States. Shakur is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, and he has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of any genre by many publications, including Rolling Stone, which ranked him 86th on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On April 7, 2017, Shakur was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground, eventually branching off as a solo artist. Most of the themes in Shakur's songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social issues. Both of his parents and several other people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. During the latter part of his career, Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, becoming involved in conflicts with other rappers, producers, and record-label staff members, most notably The Notorious B.I.G. and his label, Bad Boy Records. Aside from his career in music, Shakur was also an actor, starring in six films and one TV show in the 1990s, including Poetic Justice (1993), Gang Related (1997) and Gridlock'd (1997). On September 7, 1996, Shakur was fatally shot four times in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was taken to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died from his injuries six days later. Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, into an African-American family in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks. The following year, he was renamed after Túpac Amaru II, the 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary who was executed after leading an indigenous uprising against Spanish rule. His parents, Afeni Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina) and Billy Garland, were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 trial. Many people in Shakur's life were involved with the Black Liberation Army; some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, had been 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. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his friend (no relation) Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), Tupac's godmother, to escape from a penitentiary in New Jersey in 1979. She had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for several years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and eventually convicted and sentenced to prison for the 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior. Mopreme performed in many of his recordings. In 1986, the family moved from New York to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Shakur transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts. There he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker. Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beat box, won many rap competitions and was considered to be the best rapper in his school. He was remembered as one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix with all crowds. Shakur developed a close friendship with Jada Pinkett Smith that lasted until his death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life." Pinkett Smith calls him "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 Pinkett Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes." During his time in art school, Shakur became affiliated with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA. He began dating the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Shakur and his family moved from Baltimore to Marin City, California, a small unincorporated suburban community located 5 miles north of San Francisco. He attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley. Before using his first name as his rap name, Shakur went by the alias MC New York when starting his career in Baltimore. Although Shakur began recording in 1987, his professional entertainment career did not take off until the early 1990s when he debuted in Digital Underground's "Same Song" from the soundtrack to the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, and also appeared with the group in the film. The song was later released as the lead song of the Digital Underground extended play (EP) This Is an EP Release, the follow-up to their debut hit album Sex Packets. Shakur appeared in the accompanying music video. After his rap debut, he performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons of the P. Shakur went on to feature Shock G and Money-B from Digital Underground in his track "I Get Around", which ranked #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In November 1991, Shakur released his debut solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Though the album did not generate any hit singles, 2Pacalypse Now has been acclaimed by many critics and fans for its underground feel, with many rappers such as Nas, Eminem, Game, and Talib Kweli having pointed to it as inspiration. Although the album was originally released on Interscope Records, the rights to its distribution are now owned by Amaru Entertainment, the label owned by Shakur's mother. The album's name is a reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke (Tyruss Himes), Macadoshis (Diron Rivers), his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and the Rated R (Walter Burns). The group released their only album Thug Life: Volume 1 on September 26, 1994, which went gold. The album featured the single "Pour Out a Little Liquor", produced by Johnny "J" Jackson, who went on to produce a large part of Shakur's album All Eyez on Me. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur. The album was originally released by Shakur's label Out Da Gutta Records, though Amaru Entertainment has since gained the rights to it. Among the notable tracks are "Bury Me a G", "Cradle to the Grave", "Pour Out a Little Liquor" (which also appears on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Above the Rim), "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" and "Str8 Ballin'". As a result of criticism of gangsta rap at the time, the original version of the album was scrapped and re-recorded with many of the original songs being cut. The album contains ten tracks because Interscope Records felt many of the other recorded songs were too controversial to release. Although the original version of the album was not completed, Shakur performed the planned first single from the album, "Out on Bail" at the 1994 Source Awards. Thug Life: Volume 1 was certified Gold. The track "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" later appeared on 2Pac's posthumous Greatest Hits album. Shakur's third album, Me Against The World, was released in March 1995 and was very well-received, with many calling it the magnum opus of his career. