Biography on Tupac Shakur

Biography on Tupac Shakur

In much the same fashion that Kurt Cobain defined the alternative rock music scene, Tupac Shakur defined the hip-hop scene as we know it today. What made Tupac (also known as 2pac) so special was his enormous talent, his on-screen friendly looks, and the sense that he was 'real' and talked the talk, while walking the walk. Since his death, there's been a deluge of speculation on who and why, and even if, but unfortunately still no concrete answers exist for any of these questions. Born June 16, 1971, Tupac Amaru Shakur, who was named after Tupac Amaru, the Inca Indian that was sentenced to death by the Spaniards, was originally a newborn from Brooklyn, New York. He later was transplanted and grew most of his childhood moving from inner-city town to town. The son of Black Panther political activists Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland (who was Tupac's 'deadbeat dad' and recently lost a judgment to be included in his estate), Tupac was moved from Harlem, Baltimore, and Oakland. The constant moving caused Tupac to try to fit into his new communities by joining gangs, and his lengthy rap-sheet was created even before his prolific entry into music and film, where he was arrested eight times before even turning 20.

Tupac's first big break came when he joined the group Digital Underground as a dancer and roadie. During that time, Tupac spent much of it composing his own poetry and lyrics to launch his own career, and in 1991 he signed with Interscope and a year later released his first album, 2Pacalypse Now, which immediately landed him into gangsta rap stardom. Also that year he starred in Juice with Omar Epps and Samuel L. Jackson. It was the beginning and too early of an ending to a bright acting career whi...

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...LA Times "It was clear to me from day one that the Las Vegas police never had any interest in solving the case of my son's murder." Some others blamed Biggie Smalls, though the east-coast rapper was gunned down himself in what many view as retaliation to the Tupac slaying. As in the Shakur case, no witnesses have wanted to talk. The final piece of speculation (that we know of anyways), says that Tupac is still alive, and that he had faked his own death to break away from the entire gangsta scene for his personal and mental health, where they also point to the continuation of musical releases from the artist. Whatever the case, it is clear that the musical and film talents of 2pac will be greatly missed, and perhaps the only way to get to the bottom of what happened September 7, 1996 will be a deathbed confession from those involved, that is if they still are alive.