Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1971.
When he was young, hemoved to Baltimore where attended The Baltimore
School for the Performing Arts.There,he impressed all his teachers
and showed that he had great potential. However, he did not
continue to study there and instead moved to Oakland, California.
There he started tohang out with the wrong kind of people. He also
joined a rap group called Digital Underground which went on to
achieve award winning success. Shortly after, Tupac
released his first solo album , the successful 2pacalypse Now, The
hit single "Brenda'sGot A Baby" launched Tupac's career like a rocket.
He not only had great rapping talentbut he could act as well. He got
a role in the motion picture,"Juice". In that movie we got
to see Tupac’s now legendary “I don’t give a fuck” attitude. Tupac
eventually released a second album "Strictly for my Niggaz,"
which was an even bigger success. The highlight of Tupac's acting
career came when he appeared in "Poetic Justice" beside Janet Jackson.
The role made Tupac a household name.
During the making of a his new movie, Above The Rim, and the
success of his platinum album, All Eyez On Me, Tupac's rising career
was put to an abrupt stop. He was brought up on sexual assault
charges by a woman he met at a nightclub.Hours before Tupac
would be found guilty, Tupac was robbed at gun point by men whose
intent and purpose is still not known. Tupac would later blame
those BAD BOY mother*uckers for the shooting. This was the beginning
of the West/East coast rivalry. Tupac was eventually
released from jail at over $1 Million in bail by Suge Knight,
CEO of DeathRow Records.
After his release, Tupac answered his critics by releasing
his best album, "All Eyez on Me." It has currently sold over 6
million copies, which is revolutionary for a double cd, especially
in the hiphop industry. As the album climbed the popcharts, Tupac
also completed work on two films, one entitled "Gridlock." After
a Tyson fight in Las Vegas, Tupac Shakur was assassinated by the
bullets of unknown gunmen on September 13, 1996. The rap legend
was taken from us on Sept. 13th at 4:03 pm. Many have paid
tribute to him, most recent Master P in the song “I Miss My Homies”
and Naughty by Nature in the song “Mourn You Till I join You”.
Eventhough he died over a year ago,more of his material STILL keeps
coming out. His latest movie “Gang Related” got rave reviews as
well as his acting. A new double album is coming out November 25th
titled “R U Still Down [remember me]”. His mother has assured his
fans that more of his unreleased songs will come out in the future.
Tupac will also appear in a variety of movies coming out, he will
even have a cameo appearance in Terminator 3. He will always be
alive in the memories of the millions of his fans around the world.
LAS VEGAS SUN REPORTS: LIFE AND DEATH OF TUPAC SHAKUR"Gangsta" rapper Tupac Shakur died Friday from wounds suffered six days ago in a car-to-car shooting on a busy street a few blocks off the Las Vegas Strip.Shakur, 25, was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. Friday at University Medical Center. He died of respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest, a hospital spokesman said.Las Vegas police have struggled to discover who shot Shakur, but family friends grieving at the hospital suggested that they know who murdered him. Family and friends milled around the hospital comforting each other until 6 p.m., even though a mortuary van took his body to the Clark County Coroner's office about 5:10 p.m.Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight, chairman of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, were shot while Knight was driving Shakur on East Flamingo Road. A white Cadillac pulled up next to them and a gunman emptied a semiautomatic pistol into the passenger side of their car.Shakur was hit four times in the chest and abdomen. Police believe he was the target.He lingered in a coma and was nonresponsive until he died, a friend outside the hospital said. Knight was slightly injured from bullet fragments.The two were in a caravan of cars leaving the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight fight Saturday night when the gunman, inside a car with two or three black men inside,opened fire on Shakur.A crowd of roughly 75 mourners had gathered at UMC after his death. A nurse said evening shift employees at the hospital were calling in sick because they didn't want to walk through the crowd. Metro Police gang detectives and patrol officers surrounded the area but there were no incidents of violence.One man, a Las Vegas resident who said he goes by the name of Marcos, met Shakur more than a year ago when Shakur was filming his most recent music video."I watched him make the whole thing," Marcos said.He last talked with Shakur Saturday night after the Tyson-Seldon fight. Shakur offered to give him a ride to Club 662, where the entourage was headed, Marcos said."I said, `I'll meet you there, man.' We never made it." Shakur was scheduled to attend a charity event at the club to raise money to keep children away