Tupac Shakur, was a an American hip hop artist, he was born in 1971 in New York. After joining the Black Panther party, his mother changed his first name to Tupac Amaru. Tupac's father, Billy Garland, was also a Panther but lost contact with Afeni when Tupac was five years old.
Tupac’s mother Afeni struggled for money and had addiction to durgs. The family moved homes often, After they moved to Baltimore, Tupac enrolled at Baltimore School for the Arts. The family moved again to Marin City, California, which turned out to be a "mean little ghetto". The legend says that Tupac, who had just started a crime career, was selling drugs on the same streets as his mother bought her supply.
Tupac discovered hip hop at 17 and that's with no doubt, what have kept him away from a sad destiny in jail or cemetary . In 1989, Tupac was writing a lot of poetry when he met Leila Steinberg. Seh became Tupac's manager, despite her non experience in the industry. She was able to find a place in the hip hop group "Digital Underground". He quickly showed his talent and made his debut in 1991. From that point it was on.....
His powerful songs like "Brenda's Got a Baby". His roles in " Juice" or "Above the rim" his political stands.....added to his .."other problems"( He got shot 4 times in 1994 and was sentenced to serve four and a half years in prison for a sexual assault charge in 1995.) All that made him the voice of HIP HOP. The voice of a generation. His third album, 1995's "Me Against the World," sold over 3 million copies while he was in prison. In October 1995, Death Row Records boss Suge Knight posted Shakur's $1.4 million bail, and he was released from prison. He recorded "All Eyez on Me," Shakur's 1996 double album for Death Row, sold over 10 million copies to date .
“People feel like he’s speaking directly to them and he’s narrating their experience.” said Kevin Powell, the hip-hop historian, who has interviewed Tupac mulitiple times."2Pac was talking about racism, racial profiling, police brutality. He was talking about the suffering of poor people."
He added "'Pac was able to reach people who were intellectuals, who were scholars, artsy, Bohemian, but he also represented the hardcore heads from the community, the working class, the poor people -- the same poor African American, Latinos, and West Indians who created this culture so they related to him. But also, you see white and Asian sisters and brothers who connected with him because of that realness and vulnerability” Unfortunately......
On September 7, 1996, 2Pac was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 25 years old. The shooting occurred at 11:15 p.m. Pacific time when the car carrying Shakur was stopped at a red light at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. Shakur was struck by four .40 caliber rounds fired from a Glock:[3] two in the chest, one in the arm, and one in the thigh. Despite the vehicle having a flat tire and Knight's injuries, he was able to drive Shakur and himself a mile from the site, to Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. He died from his wounds six days later. on September 13,
Tupac used his music career as a rebel with a cause to articulate the travails and injustices endured by many African-Americans. His skill in doing so made him a spokesperson not just for his own generation but for subsequent ones who continue to face the same struggle for equality. In life, his biggest battle was sometimes with himself
Kendrick Lamar. J. Cole. There’s Lupe Fiasco. Chance the Rapper have been influenced by pac. But Hip hop is mainly about just entertainment now.
The tragic death of Tupac Shakur created openings rather than voids. The mid to late nineties to the early 2000’s was a tremendous time to be a fan of hip hop as we were given artists such as Jay-Z, DMX, The Lox, Big Punisher and Eminem. Dr. Dre. After the massively successful introduction of Eminem in 1999, Dre would go on to also release his second studio solo album The Chronic 2001. Nas released Stillmatic.
In "Keep Ya Head Up," Pac was incredibly ambitious. He said he would change the world in the next 23 years. An listening some of his thoughts it could have happened. At a time 2pac and Snoop [Dogg] were selling millions of records. He said, "Imagine if rappers turned those consumers into activists."
A lot of people say when 2Pac died he took hip hop with him, artists were still talented after a lot stopped making meaningful songs and made songs about dances.. There are very few artists, who can speak to social issues, but also speak the poetry, the language of the people in urban America, in our inner cities, in our so-called ghettos, the way ‘Pac could. He was a poet who had the ability to go back and forth the way Malcolm X was able to go back and forth from street corners to universities, . 'Pac was someone who loves Shakespeare and all kinds of literature. Here’s someone who read a tremendous amount of books. He was very much a thinker and often times, people don’t credit 'Pac for being that type of person.
Nas has a line on his eighth studio album, appropriately titled Hip Hop is Dead where he sums up my frustrations perfectly in saying “So if you’re asking, ‘why is hip hop dead?’, theres a pretty good chance, your lame ass, corny ass, is the reason it died man. You don’t give a fuck about it, you don’t know nothing about it…” Some fans say that we deserve better. Hip-hop….but the truth is, you got the HIP HOP you deserve.
The rap genre as a whole has been bastardized by this latest phenomenon: mumble rap. An art form that once combined vocabulary and wordplay to amplify a message has devolved into the auto-tuned vocals, shallow production, and witless rhymes that are characteristic of today’s rap radio hits. Furthermore, some current “artists” openly show contempt for their musical forefathers.
Rappers don’t have to remain in the past for the sake of maintaining the culture. As a matter of fact, they shouldn’t. Retrogression is no different than negative progression. But, they do have to grow from those roots to be relevant to the game they wish to play. Rap means, simply, rhythm and poetry. Good hip-hop still exists.
What is HIP HOP?...if we ask...we got a problem?
To know more about the subject:
All Eyez On Me". AllMusic. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
Service, Haaretz (April 14, 2011). "FBI files on Tupac Shakur murder show he received death threats from Jewish gang". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2015. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
Remebering Tupac: His Musical Legacy and His Top Selling Albums". Atlantapost.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
Philips, Chuck (October 25, 1995). "I am not a gangsta". LA Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
Lewis, John (September 2016). "Tupac Was Here". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
Tupac Shakur Biography". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 25, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
TBTEntGroup on (March 7, 2012). "Tupac Shakur interview with "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1994 [VIDEO]". Hip-hopvibe.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
Pocklington, Rebecca (October 5, 2015). "Tupac Shakur wrote about starting a 'new chapter' in handwritten letter from jail, now selling for $225,000". mirror.co.uk. London,
Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press
Deeper Than Hip-Hop Tupac (2Pac) Poetry Enlightens". ThugLifeArmy.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
Brown, Preezy (November 12, 2016). "How '2Pacalypse Now' Marked The Birth Of A Rap Revolutionary". Vibe. Los Angeles, California: Eldridge Industries. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
