Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on the 16th of June 1971, in East Harlem, Manhattan. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks until he was renamed at age one. His mother Afeni Shakur and biological father Billy Garland were active members of the Black Panther Party during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A month before his birth, Afeni faced trial as part of the Panther 21 criminal case involving over 150 charges. She was acquitted of all those charges while other family members faced serious convictions. Her husband Lumumba Shakur was a Sunni Muslim who married her in November 1968 but was not Tupac's biological father. The family connection to radical politics extended further when stepfather Mutulu Shakur spent four years as one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. He was later convicted for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck that killed police officers and a guard. Godfather Elmer Pratt served twenty-seven years in prison before his conviction was overturned due to concealed evidence proving innocence. Godmother Assata Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 after being convicted of murdering a New Jersey State Trooper in 1977. She remained on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list until her death in 2025.
The family moved from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1984 when Tupac was thirteen years old. They lived at 3955 Greenmount Ave in the Pen Lucy neighborhood within a two-story rowhouse subdivided into rental units. The block was renamed Tupac Shakur Way after his death. He attended Roland Park Middle School then Paul Laurence Dunbar High School before transferring to the Baltimore School for the Arts in tenth grade. At this school he studied acting poetry jazz and ballet while performing in Shakespeare plays and as the Mouse King in The Nutcracker ballet. He befriended actress Jada Pinkett there who became the subject of poems like Jada and The Tears in Cupid's Eyes. With friend Dana Mouse Smith as beatboxer he won competitions for the school's best rapper. He listened to diverse music including Kate Bush Culture Club Sinéad O'Connor and U2. In 1988 he moved to Marin City California an impoverished community in the San Francisco Bay Area where he attended Tamalpais High School without graduating but later earned his GED.
Shakur began recording under the stage name MC New York in 1988. That year he started attending poetry classes with Leila Steinberg who soon became his manager. She organized concerts for him and his rap group Strictly Dope. Atron Gregory placed him with Digital Underground as a roadie and backup dancer in 1990. Jimi Chopmaster J Dright worked with Shakur Ray Luv and DJ Dize on their earliest studio recordings from 1988 to 1991. These recordings were rediscovered in 2000 and released as The Lost Tapes Circa 1989 after Afeni Shakur sued to stop the sale. Her suit settled in June 2001 allowing rerelease as Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988, 1991.
His debut album 2Pacalypse Now arrived in November 1991 alluding to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. It explored social issues including racism police brutality poverty gang violence teenage pregnancy and drug abuse. Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the album stating there was no reason for such a record to be released. Despite controversy the album went Gold peaking at No. 64 on the Billboard 200 and No. 13 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Singles included Trapped Brenda's Got a Baby reaching No. 23 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and If My Homie Calls hitting No. 3 on Hot Rap Songs. In 1992 he starred in Juice playing Roland Bishop described by Rolling Stone's Peter Travers as the film's most magnetic figure. He secured the role after fifteen minutes of rehearsal following an audition request from producer Neal H. Moritz.
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... released February 1993 debuted at No. 24 on the pop albums chart. It emphasized sociopolitical views with metallic production quality featuring Ice Cube and Ice-T. The single I Get Around reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 while Keep Ya Head Up peaked at No. 12 as an anthem for women's empowerment. Papa'z Song peaked at No. 87 on Billboard 200. By April 1995 the album sold one million copies earning Platinum certification. That same year he starred alongside Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice and played gangster Birdie in Above the Rim directed by Duane Martin.
In November 1993 Shakur and two other men were charged in New York with sodomizing a woman named Ayanna Jackson in his hotel room. She alleged that after performing oral sex on him at a Manhattan nightclub dance floor she went to his hotel room where record executive Jacques Haitian Jack Agnant road manager Charles Fuller and an unidentified fourth man forced her to perform non-consensual acts. Two guns were found in the room leading to charges of illegal firearm possession. On the 1st of December 1994, Shakur was acquitted of three counts of sodomy and gun charges but convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse for forcibly touching the woman's buttocks. Jurors cited lack of evidence stymied a sodomy conviction. His lawyer called the sentence out of line with the groping conviction while bail set at $3 million seemed inhumane.
Shakur surrendered himself to Bellevue Hospital Jail Ward in New York City on the 23rd of December 1994, still recovering from injuries received when shot five times at Quad Studios on the 30th of November 1994. He moved to North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island the 7th of January 1995 then transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora March 1995. While imprisoned he began reading works like The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli and The Art of War by Sun Tzu sparking interest in philosophy and military strategy. On the 29th of April 1995, he married girlfriend Keisha Morris though their marriage was annulled ten months later. He exchanged letters with celebrities including Jim Carrey Tony Danza and Al Sharpton who helped him get released from solitary confinement. On the 12th of October 1995, he bonded out of Dannemora after Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight posted his $1.4 million bond pending judicial appeal.
On the 30th of November 1994, Shakur recorded verses for a Ron G mixtape at Quad Studios in Times Square. Music manager James Jimmy Henchman Rosemond offered him $7,000 to stop by that night to record a verse for client Little Shawn. He arrived with Stretch and others but three men robbed and beat him at gunpoint while shooting him five times. Against medical advice he checked out of Metropolitan Hospital Center hours after surgery and secretly went to actress Jasmine Guy's house to recuperate. Fruit of Islam and former Black Panther Party members stood guard protecting him.
