2Pac - Tupac Shakur Pictures, Biography, Profile, Facts, Discography, Filmography, more.

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in New York, New York on June 16, 1971 and died from fatal gun shot wounds in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 13, 1996. Not only famous for his music, he was also a well respected actor with several films.

2Pac was a deep, multi-faceted individual. 2Pac's lyrics always went deep into the meaning of many political and social subjects including violence, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and broken families. He was well read as noted by his extensive reading list. 2Pac's poetry also reflected his many sides, some poems were motivated by love, others seeking to understand himself better and others by the cruel injustices of America and society.

2Pac was famous for being down to die for everything he represented always real and upfront. Some people consider 2Pac a modern-day prophet.

Being real and upfront, trouble always seemed to come naturally. Tupac was charged with rape, a crime he did not commit, but was still convicted of sodomy (forcibly touching the buttocks). Many witnesses seen the girl who made these accusations voluntarily give 2Pac oral sex on a night club dance floor. Tupac was also charged with shooting two off-duty police officers, but those charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. The fatal shooting in Vegas was the second shooting 2Pac was involved. The first occured in 1994 in New York.

Most likely, 2Pac's killer was Orlando Anderson, a south-side crip. Theories abound as to who coordinated the hit. Some believe it happened spur of the moment out of Orlando's rage. Others believe Suge Knight had 2Pac killed. The Las Vegas Times recently reported Biggie Smalls had 2Pac killed. Still others, believe it was an elaborate scheme and 2Pac is still alive (he faked his own death).

Hundreds of mourners appeared at the hospital upon news of his death, and the entire entertainment industry mourned his passing, especially since there were no leads in the case. Many believed his death would end the much-hyped East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry and decrease black-on-black violence. Sadly, six months after his death, the Notorious B.I.G. was murdered under similar circumstances. As Shakur's notoriety only increased in the wake of his death, a series of posthumous releases followed, among them Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (issued under the alias Makaveli in 1996), R U Still Down? (Remember Me) (1997), Still I Rise (1999), Until the End of Time (2001), and Better Dayz (2002).

Since his death Shakur's recorded legacy has generated several posthumous releases and hit singles, amid ugly squabblings over his estate. R U Still Down? (Remember Me) (released on his mother's new Amaru label) collects unreleased material from 1992-1994. The Rose That Grew From Concrete is an excellent tribute album from many of rap's new wave, all of whom owe much to his talent and legacy.

2Pac Biography

Tupac Shakur grew up around nothing but self-delusion. His mother, Alice Faye Williams, thought she was a "revolutionary." She called herself "Afeni Shakur" and associated with members of the ill-fated Black Panther Party, a movement that wanted to feed school kids breakfast and earn civil rights for African Americans.

During her youth she dropped out of high school, partied with North Carolina gang members, then moved to Brooklyn: After an affair with one of Malcolm X's bodyguards, she became political. When the mostly white United Federation of Teachers went on strike in 1968, she crossed the picket line and taught the children herself. After this she joined a New York chapter of the Black Panther Party and fell in with an organizer named Lumumba. She took to ranting about killing "the pigs" and overthrowing the government, which eventually led to her arrest and that of twenty comrades for conspiring to set off a race war. Pregnant, she made bail and told her husband, Lummuba, it wasn't his child. Behind his back she had been carrying on with Legs (a small-time associate of Harlem drug baron Nicky Barnes) and Billy Garland (a member of the Party). Lumumba immediately divorced fer.

Things went downhill for Afeni: Bail revoked, she was imprisoned in the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village. In her cell she patted her belly and said, "This is my prince. He is going to save the black nation."

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Interesting Facts:

TuPac Amaru is Inca for "shining serpent." Shakur is Arabic for "thankful to God".

Janet Jackson demanded 2Pac take an HIV test before she would do any kissing scenes for the film Poetic Justice.

2Pac didn't have a criminal record before he became a rap star.

In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle said 2Pac's 2Pacalypse Now "has no place in our society."

2Pac wrote his first rap at 15.

At 15, 2Pac also attended Baltimore School for the Arts where he studied ballet and acting.

2Pac's Death Row debut album, All Eyez on Me, was rap's first double CD.

While he was in jail, 2Pac's 1995 album, Me Against the World, debuted at No. 1. It went double platinum in 7 months.

Tupac's own words:

"I'm 100 percent original, and that's what got me here. My rap music is more understandable, slower. It tells a story. You can write a book on each of my thoughts."

"I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing... is right. So I feel like I 'm going to heaven. I think heaven is just when you sleep, you sleep with a good conscience, you don't have nightmares. Hell is when you sleep, the last thing you see is all the f*cked up things you did in your life and you just see it over and over again, cause you don't burn. If that's the case, it's hell on earth cause bullets burn."

"My music is not for everyone. It's only for the stong-willed, the [street] soldiers music. It's not like party music- I mean, you could gig to it, but it's spiritual. My musi is spiritual. It's like Negro spiituals, except for the fact that I'm not saying 'We shall Overcome.' I'm saying that we are overcome."

"Live by the gun die by the gun."

"We talk a lot about Malcom X and Martin Luther King JR, but It's time to be like them, as strong as them. They were mortal men like us and everyone of us can be like them. I don't want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who i am, this is what i do. I say what's on my mind."

"When my Heart Can Beat No More I hope die for a principal or a belief that I have lived for"

"There's gonna be some stuff u gonna see that's gonna make it hard To smile in the future, but through whatever you see, Through all the rain and all the pain, you gotta keep your sense of humor. You gotta be able to smile through all this bullsh*t."

Known Facts About Tupac's Music:

Tupac started his career on Tommy Boy Records with Digital Underground.

Tupac was first inspired to rap when a friend of his was killed while he was playing with a gun. His first rap was about gun control.

"Thug Luv" was just a song that Bizzy, Silk-E-Fine and Tupac were supposed to do but things happened and all of Bone Thugs -n- Harmony came in. Bizzy Bone that Pac came into the studio, wrote his verse in about 10 minutes and then left because he had to go model for Versace. Then he came back and sang with them all laid back.

According to K-Ci and Jojo the video for "Toss It Up" was shot the day before Tupac was shot.

Tupacs first appearance ever was on Digital Underground's Same Song where he raps wearing West African war clothes in the video.

Tupac wrote his hit song "Dear Mama" while in prison.

"I Get Around" was supposed to be on Digital Underground's album. Shock G wound up giving it to Pac and Digital Underground's label, Tommy Boy, wasn't very happy once it turned out to be such a big hit.

According to K-Ci and Jojo the video for "Toss It Up" was shot the day before Tupac was shot.

Tupac's Movies:

Gang Related (Criminal Intent)

Gridlock'd

Bullet

Above The Rim

Poetic Justice

Juice