TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR aka 2Pac

Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

For a FRAMES version, click here.

Tupac Amaru Shakur 1971-1996

animation

Exit: 2PAC

Enter: Makaveli

Makaveli logo

Allow me to introduce first, the Don Killuminati

Makaveli album cover

"I was raised in this society so you can't expect me to be a perfect person. I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do."

Afeni Shakur, a Black Panther, was pregnant while in prison. She was a fighter. Tupac Amaru Shakur was born 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, and his mother moved the family to the West Coast in his teenage years. Attended a performing arts college, he met Jada Pinkett, and later joined Digital Underground as a dancer but soon became a co-rapper, first appearing on Same Song. He embarked on his solo career recording his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now , releasing the touching single Brenda’s Got A Baby, along with anti-establishment songs like I Don’t Give A Fuck. His compelling voice and rare insight as well as his rare ability to infuse his music with real emotion caused one to be drawn into his music.
The follow-up album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. , had the women-empowering Keep Ya Head Up and you could sense his anger and pain at his father leaving in Papa'z Song.
By then, he was regularly accosted by the police and said he had only got a criminal record once he was famous! He’d been blamed for an officer’s death as the killer had been listening to his music. C. Dolores Tucker and Bob Dole critisized Gangsta Rap and Tupac over the portrayal of graphic violence and the demeaning of women. Sometimes ‘Pac would be talking about respecting women, the next calling them bitches; one minute he was angry and full of hate, the next full of compassion.
He appeared as Bishop in Juice , where he was showed his acting ability, and then landed a role in Poetic Justice opposite Janet Jackson, and then in Above the Rim . During this time, he formed his own rap group, Thug Life, after the words tattooed against his stomach standing for The Hate U Gave Lil Infants Fucked Everyone. By this time he had many tattoos and was highly sought-after by women around the world!
He was accused of rape by a woman he met in a nightclub who willingly performed oral sex in the club, though he maintained he had been asleep in another room while his ‘friends’ had raped her. Due to lawyers’ fees, he accepted a recording session with an unknown source. Approaching the Times Square studio he was shot and wounded in an alleged attempt on his life, which he blamed on his at-the-time friend Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy upon seeing them in the studio surprised at him being alive. Convicted of rape, his classic album Me Against the World was No. 1, a first for anyone imcarcerated and he was regularly corresponding with Mike Tyson. His touching ode to his mother, Dear Mama, was released with a video depicting his mother showing pictures of her sons life.
He was bailed out at by Interscope/Death Row to which he subsequently signed and released rap’s first-ever double album, All Eyez On Me. His collaborations with Dr. Dre (California Love) and K-Ci & Jo-Jo(How Do U Want It ) allowed him to have fun on an album, and he was now the most popular and reviled rapper.
The war of words with Bad Boy continued with ‘Pac saying he had slept with Biggie’s wife Faith Evans, and then the release of Hit ‘Em Up, a record ripping into his enemies, especially Bad Boy, which the media exaggerated into the so-called East-West coastal war. Constantly predicting his early demise, he died after the Tyson-Seldon fight in Las Vegas on, ironically, Friday 13th September 1996: a drive-by shooting on his way to a performance for charity. The only living member of the crew who were supposed to have killed him, Orlando Anderson, has filed charges AGAINST his estate for libel and it was discovered that ‘Pac had recorded over 150 songs after his release from prison, including collaborations with Madonna, Boot Camp Click, Greg Nice, Busta Rhymes and Alanis Morrissette. But there were rumours that he had faked his death and was still alive, first heard by most people from Public Enemy’s Chuck D. This, though, is very unlikely.
His first post-humous release The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory under the name Makaveli(an Italian strategist who had advocated faking one’s death in order to vanquish one’s enemies) was released and quickly went platinum, and recently followed up by the double-album R U Still Down?(Remember me) containing pre-Thug Life material and an insight to his mind.
What is little-known was Tupac’s real character. He campaigned vehemently for the release of Mumia Abu Jamal; his worked for charity and the improvement of the ghettoes; he looked after around 40 family members financially; not many people knew his softer side: he read a lot of Shakespeare and the classics, he wrote many poems; and also his marriage and susequent amicable separation.. He had also planned to produce a film about his mother’s involvement with the Black Panthers, and become a full-time actor.
He did manage to wrap-up 3 films before his untimely death: Bullet , Gridlock’d and finally Gang Related . He was a star in the making, his acting superb; he could portray a thug and a cop, a lover and a fighter.
Tupac was not just the violent young black male portrayed by the media, but much more. He was a contradiction, a product of his society and the many places he had lived. But he was also an articulate young man who had been likened to being another Malcolm X: someone who could lead his people to better things through his work. And with enough material for another ten albums, Tupac’s legacy lives on.

Come with me
Hail Mary nigga run quick see
What do we have here now ?
Do you wanna ride or die

Come to me and the time will grow
Dedicating slow jams on the radio I
Know your happy i can feel your passion
Looking out for you just like daddy come on
Sunshine turns to rain
Baby I can take away your pain
If you trust me
Close your eyes and feel the magic
Never leave you when you need me
I do it just like daddy

We tradin war stories
We outlaws on the rise
Jealous niggas I despise
Look in my eyes

Live my life as a Thug nigga
Until the day I die
Live my life as a Boss playa (All eyez on me)
cuz we be getting high

Some say tha Blacker tha berry
Tha sweeter tha juice
I say, tha darker tha flesh and tha deeper tha roots
I give a hollar to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, but don't nobody else care
I know they like ta beat ya down a lot
And when ya come around tha block brothers clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry ya eyes
Never let up
Forgive but don't forget girl Keep Ya Head Up

Time goes by
Puffing on lye
Hoping that it gets me high
Got a nigga going crazy
I feel crazy

Only God Can Judge Me
...They say it's the white man I should fear
But it's m own kind doin' all the killing here

How many brother's fell victim to the streets
Rest in peace young nigga
There's a heaven for a G
Be a lie if I told you I never thought I'd die
My niggaz, we the last ones left
BUT LIFE GOES ON

Change ?
Shit I guess change is good for any of us
Whatever it takes for any off yall niggaz to get up out the hood
Shit I'm with ya
I ain't mad atcha
Got nuttin but love for ya

Links