"Panther power! They kept my history a mystery but now I see the American Dream wasn't meant for me. Cause lady liberty is a hypocrite, she lied to me. Promised me freedom, education and equality. They kept my ancestors shackled up in slavery and Uncle Sam never did a damn thing for me, except lie about that facts in my history. Now I'm sitting here mad cause I'm unemployed, but the government's glad cause they enjoy when my people are down so they can screw us around." (Tupac Shakur's first live appearance at the Marin City Festival in 1989)
A question that seems to come up quite often when discussing music, is; how easy is it to separate a musical artist from their negative reputation, whether that be for their politics, their sexual inappropriateness, or something else (e.g. can you listen to The Smiths without distancing that from the fact that Morrissey was / became a bit of an idiot)?
It's often a discussion without a definitive answer.
The fact that I have written an essay on this particular subject somewhat surprised me - perhaps largely because of preconceived notions. Some of those proved to be true, and yet there is so much more nuance to this person than I could have first imagined.
When rap and hip-hop was rolling through its glory years of the mid to late-80s before seeming to morph into the more in your face gangster rap of the 90s - it all largely passed me by. How could a comfortable white boy, living in an almost entirely white neighbourhood, understand any of the socio-politics and anger felt by black communities in places like New York City and Los Angeles (or even Brixton or Hanworth, for that matter)?
And Tupac? He was just another gangster rapper - hyping up gang wars and misogyny, becoming just another victim of the mindless world of violence that surrounded the scene - wasn't he?
Revolution is in the name....
Well, the fact that I asked the question will probably suggest to you that the answer is not quite so straightforward. That is why that quote is right there at the top of the page - to represent the place that he started from is not necessarily the place that he finished up in.
Lesane Parish Crooks was born on 16 June 1971 in East Harlem, New York City. His mother Afeni (born Alice Williams), was married to Lumumba Shakur in 1968, but Lumumba was not Lesane's actual father (that was a man named Billy Garland). They were both heavily involved with the Black Panther movement, and when Lesane was around one, his mother renamed him Tupac Shakur, after Tupac Amaru II, a descendant of the last Incan ruler, who was executed by the Spanish in 1781 for leading a revolt.
"I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighbourhood." (Afeni Shakur)
Afeni had been tried in New York just a month before she was due to give birth to Tupac, as part of the Panther 21 trials, but she was acquitted of over 150 charges. It wasn't easy though, times were hard, jobs were harder to find, and Afeni was often struggling with drug addiction.
She moved with Tupac to Baltimore in 1984, where he could attend Baltimore School for the Arts, studying acting, poetry, jazz and ballet. He would often act in Shakespeare plays and even played the Mouse King in the Nutcracker ballet. There he befriended Jada Pinkett (future wife of Will Smith) and would often write poetry about her. He also entered a rapping competition with Dana 'Mouse' Smith as the beatbox, but it is fair to say that he had diverse tastes in music and could often be heard listening to U2, Sinead O'Connor or Kate Bush.
He started hanging around the Young Communist League USA and dated Mary Baldridge, the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. But in 1988, they were on the move again, this time to Marin County, an impoverished district on the edge of San Francisco. He attended Tamalpais High School and continued his affinity with the theatre, but did not graduate (although he would gain his GED later).
MC New York
Tupac started to attend the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg in Santa Rosa in 1989. They hit it off and she took Tupac under her wing, even becoming his manager (MC New York as he was by then, musically speaking). She managed to get him signed by Atron Gregory, who was the manager of hip-hop group, Digital Underground, who took him on as a roadie and backup dancer for the band.
Now, as 2Pac, he appeared on the Digital Underground single Same Song in 1991, released on Interscope Records. The song would appear on the soundtrack to Nothing But Trouble (Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and John Candy).
Digital Underground (w/ 2Pac): Same Song (Official music video)
What became clear however, was the Tupac wasn't necessarily happy when working as part of a group. He did have a crew called Strictly Dope, and Digital Underground's Jimi 'Chopmaster J' Dright would produce much of his early solo work. A lot of these early recordings were rediscovered and released in 2000.
