Table of contents for Tupac in Tupac

Tupac Shakur is remembered as many things. He was, and still is, one of hip-hop’s most successful and influential artists, with more than 75 million records sold worldwide. But his story was also a sad one—his life ended as a victim of violence, which he simultaneously criticized and glamorized for an entire generation of fans. He was a complex contradiction. Philosophically, he deplored the impact of guns on Black Americans. He hoped future generations might be spared, but he also fed the hate machine with music and messages that some felt was a celebration. He tried to bring peace and understanding to two factions at war, but also took sides and retaliated without mercy. He celebrated women—his mother was his role model—yet he was found guilty of sexual abuse. He…

Tupac wasn’t worried. The new AK-47 assault rifle he’d bought gave him peace of mind as he showed it to Shock G. Since Tupac never remembered to lock the doors of the new Oakland apartment his Digital Underground bandmates provided for him, Shock G feared someone might try to rob his protégé. The young rapper was like a little brother, but he had begun challenging Shock G’s creative decisions. The weapon might have been the first inkling that there were now two ’Pacs: the gentle, creative professional, and the hardened revolutionary, mad at the world. There were other signs of Tupac’s intense restlessness. When Tupac felt the group’s sound man wasn’t doing his job properly, Tupac swung on him. It was clear that the former background presence was already behaving…

Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace—aka Biggie Smalls and Notorious B.I.G.—were both children of 1970s New York City. Both had largely absent fathers and were raised by single mothers. Both sold drugs at some point during their rise, and both became rap stars. They were both briefly married as well—Tupac married criminology student Keisha Morris in April 1995 while he was incarcerated, and Biggie married singer Faith Evans after eight days together in the summer of 1994. The two rappers even shared the same horoscope sign: Gemini. It seemed destined that their paths would cross and, with so much in common, possibly become friends. Biggie and Tupac first met in 1993 when the former was in L.A. on business. (Some accounts say the meeting happened on the set of Poetic Justice…

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The rec room at the brick housing project on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx was only supposed to hold 40 to 50 peo-ple. Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, still thought it was the perfect place to hold a “Back to School” party for his little sister, Cindy. Flyers were made, touting the location, the time (Aug. 11, 1973, from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.) and the cost (25 cents for “ladies” and 50 cents for “fellas”). In a violent, poverty-stricken era where en-tire blocks resembled a burned-out war zone—there were 68,456 fires in the Bronx from 1970 to 1975—people needed an escape. What Kool Herc organized turned out to be even greater: the birth of hip-hop. Kool Herc had perfected his signature style of playing only…

At a Houston tattoo parlor in the summer of 1992, Tupac reclined in artist Dennis “Dago” Coelho’s chair to receive what is likely the most iconic ink in hip-hip history: “THUG LIFE,” splayed across Tupac’s abdomen, just above his belly button. (The “i” in “life” was a bullet.) Tupac later said that his tattoo was an acronym that stood for “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody.” The ink would eventually define Tupac, signaling the start of a perilous period in the rapper’s life even as he tried to use his art to make a stand against violence. In spring 1992, Tupac had been instrumental in helping to facilitate a meeting between the Bloods and Crips in Los Angeles, a summit known as the “Truce Picnic” that produced 26…

On April Fool’s Day 1995, just two and a half weeks after its release, Tupac Shakur’s third album, Me Against the World, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. When it did, the rapper was sitting in a cell at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, an Adirondack town 20 miles from the Canadian border. The notorious prison, which opened in 1845, once held mobster Lucky Luciano and “Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz. Now it was holding the first recording artist to hit No. 1 while in jail. Unseating Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Hits and holding the top spot for four weeks, Me Against the World is quintessential Tupac, a mix of heartfelt ballads and confessional gangster raps, including “If I Die 2Nite.” A tender ode to his…

On June 16, 1971, one month after securing her own release from Manhattan’s New York Women’s House of Detention, activist Afeni Shakur gave birth to a son: Lesane Parish Crooks. Afeni—who had faced numerous conspiracy charges as a member of the Black Panthers—and the boy’s biological father and fellow Panther, Billy Garland, named their son to shield him from dangerous rivals, who they hoped would never know his true heritage for possible retaliation. Less than two years later, when she felt safer, Afeni changed her son’s name to Tupac Amaru Shakur, in honor of an Incan emperor who defied Spanish rule and whose name meant “intelligent warrior.” She envisioned a grand destiny for her son and became the driving influence in his life. “She was her own attorney, never been…

In director Ernest R. Dickerson’s 1992 film Juice, there is a memorable scene in which Omar Epps’ character, Q, calls Tupac’s aspiring gangster Bishop “crazy.” The movie was released in January, and Q’s assessment coincided with a darker turn in the rapper’s off-screen persona. “You’re right. I am crazy,” Tupac’s on-screen alter ego replies. “But you know what? I don’t give a f**k.” Art imitating life or vice versa? The film was Tupac’s first starring role, and it fit him. Given the violence soon swirling around him and real-life brushes with the legal system, Bishop’s comment appeared based entirely in reality, and it was hard for Tupac to escape the line in subsequent years. Pretending or just being himself, Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers lauded Tupac’s skills on film: “There’s no…

At 11:15 p.m. on Sept. 7, 1996, Suge Knight stopped his black BMW 750 sedan for a red light at the intersection of E. Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas. From the passenger seat, Tupac flirted with a car full of girls through the driver’s side window. He didn’t notice the white Cadillac that had pulled up alongside his car on the right. Seconds later, a gun emerged from the back of the Cadillac and shots rang out. Tupac was hit four times. Paramedics rushed him to University Medical Center. He died six days later from respiratory failure, after doctors had removed his right lung in an attempt to stop the hemorrhaging. Who shot Tupac? The question has remained unanswered for more than two decades, but conspiracy rumors…