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He was born June 16, 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, and was named Tupac Amaru Shakur. His mother, Afeni, a member of the Black Panthers, had just been released from jail. She wanted a special name for a special son, so she named him after an Inca Chief, Tupac Amaru, whose name meant Shining Serpent. She had taken the name Shakur which in Arabic means thankful to God, and Afeni was very thankful for her son. But from the beginning his life was not easy. He once said that growing up his male role model was the drug dealer on the corner. His farther, also a Black Panther, had left and Afeni was the single mother doing the best she could. That often meant living on the street or in shelters in the Bronx and Harlem. At the age of 12, Tupac Shakur found something he liked-- performing. He joined a Harlem theater group and appeared as Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. He loved acting, he loved the stage, he loved the applause and the spotlight. And he was a natural. In 1986, Tupac and his family moved to Baltimore and there Tupac was enrolled in The Baltimore School of Performing Arts. His teachers remember him as a bright kid with lots of potential. And it was there that Tupac wrote his first rap. MC New York was born and he started performing his lyrics. His talent was evident, but even though he was happy and doing well in Baltimore, his family moved once again in 1988 to Marin County, California. It was there that Tupac admitted he started hanging out in the streets, hustling and doing whatever to survive. It was the path that he would never really stray far from despite his fame. Thug life became a way of life and he never really left it. His stepfarther had been sentenced to 60 years in prison for armed robbery and times were rough. Tupac would survive the only way he knew how. But there was a positive, too. In Northern Cali, he eventually hooked up with the popular rap group, Digital Underground. The year was 1990 and he was suddenly on tour as a dancer and rapper. He loved it and the fans started to notice him as well. He made his recording debut on D.U.'s This Is An EP Release, with "Same Song." And in '92, his solo career got under way with 2Pacalypse Now. Tracks like "Brenda's Got A Baby" and "Trapped" pushed his debut disc to gold status and their was a buzz around Tupac Shakur who was now using 2Pac as his rap name. The buzz got louder when 2Pac appeared in Juice, portraying "Bishop" with the best remembered line from the film, "I am crazy. I don't give a fuck." People started thinking of 2Pac in those terms, too. Of course fame has its price and 2Pac was about to start paying. In April of '92, a teenager by the name of Ronald Ray Howard shot a Texas trooper. What did that have to do with 2Pac? Well, Howard's attorney declared that his client was incited to kill because he was listening to 2Pacalypse Now. It was in his tape deck at the time of the shooting. Then Vice present Dan Quayle stated that the album has "no place in our society." The death of a six year old child was attributed to an altercation 2Pac had with an old acquaintance in Northern California in Auguest of the same year. The child was an innocent bystander and was killed. No charges were filed, but the boy was dead. His problems with the law seem to be multiplying. Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. was released in February of '93 and went platinum, spawning several Top 10 hits. But '93 was full of trouble with the law:
March
A limo driver accuses 2Pac of doing drugs in his car and the driver gets beat up. He files charges but they are later dropped.
April
After using a baseball bat to hit a rapper at a concert, he is arrested and spends 10 days in jail.
October
He is arrested in Atlanta for allegedly shooting two off duty Atlanta policemen. Charges were eventually dropped.
November
Charges are brought against him for sexual harassment by a 19 year old woman.
1993 had its good points besides the platinum album, however. Poetic Justice with Janet Jackson was released and 2Pac proves that yes, he can act. Above The Rim is a success, too, furthering his acting career and his charisma on screen.
But in 1994, his trouble continue:
March
2Pac knocks out director Allen Hughes after the director drops him from his film, Menace II Society. 2Pac spends 15 days in jail.
September
In Milwukee, two teenagers say they murdered a policeman because they were inspired by 2Pac's "Souljah Story."
November
Tupac is shot five times in an elevator in New York. Robbery is supposedly the motive, but rumors circulate that it was a hit and that 2Pac was set up. He is, at the time, on trial for weapons and sex charges. Despite his wounds, 2Pac is wheeled into the courtroom and sentenced on sexual abuse charges. On Valentine's Day, 1995, Tupac Amaru Shakur is sentenced to four and one half years in prison and is taken to Riker's Island Penitentiary. He has, however, finished his third album, Me Against The World, and it immediately debuts at #1 upon release. The classic single, "Dear Mama," takes his career to new heights and respect. Enter Suge Knight. Tupac is bailed out of jail when the CEO of Death Row Records, Suge Knight, posts 1.4 million dollars for bail. In the blink of an eye, Tupac is in L.A., a Death Row artist and recording what was to be a six times platinum disc, All Eyez On Me. In February, 1996, that album is released and becomes the first rap double CD album in history. Not without controversy, because also in Febuary, Tupac announces he has been sleeping with Faith Evans, The Notorious B.I.G.'s wife. She denies it, but an East Coast/West Coast feud broadens. Trouble between Death Row and Bad Boy escalates in March when employees of both labels confront each other backstage at the Soul Train Awards. Guns are pulled, but it is stopped before real violence occurs. Tupac's videos, "2 of Americaz Most Wanted" with Snoop Dogg and "Hit 'Em Up," fuel the feud fire between the two labels, but 2Pac goes on to do more movies, Bullet and Gridlock'd, furthering his skills and prestige as an actor. However, at the MTV awards on September 4, he gets in a scuffle backstage. Tension is high. Three days later, he has a date with destiny on the Las Vegas Strip. He is gunned down in a hail of bullets. At the age of 25, Tupac Amaru Shakur, the Shining Serpent, thankful to God, dies on Friday the 13th of September. He went from mortal man to legend and the words "what might have been" became his epitaph. It is best to remember that there was much more to the man than what you just read. He loved and was loved, he cried and he gave comfort. He smiled, he laughed, he created, he lived life the only way he knew how---on the edge. But after all is said and done, Tupac said it all when he wrote the song "Only God Can Judge Me." In the end, that's the way it will be for all of us.
THE MYSTERY CONTINUES...
Most people agree that the murder of Tupac Shakur on the streets of Las Vegas was bizarre. Riding in a caravan of cars on one of the most heavily traveled streets in Vegas, he was shot several times with lots of people around and the gun man got away, never to be found. No witnesses can identify a thing and no one really wants to talk about it. But there was one man in the entourage who, it has been rumored, wanted to talk. His name was Yafeu Fula. Some say he was Tupac's half brother, others say they were cousins, but what is known is that Fula was a member of Thug Life, performed on tour with Tupac, appeared on the All Eyez On Me disc and was close to Tupac---very, very close. And then, in November of '96, Yafeu Fula, 19, was murdered. A gunshot to the head. Las Vegas police, at the time of his death, were trying to get him to come back to that city for a second interview regarding the murder of Tupac. Fula had been in the car directly behind Tupac when he was shot. He had witnessed it all and some say he had more to tell. We will never know. Shot in the head in a hallway of an apartment building in New Jersey at approximately 3AM, whatever he did or didn't know died with him. His killer has never been found. So, was Yafeu Fula just a another random crime victim in New Jersey? Was it a coincidence that he was killed before returning to Las Vegas or a planned hit? Was it fate or man? We may never know. Legends and myths grow from such beginnings and sometimes the truth is never known. And, oftentimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
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