A 2Pacalypse occurs!
His debut album would come out in November 1991 and set him on the road to rap greatness. Although this first record would only reach number 64 on the US chart, his work started to influence the next generations - Nas, Eminem and Talib Kweli all cite Tupac as a major influence on their career paths.
2Pacalypse Now is a record full of social conscience, with narratives on social issues like racism, police brutality, poverty, gang culture, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. Single, Brenda's Got A Baby has to be one of the first times where a male rapper was talking about the problems facing young black females.
2Pac: Brenda's Got A Baby (Official music video)
What became apparent very quickly was Tupac's lyrical brilliance, even when some questioned the production values around the music on the album. Emilee Woods would later write in Rap Reviews that "Tupac's vitriol is carried by his sincerity and charisma, both of which would emerge as key traits of the figure that blossomed in the years to come."
But not everyone was impressed. When a Texas State Trooper was murdered, it was discovered that the accused had been listening to this record a lot, something noted in the case. This led Vice President Dan Quayle to remark, "There's no reason for a record like this to be published. It has no place in our society."
Strictly a backronym
The follow up would come in February 1993. Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. was clearly a title that would make white folks a little uncomfortable, and Tupac would later claim that it stood for Never Ignorant in Getting Goals Accomplished (something we might call a backronym - an acronym invented to fit an existing word).
The record included guest appearances from the likes of Apache, Digital Underground, Ice Cube and Ice T. With two singles - I Get Around and Keep Ya Head Up - both breaching the Top20 and the album making number 24, it was clear commercial progress.
The themes continued on the socio-political vein, with the UKs Melody Maker calling it "an adventure into life on the streets of America", with raps that "drip with the sweat of hardcore funk". Eric Beman in The Source said that it was, "A combination of 60s black political thought and 90s urban reality, 2Pac is not afraid to speak his mind."
2Pac (w/ Digital Underground): I Get Around (Properly funky live version from MTV)
A B.I.G. Friendship
When Christopher Wallace, the East Coast rapper more commonly known as the Notorious B.I.G., was visiting Los Angeles in 1993, he asked a local drug dealer to put in contact with Tupac. They hit it off instantly and became good friends, often appearing with each other on stage when in the same city.
Wallace was still a relative unknown and he wanted Tupac to manage him, but Shakur advised him that Sean Combs was the one who would make him into a star. Shakur then invited Wallace to join his side project, Thug Life (that included Tyrus 'Big Syke' Himes, Diron 'Maladosius' Rivers, Walter 'Rated R' Burns and Tupac's stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur). Wallace declined the invite and instead started his own project, called Junior M.A.F.I.A. with Lil' Cease and Lil' Kim.
Tupac Against The World
By the time of his third record, things were start to go a little off the rails for Tupac personally. Me Against The World , a title that gave much away, was an effort by Shakur to try and be personal and reflective, touching on poverty and the police - and the fact he was facing a prison sentence.
It was recorded across 1993 and 94, and Tupac spent fifteen days of that time inside for assaulting director Allen Hughes whist working on the film ironically enough called Menace II Society. Things were to get much worse later in 1993, as he and three associates were accused by Ayanna Jackson, of raping her in Tupac's hotel room. He was with record executive Jacques Agnant, his road manager Charles Fuller, plus one other.
It was a charge that he vehemently denied, and while he was ultimately acquitted of the rape and other gun charges, he was still convicted of sexual abuse for touching and sentenced to between eighteen months and four and a half years. He was in prison by the time the album was released.
It was well received though, with many regarding it as the best rap record to date. Cheo Coker in Rolling Stone said that it was, "By and large a work of pain, anger and burning desperation - the first time 2Pac has taken the conflicting forces tugging at his psyche head-on." Matt Hall in Select also must have felt the pain in it, saying that "this might be the first hip-hop blues LP."
