Tupac Shakur

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996) was an American rapper and actor, also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, who sold many records. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2010. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground as "MC New York". He eventually branched off as a solo artist. He became a West Coast hip hop icon after the release of his first album, 2Pacalypse Now, in 1991.

He was born in East Harlem, New York. Tupac moved to Baltimore in 1984. Then, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1988.  When he was in high school, he was a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Later in his music career, this experience in school becomes his personality of his own music style. He was the son of Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, who were members of the Black Panther Party. His family was struggling with poverty. They moved homes often, and even had to stay in shelters.

Tupac was involved in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. He died six days later from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest during his operation. Since Shakur's death, seven more albums have been released. They have all been certified platinum.

Shakur acted in eight movies.

He holds the Guinness World Record for the highest selling rap/hip hop artist, selling 165 million worldwide and 43 million in the US alone. He was even listed as 13th of the top 50 poets of all time (by poetry soup) and the 83rd Greatest artist of all time (by Rolling Stone). On June 7, 2023, Tupac was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Shakur was convicted of assault and sexual assault in separate incidents.

His work of music had very big influences on the Hip-hop/rap industry in the US. 

In 2014, a biographical movie about Tupac was announced. The movie, titled All Eyez on Me, was released on June 16, 2017.

Early life 
He was born as Lesane Crooks in East Harlem, New York. Crooks was later renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur after Túpac Amaru II, a ruler in Peru.  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 studied poetry, acting, jazz, and ballet.

Music career 
In 1990, Shakur joined with the Oakland, California-based alternative hip hop group Digital Underground. He appeared on two of the group's albums in 1991: This Is an EP Release and Sons of the P. Later that year he produced and released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. The album protested problems such as racism, and made him much more popular. 

His second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. It contained the hit singles "I Get Around" and "Keep Ya Head Up."

His third album, Me Against the World, was released in 1995. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. He was incarcerated (in prison) at the time. 

His fourth album, All Eyez on Me (1996), was the last album released during his lifetime. All Eyez on Me included the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "How Do U Want It?" and "California Love." 

Shakur won the Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Album in 1996 for ‘Me Against the World’. He received the American 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.

Assassination
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting by someone in a Cadillac car at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. He died six days later at the Southern Nevada University Medical Center. His murder is still unsolved.

Shakur's friend and labelmate from Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, was in the car with Shakur. Knight survived the shooting.

In 1998, a prime suspect in Shakur’s murder, Orlando Anderson (aka Baby Lane) was killed in another drive-by shooting. Shakur once attacked Anderson. 

In 2002, reporter Chuck Phillips wrote in the Los Angeles Times that another rapper called Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.) could have paid members of the Crips street gang to kill Shakur and that he could have given them the gun.

A suspect arrested in 2023
On September 29, 2023, Duane "Keffe D" Davis was named as a suspect and was arrested by the Las Vegas Police Department in connection with the murder of Shakur. Keffe 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. A trial against Davis, is expected to start in November. 

There were four people in the car that was used by the suspects during the murder, according to media; Three of the suspects are dead (as of 2023).

Legacy
There are murals of Shakur in North America (New York), South America (Brazil), Africa (Sierra Leone), and Europe (Bulgaria). There are also statues of him in Atlanta and Germany.

Discography

Studio albums

Studio albums after death

Collaboration

Compilations

Soundtrack appearances

Singles 

 A Did 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 represents Hot 100 Airplay and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts data.
 1 Double-A-Side in the U.S.

Filmography

References

Other websites 
 2Pac Legacy (official website)
 Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for the Arts
 Tupac Legacy Tour 
 pacside
 Tupac Nation 

Actors from New York City
African American actors
African American musicians
American movie actors
American people convicted of assault
Rappers from New York (state)
American sex offenders
American television actors
Criminals from New York City
Murdered African-American people
Murdered criminals
Murdered musicians
Murders by firearm in the United States
Gangsta rappers
 
Unsolved murders in the United States
1971 births
1996 deaths
Interscope Records artists
20th-century American rappers