"Pay no mind to those who talk behind your back, it Simply means you are 2 steps ahead" - Tupac Shakur
EARLY LIFE
Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City.His mother, Afeni Shakur, and his father, Billy Garland, were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The infant boy was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York "Panther 21" court case. Shakur lived from an early age with people who were convicted of serious criminal offences and who were imprisoned.
__At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's 127th Street Repertory Ensemble and was cast as the Travis Younger character in the play A Raisin in the Sun, which was performed at the Apollo Theater. In 1986, the family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland.After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, he transferred to theBaltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker.Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beatbox, won many rap competitions and was considered to be the best rapper in his school.He was remembered as one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix with all crowds.He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until his death.
__At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's 127th Street Repertory Ensemble and was cast as the Travis Younger character in the play A Raisin in the Sun, which was performed at the Apollo Theater. In 1986, the family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland.After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, he transferred to theBaltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the Mouse King in the ballet The Nutcracker.Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beatbox, won many rap competitions and was considered to be the best rapper in his school.He was remembered as one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix with all crowds.He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until his death.
PERSONAL LIFE
Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including William Shakespeare, Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran.[citation needed]Shakur never professed following a particular religion, but his lyrics in singles such as 'Only God Can Judge Me' and poems such as The Rose That Grew from Concrete suggest he believed in God. This means many analysts currently describe him as a deist.He believed in Karma, but rejected a literal afterlife and organized religion.Tupac has had several family members who were members of the Black Panthers; Mutulu Shakur, the step-father of Tupac, Assata Shakur, his step-aunt, Billy Garland the biological father of Tupac and Afeni Shakur his mother. Tupac publicly spoke out against interracial marriage in an interview with Source magazine in 1994
ARTISTRY
Shakur's music and philosophy is rooted in many American, African-American, and world entities, including the Black Panther Party, Black nationalism, egalitarianism, and liberty.Tupac’s love of theater and Shakespeare also influenced his work. A student of the Baltimore school of Arts where he studied theater, Tupac understood the Shakespearian psychology of inter-gang wars and inter-cultural conflict. During a 1995 interview, Tupac told the Pulitzer prize-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Chuck Philips
“… I love Shakespeare. He wrote some of the rawest stories, man. I mean look at Romeo and Juliet. That's some serious ghetto shit. You got this guy Romeo from the Bloods who falls for Juliet, a female from the Crips, and everybody in both gangs are against them. So they have to sneak out and they end up dead for nothing. Real tragic stuff.And look how Shakespeare busts it up with Macbeth. He creates a tale about this king's wife who convinces a happy man to chase after her and kill her husband so he can take over the country. After he commits the murder, the dude starts having delusions just like in a Scarface song. I mean the king's wife just screws this guy's whole life up for nothing…”.
“… I love Shakespeare. He wrote some of the rawest stories, man. I mean look at Romeo and Juliet. That's some serious ghetto shit. You got this guy Romeo from the Bloods who falls for Juliet, a female from the Crips, and everybody in both gangs are against them. So they have to sneak out and they end up dead for nothing. Real tragic stuff.And look how Shakespeare busts it up with Macbeth. He creates a tale about this king's wife who convinces a happy man to chase after her and kill her husband so he can take over the country. After he commits the murder, the dude starts having delusions just like in a Scarface song. I mean the king's wife just screws this guy's whole life up for nothing…”.
ACTING CAREER
In addition to rapping and hip hop music, Shakur acted in films. He made his first film appearance in the motion picture Nothing But Trouble, as part of a cameo by the Digital Underground. His first starring role was in the film Juice. In this film, he played the character Roland Bishop, a violent member of the Wrecking Crew, for which he was hailed byRolling Stone's Peter Travers as "the film's most magnetic figure." He then went on to star with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice and with Duane Martin in Above the Rim. After his death, three of Shakur's completed films, Bullet, Gridlock'd and Gang Related, were released.He had also been slated to star in the Hughes brothers' film Menace II Society but was replaced by Larenz Tate after assaulting Allen Hughes as a result of a quarrel. Director John Singleton mentioned that he wrote the script for Baby Boy with Shakur in mind for the leading role. It was eventually filmed with Tyrese Gibson in his place and released in 2001, five years after Shakur's death. The film features a mural of Shakur in the protagonist's bedroom as well as featuring the song "Hail Mary" in the film's score.
Studio albums
- 1991: 2Pacalypse Now
- 1993: Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
- 1995: Me Against the World
- 1996: All Eyez on Me
- 1996: The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Posthumous solo albums
- 1996: The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
- 1997: R U Still Down? (Remember Me)
- 2001: Until the End of Time
- 2002: Better Dayz
- 2004: Loyal to the Game
- 2006: Pac's Life
Filmography
- 1991: Nothing But Trouble
- 1992: Juice
- 1993: Poetic Justice
- 1994: Above the Rim
- 1995: Murder was the case: The Movie
- 1996: Bullet
- 1997: Gridlock'd
- 1997: Gang Related