WORDS BY ENEMIGIN NEYE
Amaru Shakur is one of the most iconic
personalities of the Hip Hop Culture; he died 17 years ago
[September
13, 1996] after he was shot on his way from Mike Tyson’s heavyweight
fight in Las Vegas. Although the tragic event robbed Hip Hop of one of
its most revered stars, his influence on the Culture today can never be
overstated.
Tupac was born on June 16, 1971 in East
Harlem, New York City to Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland. He was named
after Tupac Amaru an 18th century South American
revolutionary who was executed for leading an indigenous uprising
against Spanish rule. His parents were also active members of the Black
Panther Party.
At 12, 2Pac enrolled in the Harlem 127th Street
repertory ensemble and got his first acting role as the Travis younger
character in the play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’. When his family moved to
Baltimore, he was transferred to the Baltimore school for the arts where
he studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet. He was remembered as one of
the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humour,
superior rapping skill, and ability to mix with everybody. In school, he
was friends with classmate, Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith)
that lasted until his death.
While living in Baltimore, he discovered
rap and began performing as MC New York. In the late 1980s, Shakur and
his family moved to the West Coast. He joined the Oakland, California
based Hip-Hop group Digital Underground, which earlier had scored a hit
with the song “The Humpty Dance.” Shakur appeared on two of the group’s
recordings—1990′s This Is an EP and Sons of the P before going solo.
In 1991, Shakur emerged as a solo artiste, by the name 2Pac, releasing his debut album 2Pacalypse Now. The track “Brenda’s got a Baby” off the album reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart. His second album, Strictly 4 My N. I. G. G. A. Z., crossed over to the pop charts, with singles “I Get Around” and “Keep Ya Head Up“.
The album went platinum, selling over a million copies. Around this
time, Shakur made his film debut in the 1992 urban crime drama Juice with Omar Epps, Samuel L. Jackson and Queen Latifah. He showed his softer side in Poetic Justice (1993),
which was billed as ‘A Street Romance’. He starred with Janet Jackson
in the film. The following year, he played a drug dealer in the
basketball drama Above the Rim.
2Pac appeared to be living up to his
aggressive gangster rap persona with several arrests for violent
offenses. In 1994, he spent several days in jail for assaulting director
Allen Hughes and was later convicted of sexual assault in another case.
He was a victim of violence, getting shot five times in the lobby of a
recording studio during a mugging.
The next year, after recovering from his injuries, Shakur was
sentenced to four and a half years in prison in the sexual assault case.
His third solo album,
Me Against The World (1995), started out in the number one spot on the album charts. Many critics praised the work, noting that tracks like “
Dear Mama”
showed a more genuine, reflective side to the rapper. The possibility
of an early death runs through several songs on his record but no one
thought it would come to past.
After serving eight months in prison, Shakur returned to music with the album
All Eyez on Me (1996).
He was reportedly released after Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge”
Knight paid a bond of over a $1 million as part of Shakur’s parole. In
his latest project, Shakur hit the studio again. The song
“California Love” featured a guest appearance by famed rapper/producer Dr. Dre and made a strong showing on the pop charts. “
How Do You want it” also was another smash success for Shakur.
Besides his hit album, Shakur continued to
pursue his acting career. He landed several film roles around this time.
He co-starred with Mickey Rouke in the 1996 crime drama Bullet. Before his untimely death, Shakur completed work on two other projects—Gridlock’d and Gang Related—that were released in 1997.
During his career, Shakur was embroiled in a
feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers. He was known to call
out his adversaries on his songs. On a trip to Las Vegas to attend a
boxing match, Shakur was shot in a car driven by Suge Knight on
September 7, 1996. He died six days later, on September 13, 1996, in a
Las Vegas hospital. Shakur was only 25 years old at the time of his
death, and his killer is still unknown. Several albums of his work have
been posthumously released, selling millions of copies.
Shakur was a voracious reader. He was
inspired by a wide variety of writers, including William Shakespeare,
Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail
Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran.
Since his death, Tupac has become an
international martyr, a symbol on the level of Bob Marley or Che
Guevara, whose life has inspired Tupacistas on the streets of Brazil,
memorial murals in the Bronx and Spain, and bandanna wearing gangs in
South Africa.
The Hip Hop community will always miss the ‘Rose that grew from concrete’.
R.I.P Amaru 2Pac Shakur.
