Who Was Pac?

If you don't know who Tupac was, then this is the page for you to read before you progress
to the rest of the site. Here I will give a general overview of who Tupac was, and some links
that you can follow to get more detailed information about him.

Who was Tupac?

Tupac Amaru Shakur was a rapper who also acted in several films. He made seven official
solo albums, as well as contributing songs to his film soundtracks and featuring on other
artists' tracks. You can see the albums from the Lyrics page.

What was his background?

I suggest that you read the Timeline page for a basic outline of his life, but in short he was
born in 1971. His mother was a member of the Black Panther group, which campaigned for
black women's rights in America. His real father left his mother at an early age, and so he
knew his Stepfather Mutulu Shakur better. Mutulu was always in jail however, so you could
say that Tupac did not have a very good upbringing. His rap career started out with a group
called Digital Underground, and then he went solo with his first album, 2Pacalypse Now.

So who is Makaveli, then?

Makaveli was the name under which one of Tupac's last albums was released. He was still
the same rapper, but just with a different alias. This was released after his death, and is
considered to be one of his greatest albums.

Tell me about Tupac in jail...

Tupac was sent to jail after being convicted of the sexual abuse of a woman he met at a
nightclub. The jail was called Riker's Island. He was bailed out by the MD of Death Row
Records, Marion 'Suge' (pronouned like the 'sug' in sugar) Knight, for $1.4m. This was done
in exchange for a three-album deal with Death Row.

What is Death Row Records?

Death Row was a record company which was known for its manager's violence and its 'true'
gangsta rappers. Other rappers on the label in the past and present have included Snoop
Doggy Dogg, Dr Dre, Daz Dillinger and Soopafly. Death Row became one of the biggest and
most successful labels in rap history, but many say that it has fallen now that Snoop and
Dre have left it. Suge Knight was jailed over a year ago for violating his probation, and he
has been forbidden from having any conbtact with the label. He may be released next week
(I am writing this on the 20th September, 1998). For more information, read the About
Suge Knight article.

So where is Tupac now?

Tupac has died (although many theorists believe that he is still alive). He passed away in
hospital on Friday 13th September, 1996. For more information, check out the Details of
Tupac's Death link down the left side of your screen.

How could he be alive?

There are many theories, because Tupac left many 'clues' in a lot of his material. People
believe that his death could have been faked. There are several pages dedicated to theories
on this site. Here are the most relevant. The My Theory page discusses my views on why
Tupac is dead, and who had him killed. The Is Tupac Alive? page gives reasons why Tupac
could still be alive, and the About Blac Haze page gives information about the new artist,
Blac Haze, who some people consider to be Tupac returned to the world of rap.

What's next?

Tupac has a lot of unreleased material, so dozens of new albums could be made and
released. There are several legal battles going on at the moment as to who has the rights
to this material - the battles are between Death Row and Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur.
Even if any new material was released, it would be a long time coming, and then there
would be another long wait for any more to be released. So do not expect too much - there
may only be a trickle of new songs.


BoNeThuGSoLjAh@aol.com