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time. It is Shakur's fourth-best-selling album with 3,524,567 copies sold in the United States as of 2011. Me Against the World won best rap album at the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards. All Eyez On Me was the fourth studio album by 2Pac, recorded in October 1995 and released on February 13, 1996, by Death Row Records and Interscope Records. The album is frequently recognized as one of the crowning achievements of 1990s rap music. Steve Huey of AllMusic stated that "despite some undeniable filler, it is easily the best production 2Pac's ever had on record". It was certified 5× Platinum after just 2 months in April 1996 and 9× platinum in 1998. The album featured the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "How Do U Want It" and "California Love". It featured five singles in all, the most of any 2Pac album. Moreover, All Eyez on Me (which was the only Death Row release to be distributed through PolyGram by way of Island Records) made history as the first double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released for mass consumption. It was issued on two compact discs and four LPs. Chartwise, All Eyez on Me was the second album from 2Pac to hit number one on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. It sold 566,000 copies in the first week of its release and was charted in the top 100 for one-week Soundscan sales since 1991. By the end of 1996, the album had sold 5 million copies. The album won the 1997 Soul Train R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year Award. Shakur also won the Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist at the 24th Annual American Music Awards. In October 1995, Shakur was released from prison after serving nine months of a sentence for sexual assault and formed a new group called Outlaw Immortalz. Shakur joined the Death Row label, under which he released the single "California Love". On February 13, 1996, Shakur released his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me. This double album was the first and second of his three-album commitment to Death Row Records. It sold more than nine million copies. The record was a general departure from the introspective subject matter of Me Against the World, being more oriented toward a thug and gangsta mentality. Shakur continued his recordings despite increasing problems at the Death Row label. Dr. Dre left his post as in-house producer to form his own label, Aftermath. Shakur continued to produce hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which would be released on his posthumous albums Still I Rise, Until the End of Time, Better Dayz, Loyal to the Game and Pac's Life. He also began the process of recording an album, One Nation, with the New York-based Boot Camp Clik and their label Duck Down Records. On June 4, 1996, he and Outlawz released the diss track "Hit 'Em Up", a scathing lyrical assault on The Notorious B.I.G. and others associated with him. In the track, Shakur claimed to have had sexual intercourse with Faith Evans, the wife of Wallace, Shakur's former friend and rival, and attacked Bad Boy's street credibility. Shakur was convinced that some members associated with Bad Boy had known about the 1994 attack on him due to their behavior that night and the information that his sources gave to him. According to a 2005 interview with Jimmy Henchman, in Vibe magazine, after the attack, Shakur immediately accused Henchman, an associate of Bad Boy CEO Sean Combs, of orchestrating the attack. Shakur, therefore, aligned himself with Suge, Death Row's CEO, who was already bitter toward Combs over a 1995 incident at the Platinum Club in Atlanta, Georgia, which culminated in the death of Jake Robles, the friend and bodyguard of Suge Knight; Knight was adamant in voicing his suspicions about Combs' involvement. In the years following their killings, associates of both Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. made comments indicating the pair, were it not for their deaths, would have reconciled. When Shakur recorded "Hit 'Em Up", a diss song toward Biggie, he recruited three members from the former group, Dramacydal, with whom he had worked previously and was eager to do so again. Shakur, with the three New Jersey rappers and other associates, formed the original lineup of the Outlawz. When 2Pac signed to Death Row after his release from prison, he recruited step brother Mopreme Shakur and Big Syke from Thug Life. Hussein Fatal, Napoleon, E.D.I. Mean, Kastro, Yaki Kadafi, and Storm (the only female Outlaw) were also added, and together they formed the original lineup of the Outlaw Immortalz that debuted on 2Pac's Multi-Platinum smash All Eyez on Me. They later dropped the Immortal part of their name after the untimely deaths of 2Pac and Yaki Kadafi and moved on as Outlawz without the members of Thug Life. Young Noble was later added and appeared on 2Pac's second Death Row release The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. It was on 2Pac's Makaveli album that Outlawz first came to the greater rap community's notice, appearing on a few songs. The idea behind the group was for each member to have a rap name coinciding with the names of various tyrants or enemies of America, past, and present. Outlawz chose in later years to make a backronym out of the letters of their group name Operating Under Thug Laws as Warriorz although it does not stand for the group's name and is used infrequently. - IMDb Mini Biography By: ahmetkozan
• Spouse Keisha Morris (April 29, 1995 - 1996) (annulled)
• Parents Afeni Shakur Billy Garland Mutulu Shakur
• Relatives Sekyiwa Shakur (Half Sibling) Mopreme Shakur (Sibling) Nzingha Shakur (Niece or Nephew) Malik Shakur (Niece or Nephew) Billy Lesane (Cousin) Greg Lesane (Cousin) Kenny Lesane (Cousin) Scott Lesane (Cousin) Dante Powers (Cousin) Rose Belle (Grandparent) Walter Williams Jr. (Grandparent) N'Neka Garland (Half Sibling) Gloria Cox (Aunt or Uncle) Jamala Lesane (Cousin)
• Socially conscious lyrics
• Shaved head and goatee
• 'Thug Life' tattoo across stomach
• Wearing a bandana tied at the front
• Nostril piercing
• Recorded close to 150 songs during the final year of his life, and often completed three songs per day in the same period. Shakur also wrote lyrics in the studio and often performed his verses in one take. He felt that rappers who could not perform their verses properly on the first take weren't ready to be rappers. R&B music, on the other hand, was worthy of multiple takes for the vocal tracks, he felt.
• He read for the role of Bubba Blue in Forrest Gump (1994) , which went to Mykelti Williamson .
• 10 albums have been released after his 1996 death; all have gone platinum.
• Shakur renamed his publishing company to "Joshua's Dream" in honor of a young, terminally ill child whose dying wish was to meet him.
• A huge fan of Tim Roth , Shakur was excited when he found out he was going to be in a movie with Roth. However, Roth didn't like the idea of a rapper being in the movie with him, as he didn't know he was an actor before he became a rapper. Roth's attitude changed, when they tested together and the two were very good friends until Shakur's death.
• Everybody's at war with different things...I'm at war with my own heart sometimes". In Vibe interview 2/96
• Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
• The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else.
• I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.