In a 1995 Vibe interview Shakur accused Sean Combs Jimmy Henchman and the Notorious B.I.G. of setting up or being privy to the November 1994 robbery and shooting since they were present at Quad Studios. Months later Combs and B.I.G. released Who Shot Ya? which Shakur took as mockery so he released Hit 'Em Up targeting B.I.G. Combs their label Junior M.A.F.I.A. and rivals Mobb Deep Chino XL. On the 7th of September 1996, Shakur attended Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match at MGM Grand with Suge Knight. Afterward an associate spotted Orlando Anderson a South Side Compton Crip who had tried robbing them earlier. Hotel surveillance footage showed the ensuing assault on Anderson. Shakur then headed with Knight to Club 662 in a black BMW 750iL sedan part of a larger convoy.
At about 11:15 p.m. at a stoplight on Las Vegas Boulevard a white four-door late-model Cadillac pulled up to the passenger side. An occupant rapidly fired into the car striking Shakur four times once in the arm once in the thigh twice in the chest with one bullet entering his right lung. Shards hit Knight's head while bodyguard Frank Alexander was not in the car. He would say he had been tasked to drive Shakur's girlfriend Kidada Jones' vehicle. Shakur was taken to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada where he was heavily sedated and put on life support. In the intensive-care unit afternoon of the 13th of September 1996, he died from internal bleeding pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. Official causes were respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds.
Shakur's body was cremated the next day after death. Members of the Outlawz smoked some ashes mixed with marijuana recalling a line from Black Jesus though uncertain if the artist intended literal meaning. On the 18th of July 2023, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police executed a search warrant connected to Shakur's murder. the 29th of September 2023, AP reported police arrested suspect Duane Keefe D Davis in Shakur's murder. Police served a search warrant two months prior at his wife's home in Henderson Nevada suburb. Davis pleaded not guilty the 2nd of November 2023, in Las Vegas.
As of February 2025 Davis trial set to start the 9th of February 2026. He remained incarcerated at Clark County Detention Center until ordered the 18th of November 2025, to serve additional sentence for jailhouse fight conviction received April 2025. By January 2025 Davis now serving separate prison sentence for that fight was incarcerated at Nevada's High Desert State Prison. Trial delayed again the 10th of August 2026. In 2002 investigative journalist Chuck Philips reported Anderson fired fatal gunshots but Las Vegas police interviewed him only briefly before his unrelated shooting death. Philips also alleged involvement of Christopher Notorious B.I.G. Wallace and New York City criminal underworld figures both denied while Wallace offered confirmed alibi. Music journalist John Leland called evidence inconclusive in The New York Times. FBI documents released via Freedom of Information Act in 2011 described extortion scheme by Jewish Defense League making death threats against rappers without indicating direct connection to murder.
Shakur sold more than 75 million records worldwide becoming among best-selling music artists. His double-length posthumous album Greatest Hits released 1998 is one of nine hip-hop albums certified Diamond in United States. Five more albums followed including The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory recorded summer 1996 under stage name Makaveli with lyrics written three days mixing four days. It peaked No. 1 on Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Billboard 200 achieving second-highest debut-week sales total that year. Certified 4× Multi-Platinum the 15th of June 1999.
In 2002 Shakur inducted into Hip-Hop Hall of Fame then Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the 7th of April 2017 first year eligible. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 86 among 100 Greatest Artists while Billboard placed him number 4 top 50 rappers 2023. In 2006 ashes laid to rest in Soweto South Africa birthplace of ancestors transported by mother Afeni who conducted memorial service there. City of Johannesburg donated five-acre undeveloped land Zola area for memorial honoring Shakur portion designated park benefiting local children promoting environmental education pathways orphanages bridges skateboard ramps golf range amphitheater museum showcasing South African music arts funded by city authorities and Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.
Academic courses explored his work starting University of California Berkeley History 98 Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur 1997 Harvard symposium All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and Search for Modern Folk Hero April 2003. Norwegian University Oslo organized course Tupac hiphop og kulturhistorie highlighting how single person fits wider cultural models making local storytelling international phenomenon. Library of Congress added Dear Mama to National Recording Registry the 23rd of June 2010 third rap song honored. Vatican added Changes 1998 posthumous track online playlist 2009 drawing praise. Oakland City Council named section MacArthur Boulevard Tupac Shakur Way the 16th of May 2023 while Hollywood Walk of Fame star awarded the 7th of June 2023 accepted by half-sister Sekyiwa Set Shakur.
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Common questions
When and where was Tupac Shakur born?
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on the 16th of June 1971, in East Harlem, Manhattan. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks until he was renamed at age one.
What were the early life details for Tupac Shakur before his music career began?
The family moved from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1984 when Tupac was thirteen years old. He attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School then transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts in tenth grade.
How did Tupac Shakur die and what was the official cause of death?
Shakur died from internal bleeding pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. on the afternoon of the 13th of September 1996. Official causes were respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds.
Who is currently facing charges related to the murder of Tupac Shakur as of 2025?
Police arrested suspect Duane Keefe D Davis in Shakur's murder on the 29th of September 2023. As of February 2025 Davis trial set to start the 9th of February 2026 but was delayed again the 10th of August 2026.
When was Tupac Shakur inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Tupac Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the 7th of April 2017. He was the first year eligible for induction that year.