from violence. Shakur was shot before he could attend the event.Witnesses to the shooting, including Knight, have frustrated police because they have provided few details on the suspects and possible motives."Nobody wants to help the police, " Marcos said. "What for? What are they going to do? I'm just saying that whoever did this is going to get found. The people who find him, Idon't know what they'll do."A family friend at the hospital said,"You're not going to hear any talk about retaliation here. That'll come later."Police still have few clues leading to the gunman, Sgt. Kevin Manning said. Manning said today he had no new information.Marcos, when asked if the assailants would eventually leak information that they shot Shakur, said, "They already have." He declined to say where the purported suspects live, only that "they're not from Las Vegas." George Pryce, Death Row Records spokesman, said they were preparing a statement. "Give people a moment to get over the shock," he said. Shaneeka Jackson, 22, said she came down to see if any celebrities would come to the hospital."Some friends said they saw M.C. Hammer but I haven't seen him," Jackson said.It was the second time Shakur had been gunned down in less than two years. In November 1994 he was shot five times during an apparent robbery in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio. Arrested repeatedly in recent years, he was released last year on bail pending appeal after serving eight months in a New York prison for sex abuse. The Las Vegas attackers got away. Knight, with three lawyers, talked to investigators four days after the shooting but was of no help, police said. There had been trouble ealier.Shakur and associates were in a fight outside a Las Vegas hotel just before the shooting. And at the recent MTV awards in New York, police broke up a confrontation between Shakur's entourage and six other men. But then there always seemed to be something brewing. Shakur was up-front about his troubled life in the 1995 release "Me Against The World," a multi-million-selling album that contained the ominously titled tracks "If I Die 2Nite" and "Death Around The Corner." "It ain't easy being me - will I see the penitentiary, or will I stay free?" Shakur rapped on the album, which produced the Grammy-nominated "Dear Mama" and standout singles "So Many Tears" and "Temptations."Yet Shakur was not just the fury, expletives and anger of songs like "F--- the World." He could be poignant ("It was hell hugging on my mama from a jail cell") and both sympathetic and critical of young black men trying to become "gangstas" ("You could be a f------ accountant, not a dope dealer, you know what I'm saying"). The Las Vegas shooting occurred as Shakur's fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. The song "How Do You Want It- California Love" was a top 20 single on Billboard magazine's charts. The rapper had a more hopeful outlook on "All Eyez." In a comment released by his label, Shakur had described the making of the album: "I just said what I wanted to say, and it liberated me. I let go of the anger." A fledgling actor, Shakur had recently completed filming a role as a detective for the Orion picture "Gang Related." He previously appeared in "Above The Rim" in 1994; with Janet Jackson in John Singleton's 1993 release "Poetic Justice;" and in the 1992 Earnest Dickerson film "Juice." Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in 1971 in the Bronx. He moved to Baltimore to attend its High School for the Performing Arts, where he began writing rap. He then moved to Marin City, Calif., near Oakland, and continued to write and record.As a member of the Grammy-nominated group Digital Underground he appeared in 1991 on the track "Same Song" from "This is an EP Release" and on the album "Sons Of The P." That same year Shakur achieved individual recognition with the album "2Pacalypse Now," which spawned the successful singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got A Baby." The album, with references to police officers being killed, drew notoriety when a lawyer claimed a man accused of killing a Texas trooper had been riled up by the record. Then-Vice President Dan Quayle targeted "2Pacalypse Now" in his 1992 battle with Hollywood over traditional values. Shakur followed up in 1993 with the strong selling album "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z...," which produced the singles "I Get Around," "Keep Ya Head Up," and "Papa'z Song." That year he was nominated for an American Music Award as best new rap hip hop artist.The next year he appeared with Thug Life on the "Above The Rim" soundtrack and on the group's album "Volume 1." In a photo on the album liner he framed his face between his two extended middle fingers. While in prison last year he indicated he was rethinking his lifestyle."Thug Life to me is dead. If it's real, let somebody else represent it, because I'm tired of it," Shakur told Vibe magazine. "I represented it too much. I was Thug Life." The Associated Press also contributed to this story.
Timeline of events
Timeline
Times are approximate.
