Memorial Page for Tupac Shakur (née Lesane Parish Crooks)

Tupac Shakur (born 16 June 1971 in New York City; died 13 September 1996 in Las Vegas) was an American rapper and actor. With albums such as Me Against the World and All Eyez on Me, and lyrics that spoke directly to poverty, police violence and the anger of young Black Americans, he became one of the most influential figures in hip-hop history – an artist whose political inheritance was inseparable from his family background, and whose early, violent death sealed him into legend.

Origins and Baltimore

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in East Harlem to Afeni Shakur, a Black Panther activist who, while pregnant with him, had been acquitted of more than 150 charges in the so-called "Panther 21" trial. His biological father, William Garland, was also a former Black Panther. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century South American freedom fighter – a deliberate expression of his parents' political convictions.

The family lived in poverty and moved frequently. In the mid-1980s Shakur came with his mother to Baltimore, Maryland, where he attended the Baltimore School for the Arts and studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet – training that shaped his later sense of rhythm and performance. In 1988 the family moved on to Marin City, California, in search of work; Shakur later described this move as the turning point at which he "went the wrong way."

From Digital Underground to solo artist

In California, Shakur entered the music business through the group Digital Underground, first as a roadie and dancer, then as a rapper. His appearance on their 1991 song "Same Song" earned him a solo deal with Interscope Records. His politically charged debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, appeared in November 1991, followed by Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. in 1993. At the same time he began an acting career, appearing in Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993) alongside Janet Jackson, and Above the Rim (1994).

The Quad Studios shooting

On 30 November 1994 Shakur was ambushed, robbed and shot five times, once in the head, at Quad Recording Studios in New York. He survived, but became convinced that people close to The Notorious B.I.G. and his label, Bad Boy Records, had been involved in the attack – a suspicion that became the starting point of hip-hop's notorious East Coast–West Coast feud. The following day he began serving a multi-year prison sentence. While he was incarcerated, the album Me Against the World was released in March 1995 and debuted at number one on the Billboard chart – an unprecedented achievement for an imprisoned artist.

Death Row Records

On 12 October 1995 Suge Knight, head of Death Row Records, posted a $1.4 million bond and secured Shakur's release from prison in exchange for a recording contract. On 13 February 1996 the double album All Eyez on Me was released, also reaching number one and becoming one of the best-selling rap albums of its era. During this period the feud with The Notorious B.I.G. and the New York scene escalated further, becoming one of the most discussed rivalries in music history.

Las Vegas and death

On 7 September 1996 Shakur attended a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with Suge Knight. After an altercation with a member of a rival group in the hotel lobby, Shakur and Knight later drove down Las Vegas Boulevard in a black BMW when a white Cadillac pulled up and opened fire on their car. Shakur was struck in the chest, pelvis and arm. He died on 13 September 1996 at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, aged 25, from his injuries. The case remains officially unsolved to this day.

Numerous further albums of unreleased material followed his death, including, later in 1996, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, released under the pseudonym Makaveli. Shakur's work remains a reference point for a strand of hip-hop culture that brings political ambition, personal vulnerability and raw anger together in the same songs – a legacy that never disowned its roots in a family of political activists.