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Inside Tupac's Last Days

The rapper's professional and personal life was at an all-time high when he was gunned down in September 1996.

Tupac's acting career was thriving

Though best known for his music, Tupac was a talented actor who'd appeared in multiple films. During the summer of 1996, he worked on Gang Related with Jim Belushi . Tupac had plans to keep making movies after this; his production company Euphanasia had numerous scripts coming in.

In a promotional interview for Gang Related that Tupac gave in August, he said, "I could be the best actor anybody's ever seen, given the chance, the opportunity and the experience and the lessons from people. I could be the best, but right now, I don't even wish to be the best, I just want to be one of them."

He was involved with his community

Throughout his life, Tupac wanted to aid his community and create more opportunities for Black youth. One organization he'd supported was A Place Called Home , which offered dance lessons, counseling, tutoring, and health services to at-risk youth in Los Angeles.

He also participated in political activism. On August 15, less than one month before he died, Tupac appeared at a rally with Brotherhood Crusade , a Black activist group, to oppose a three-strikes law and an anti-affirmative action measure in California.

[Watch Who Killed Tupac? on A&E Crime Central.]

Tupac recorded his final album in seven days

In the fall of 1995, Tupac was behind bars while appealing a conviction for sexual abuse (he always maintained his innocence regarding the charges). He had no money for bail, but Marion "Suge" Knight and Death Row Records offered to supply the funds. Tupac then signed a three-album deal with the label.

Following his October 1995 release from prison, Tupac returned to California and began making music for Death Row. In August 1996, his The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album was recorded and mixed in seven days. The album, credited to Tupac's alter ego Makaveli, hit No. 1 when it was released after his death.

Tupac's time with Death Row also included confrontation and controversy. In his song "Hit 'Em Up," which came out in June 1996, Tupac claimed he'd slept with Faith Evans , the wife of Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace , also known as The Notorious B.I.G. (Wallace and Tupac had once been friends, but after Tupac was shot in 1994 he'd come to believe Wallace had been involved in the incident). Evans denied any affair, but this didn't keep Tupac from taunting Wallace with these allegations at the MTV Awards on September 4, 1996.

He had problems with his record label

By the summer of 1996, Tupac was wondering where his Death Row royalties were. Since his return to California, he'd been putting out hits and had reached $60 million in album sales, but he'd seen very little money. At the time of Tupac's death, Death Row calculated he owed the label $4.9 million; his bail money was among the costs on Tupac's tab.

Tupac remained loyal to Death Row in public, as when he stated in an August Vibe interview, "Me and Suge will always do business together, forever." However, Tupac was reportedly interested in signing to a new label as he'd completed his required three albums. Of course, given Tupac's ongoing success, Knight and Death Row wouldn't have wanted to lose him.

On August 27, Tupac fired David Kenner, a lawyer for Death Row who'd taken on Tupac as a client when Tupac signed to the label. Representing both a company and a signed artist presented a conflict of interest, but some of Tupac's friends still considered his decision to fire Kenner a mistake. In a 1997 New Yorker article, one said of Tupac, "He didn't realize, or he refused to accept, what anyone from the street would have known — that you can't fire Kenner, you don't leave Death Row."