Saturday, Sept. 7 8:30 p.m. - People start leaving the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon fight that was held at the MGM Grand. Tupac Shakur attended the fight which started at 8 p.m. Tyson was declared the winner after 109 seconds in the ring with Seldon. 8:30 to 9 p.m. - Shakur and his bodyguards are involved in a physical altercation with a man near the hotel's Grand Garden. Police do not believe the man was in any way connected to the later shooting of Shakur. 11:15 p.m. - Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight are shot. Shakur had been standing up through the open sun roof of a 1996 BMW 750 sedan that was eastbound on Flamingo Road. Shakur is shot four times in the chest. Shrapnel grazed Knight's head. A total of 13 shots were fired at the car Shakur was in. After the shooting, Shakur's car made a U-turn and head West on Flamingo. Police reached the car on the Strip where it was caught in traffic. An ambulance then picked up Shakur and Knight transporting them to University Medical Center, where Shakur underwent the first of three operations.
Sunday, Sept. 8 11 a.m. - Knight is released from the University Medical Center. 6:20 p.m. - Shakur undergoes a second operation at UMC to repair damage from the bullet wounds.
Monday, Sept. 9 8 p.m. - Metro Police and about 20 friends of Shakur are in an altercation over what police call a "misunderstanding." Tensions are calmed with help from a female friend of Shakur's and four men originally handcuffed during the scuffle are released. No one was arrested. Police have been patrolling outside the hospital out of concern for retaliation after the shooting.
Wednesday, Sept. 11 6 p.m. - Knight, accompanied by his attorneys speaks to METRO Police for about an hour.
Friday, Sept. 13 4:03 p.m. - Shakur dies from his injuries.
Reaction to Shakur's death "The most unfortunate thing that has ever happened in the hiphop culture. It saddens me. I hope this is a wake up call for a lot of us. I pray for him and his loved ones."-- Recording Artist, actor and Uptown Records Chief Executive Officer Heavy D
"This is so, so sad. Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call. He couldn't break the cycle." -- Rev. Jesse Jackson
"There ain't nothing wrong with speaking the truth. But I want my brothers to realize we're killing ourselves. It's a crying shame to still be living this way." -- Michelle Swift, Shakur fan in Las Vegas.
"Despite some of his shortcomings, he always gave you something with his music. He gave you some things to think about or he gave you something to laugh about or he gave you something to cry about." -- fellow rapper Coolio
"I hope in the midst of this tragedy, we can put together an aggressive and strong drive against violence among young people and dedicate it to Tupac's memory." -- Rev. Al Sharpton, who counseled Shakur in prison
"Nobody wants to help the police. What for? What are they going to do? I'm just saying that whoever did this is going to get found. The people who find him, I don't know what they'll do." -- Marcos, a friend of Shakur's at University Medical Center
"I'm here to pay my respects - for fan support and moral support. There's anger. The anger is directed at an individual who is at large somewhere." -- Kevin D, a fan who gathered outside University Medical Center
"I just feel bad, real bad for him. He was somebody I really looked up to." -- Chris Spamm, a fan at a mall in Crenshaw District of Los Angeles.
"I was devastated, like man this is a real shame how rap music has turned now," -- Jerry Kirby, a fan at a mall in Crenshaw District of Los Angeles
"That's the funny thing about life, you never know what's going to happen to you, you know what I'm saying? He wasn't expecting it. You never know, man, when your time's going to come you know?" -- Elmont Robertson, a fan at a mall in Crenshaw District of Los Angeles.
Timeline of Shakur's life By The Associated Press
Significant events in the life of Tupac Shakur since 1991:
1991
•Shakur achieves individual recognition with the album "2Pacalypse Now," which spawned the successful singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got A Baby." •As a member of the Grammy-nominated group Digital Underground he appeared on the track "Same Song" from "This is an EP Release" and on the album "Sons Of The P."
1992
•Shakur appeared in the Earnest Dickerson film "Juice."
1993
•Appeared in John Singleton's release "Poetic Justice."
1994 •Release of "Thug Life." •Appeared in "Above The Rim" •November: Shakur's New York sex assault trial opens. •November: Shakur is shot during apparent robbery attempt outside a music studio in New York. •December: One day after being shot, Shakur is convicted of sexually abusing a woman he had invited to his hotel room. He is acquitted of sodomy and weapons charges.
1995
•Release of "Me Against The World," a multi-million-selling album. •February: Sentenced in New York to 4 1/2 years in prison for sex abuse. •May: Shakur married longtime girlfriend, Keisha Morris. •October: After nearly eight months in prison, Shakur is released on bail while he appeals.
1996
•Shakur's fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, goes on to sell about 5 million copies. The song "How Do You Want It California Love" was a top 20 single on Billboard magazine's charts. •Acted as a detective in Orion's urban crime thriller "Gang Related." •Sept. 7: Shakur shot in Las Vegas. •Sept. 13: Shakur pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m.
