Tupac Amaru Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks on the 16th of June 1971 in the Bronx, NYC. His mother, Alice Faye Williams (later to be known as Afeni Shakur), was a member of the Black Panther Party and was actually pregnant with him whilst in jail on bombing charges. She was acquitted of the charges after defending herself on that charge as well as 156 other counts. His father was William Garland. Tupac's name is taken from the Incas and means 'Shining Serpent' whilst Shakur is Arabic and means 'Thankful To God'.
As a child, everyone called Tupac the 'Black Prince'. When he would misbehave, his mother would make him read the entire New York Times.
Tupac had a younger sister, Sekyiwa, who was born when he was 2 years old. She was his half-sister being the daughter of his mother and stepfather, Mutulu Shakur. A few months before Sekyiwa's birth, Mutulu was sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for his involvement in a fatal robbery of an armoured car.
Following this, Tupac started writing love songs and poetry. He wanted to be an actor and his mother enrolled him in the 127th Street Ensemble. This was a theatre group based in Harlem. Tupac got his first role at the age of 12 as Travis in 'A Raisin in the Sun'.
In 1986, Tupac's family moved to Baltimore and he was enrolled in the Baltimore School for the Arts where he studied acting and ballet. He started getting into Rap and wrote lyrics. It was here that Tupac wrote his first rap under the name MC New York.
A couple of years later, Tupac's family moved to Marin City, California and Tupac moved in with a neighbour and started selling drugs. By the time he was 20 years old, Tupac had been arrested 8 times.
It took a couple more years until 1988 before Tupac got involved in the music business as a rapper, dancer and roadie for Digital Underground in 1990. The following year saw Tupac's first individual recognition with the album '2Pacalypse Now'. There were 2 successful singles off this album, 'Trapped' and 'Brenda's Got A Baby'.
Things were on the up and up for Tupac as 1992 saw him star in the movie 'Juice' and the following year after that, he starred opposite Janet Jackson in the movie 'Poetic Justice'.
In 1993, Tupac released 'Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.'. The album helped him crossover into the pop charts and spawned the hits 'Keep Ya Head Up' and 'I Get Around'.
The 'Thug Life' project was started in 1994 and Tupac appeared in his 3rd movie, 'Above The Rim'. He was also accused of a sex assault and shot 5 times during an attempted robbery outside a music studio in New York in which the thieves took $40,000 worth of his jewellery. The day after he was shot, Tupac was accused of sexually abusing a woman he had invited to his hotel room, but he was acquitted of all charges. Tupac miraculously survived the wounds he sustained in the robbery.
His multi-million selling album 'Me Against The World' was released in 1995, but in February of that year, Tupac was sentenced in New York to 41/2 years imprisonment for sex abuse. Three months later he married his girlfriend, Keisha Morris.
1995 saw Tupac star alongside Mickey Rourke in the movie 'Bulletproof'. He was released on bail in October of that year while he appealed.
In 1996, Tupac released his 4th solo album entitled 'All Eyez On Me' and it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. The album went on to sell 5 million copies and spawned the hits 'How Do You Want It' and 'California Love'. He also acted alongside James Belushi, Dennis Quaid and James Earl Jones in the movie 'Gang Related'.
On September 7th 1996, Tupac was shot after the Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield fight in Las Vegas. His assailants were unknown and Tupac was rushed to hospital by Suge Knight. On September 13th, Tupac was pronounced dead and news of his murder was broadcast worldwide. On the same day of his death, his video for 'I Ain't Mad At Cha' was released by MTV starting the theory that he is still alive. At the time of his death, he was engaged to Quincy Jones' daughter, Kidida.
The 'Don Killuminati' album was released in 1997 under the pseudonym Makavelli which fuelled the theories that Tupac is still alive. Also, his last 2 movies 'Gridlock'd' and 'Gang Related' were released along with their soundtracks on which Tupac has at least 6 songs.
His mother, Afeni Shakur, released a double CD on her newly established label, Amaru Records. In the same year, Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace is shot and killed in California. The media linked the deaths of the 2 rappers and put it down to East Coast/West Coast rivalry. Orlando Anderson, the main suspect for Tupac's murder, is found dead and his murder remains unsolved.
In 1998, another double CD is released, Tupac's greatest hits, and 'Changes' off the album becomes a No.1 single. The following year, Tupac's 4th official posthumous album 'Still I Rise' was released.
They say the good die young and many people will have conflicting views on whether Tupac Shakur was good or bad. The facts are that he was an extremely talented artist and actor who died at the prime of his life leaving a lot of his potential unknown to his fans. Whether he is dead or alive, I am sure fans can expect to see more material being released by him as it appears he left over 700 songs complete and unreleased at the time of his death. However, I am sure most of his fans would prefer to hear the man himself performing those songs, in the flesh and that's when the realisation hits that he is no longer with us.