Tupac was in a serious relationship and wanted to start a family

Not everything in Tupac's last days was about work. In the summer of 1996, he was getting serious with Kidada Jones (daughter of Quincy Jones ). According to a 1997 Vanity Fair article, while Tupac was in New York for the MTV Awards in September, the two had been discussing a trip to Hawaii and talking about having a baby together.

But when Tupac returned to Los Angeles on September 7, he and Kidada first went to Las Vegas. Tupac was joining Knight at a Mike Tyson boxing match being held that night at the MGM Grand. He'd asked Kidada to travel with him.

Kidada helped Tupac pack for the trip. When she asked if he wanted to bring the bulletproof vest he often wore, he answered that it would be too hot to wear it.

Tupac attended a boxing match in Las Vegas hours before he was shot

Tupac watched ringside with Knight as Tyson won his match in less than two minutes. In the casino afterward, Tupac fought with Orlando Anderson, a Crips gang member. Anderson was pushed to the ground and kicked before security guards intervened. However, no official complaint was filed and everyone involved in the brawl departed the hotel.

Tupac returned to his hotel room, seeing Jones as he changed clothes (she hadn't attended the match). He left her to head to Knight's house, then he and Knight got into a BMW to travel to Club 662 (Tupac was scheduled to perform at the club to raise money for a gym that wanted to help kids avoid violence). The bodyguards with them weren't armed, as the necessary permits for their weapons hadn't been filed.

On the road, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside Knight's BMW. A gunman in that car fired about 13 rounds, hitting Tupac four times before the Cadillac sped off. Knight, whose head had been grazed, then drove away in the BMW. However, Knight's vehicle had two blown-out tires, so he didn't get far before coming to a stop.

He fought for his life for six days

Police and emergency personnel were soon at the scene. In 2014, a retired Las Vegas cop said Tupac told him, "F**k you," when asked who'd shot him. In other accounts, Tupac's last words included, "I can't breathe" and "I’m dyin', man."

Tupac was taken to the hospital, where he would go through several surgeries. His right lung was removed and he was placed on a ventilator and respirator. Jones, family and friends flocked to the hospital to see him.

An unconscious Tupac was resuscitated before his mother directed hospital personnel not to do so again. He died on September 13, 1996, six days after he'd been shot. Theories about the shooting have included Crips after revenge, Wallace arranging a hit or Knight seeking to prevent Tupac from leaving Death Row Records — but all denied any involvement. The truth behind Tupac's murder has never been uncovered.

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POET. ACTOR. Rapper. Activist. REVOLUTIONARY.

Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated and prolific figures in modern history. Shakur’s message has continued to resonate throughout the world as his loyal and adoring fan base continues to treasure the timeless messages that he incorporated into his poetry and his music. 

With over 75 million records sold worldwide, both 1996’s All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits collection have been certified diamond, surpassing the ten-million mark and placing them among the top-selling albums of all time.In April of 2017, Tupac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, making him the first solo hip-hop artist to be recognized for inclusion in his first eligible year. Tupac also found success and critical acclaim as an actor, starring in films like  Juice ,  Poetic Justice ,  Above The Rim ,  Gridlock’d , and  Gang Related . 

As Tupac’s life and legacy continues to impact, influence and transcend cultures throughout the world. In 2015, the GRAMMY Museum opened Tupac’s first museum exhibit, All Eyez on Me: The Writings of Tupac. In 2022,  Tupac Shakur: Wake Me When I’m Free , a fully immersive, thought-provoking museum experience that explored the life and legacy of the acclaimed artist and activist opened in Los Angeles, CA. In 2023, FX released  Dear Mama : a multi-part docu series on Tupac and his mother Afeni, garnering the “most watched” docuseries in the network’s history.

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Tupac Shakur's Legacy, 20 Years On

"I think he knew from the very beginning, 'I have a very short window to live. I've got to create a body of work,'" writer Kevin Powell says of Tupac Shakur. Mark Peterson/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

"I think he knew from the very beginning, 'I have a very short window to live. I've got to create a body of work,'" writer Kevin Powell says of Tupac Shakur.

On Sept. 13, 1996, Tupac Shakur died, six days after he was targeted in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Twenty years later, Tupac has become a celebrated figure around the world. He's not only a lodestar of hip-hop, but a global cultural phenomenon. Recent attempts have even been made to resurrect him: He performed in CGI form with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre in 2012 and conversed, through some studio wizardry, with Kendrick Lamar on the last track of To Pimp A Butterfly .

Code Switch

Code switch: why do we still care about tupac.

Writer Kevin Powell says Tupac is more than a rapper. "When we think about Tupac Shakur ... not just in hip-hop but popular culture, in America and globally, you have to think about Elvis Presley , James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon , Bob Marley ," Powell says. "It's that significant. He is one of the most important figures that we've seen in the last 25 years or so."

Powell interviewed Tupac a number of times for Vibe magazine, including while the rapper was serving time in jail for a sexual abuse conviction. He joined NPR's Renee Montagne to discuss Tupac's lasting legacy, as well as the complexities he embodied. Hear their conversation at the audio link above, and read on for highlights.

Interview Highlights

On what distinguished Tupac's music

You're talking about an artist who came from the people and decided that his work was going to reflect the conditions that were going on in America during his lifetime — his short 25 years on this planet. He talks about violence, he talks about drugs, he talks about his mother's drug addiction, he talks about poverty. He talks about his own contradictions. You get vulnerability, you get an exploration of manhood from different angles, even admitting all of his many mistakes ... And so those things, that kind of honesty — which is so rare for a lot of people — made him someone who became a touchstone for folks' lives. And that's why they responded to him, and still do.

"Keep Ya Head Up" [is] a song that is really an ode to women. It's a pro-feminist song; he talks about being pro-choice in this song, he talks about being anti-street-harassment in this song. But he also — it's an autobiographical song about being a young black male growing up in inner-city America. And that was Pac's uniqueness: his ability to weave in different scenarios and to paint this full picture of a community, over and over again.

On Afeni Shakur's role in her son's life and music

She raised Tupac as a single mother. She was in prison for her political activities in 1971, and just a month before Tupac was born, she was finally released. And he was literally born in the midst of all the upheaval in our country at that time. He was born a month after Marvin Gaye released What's Going On , and in a lot of ways that album is a soundtrack for who Tupac and Afeni were as mother and son. And she's such an important figure — she helped shape his political consciousness, but also there's the dynamic of their separation and moving about, because she became addicted to crack cocaine ... And so he was out there trying to find his way as a young man without a father figure, and it was difficult, and he talks about that in this music.

On the contradictions represented by the violence in some of Tupac's lyrics

In a lot of ways Pac was no different than what we heard in the blues, jazz music [and] rock 'n' roll that came before, because all those music forms also talked about violence, were disrespectful toward women. ... And so Pac was actually very much in that tradition, unfortunately, of us who are men in this society, who have been socialized through patriarchy, through misogyny, through sexism. And he grappled with that, because, again, you can hear, in "Keep Ya Head Up," him talking about being in support of women — but then you turn to a song like " Hit 'Em Up ," and he's talking about being violent toward his rivals and having sex with one of his rivals' wives. It was very disrespectful, but it represented the contradictions that many of us as men face in this society.

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Music Interviews

Reflections on tupac from afeni shakur.

What was different about Tupac is that he spoke very openly and honestly about it — not just in his music, but in his conversations with people — what he was trying to grapple with and trying to figure out. For example, when he was charged with that sexual assault case in New York City back in the '90s, one of the things he said to me in the famous prison interview from Rikers Island is that he takes responsibility for not stopping those men, his so-called friends, from doing what they did to that young lady, and that he was guilty of that. What man do we know that, at 23 years of age, would actually say something like that? And so I really believe that, had Pac lived, he would have turned some corners in his life around these different issues that dogged him, because he carried around a lot of complexities.

On Tupac's efforts to build his own legacy

I think he knew from the very beginning, "I have a very short window to live, I've got to create a body of work." He was constantly producing, constantly writing, constantly in a recording studio. Even when he was in prison, [he was] writing screenplays. He just knew, I believe, that he wasn't going to be on this earth for a long time, so he came with a certain purpose — contradictions, complexities and all — and he left behind something that has touched generations of people.

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Tupac Shakur

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INDUCTED BY

Complex. Personal. Fearless. Tupac is authentic and larger than life.

The definitive hip-hop anti-hero, Tupac wrote lyrics that spark conversations about rap, race relations, and young black men in America today.

HALL OF FAME ESSAY

By Alan Light

Tupac was a lightning rod, a screen onto which millions of people projected their feelings about rap, about race, and about the young black man in America. He may be a legend, but he’s hardly a hero. Many young listeners looked up to him, but he himself often seemed to be searching for a leader.

Though his recording career lasted just five years, Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971-1996) is one of the most popular artists in history, with over seventy-five million records sold worldwide.

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