Shakur himself agreed, saying, "It was like a blues record. It was down home. It was all my fears, all the things I just couldn't sleep about. Everybody thought I was living so well and doing so good that I wanted to explain it... It's explaining my lifestyle, who I am, my upbringing and everything."
2Pac: Dear Mama (Official music video)
The album hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts and the heartfelt, soulful single, Dear Mama, also gave him a Top10 hit.
Tupac the victim?
Tupac was hurt by the accusation of sexual assault, as he would later tell chat show host Arsenio Hall, "that a woman would accuse me of taking something from her", pointing out that he had been raised in a female dominated household. While the rape charge didn't stick, for lack of evidence, the one of 'forcibly touching buttocks' did.
Tupac was smelling a set-up. While he was being charged and convicted, Agnant was tried separately from the other three, with his case being closed via a misdemeanour plea with no prison time. Then, one day before sentencing was due, Tupac attended Quad Studios in New York City, apparently at the request of James 'Jimmy Henchman' Rosemond, who offered him $7,000 to come and record a verse for Little Shaun. Tupac was close to broke and needed money to cover legal fees.
But before he even got to the studio he was set upon in the studio lobby, being robbed and then beaten and shot when he tried to resist his attackers. He was now convinced that the former friend, Notorious B.I.G., Sean 'Puffy' Combs (no stranger to controversy as current news would suggest) and Henchman were all in on the attack, or at least knowing that it was coming. In 2011, convicted murderer Dexter Isaac admitted to being one of Tupac's assailants that night - on Henchman's orders!
Prison and poetry
He started out his sentence at the notorious Rikers Island in New York, before being moved to the Clinton Correctional Facility out into New York state. The time was not a full lss though, as Tupac began reading again, fixating on the philosophy of Machiavelli and others, and lots of tomes on military strategy.
Shakur had also continued to write poetry throughout, including poems like Can U C The Pride In The Panther, Family Tree, The Rose That Grew From The Concrete and the at times beautiful If I Fall.
There was a little and a pur... Through two Suburbans and... Word is bond, bond is life
I give my life before my word shall fail
A soldier's oath, freedom of death
And I won't stop if I fail
If I fail get back, can't be soft got to be tough
If I fall get back, can't be soft got to be tough
If I fail get back, can't be soft got to be tough
If I fall get back, can't be soft got to be tough
Failure, it's not an option
Real recognize real let's get it popping
With mathematics you can solve any problem
That's how we make it from the top to the bottom
Keep ya head up homie and stay confident
It's negativity around but I'm positive
Cuz I'm givin' everything that I got to give
Stayin' true to myself, that's how I keep it real
If I fail then I'll rise
Like a phoenix before yo eyes
Out the ashes and from the dirt
Report for duty and put in work
Eternal life, an iron will
Man sharpens man, steel sharpens steel
The hate you gave, we turn to love
Rest in peace, one thug one love
We can't be stopped if we don't give up
Even though they hold us back we still find ways to come up
A lot of people make promises with no plans to keep 'em
But me, no matter what I'm ridin' till I get my freedom
If I fail, then it's only a challenge to go harder
Don't want to be no martyr so I adapt to things smarter
It's death before dishonor
I put that on my son and my momma
And don't take it as a threat, that's a promise
If in my quest to achieve my goals
I stumble or crumble or even lose my soul
Those that knew me would easily co-sign
That there was never a life as hard as mine
No father, no money, no chance, no God
I only follow my voice inside
If it guides me wrong and I do not win
I learn from mistakes and try to achieve again
Dedicated to the youth, the truth is the seed
The stronger the root, the stronger the tree
If we eat from the fruit, the stronger we be
If we do it today, tomorrow we free
Yeah, y'all put ya twos up for Tupac
Dead Prez collaboration
It's only two choices man, ball or fall
Rose that grew from concrete
And we still growin'
1993 also saw him appear in the movie Poetic Justice as Lucky, with Janet Jackson, with the poems he got to read having been written by Maya Angelou.
Enter the gangster
All Eyes On Me, released in February 1996, would be the last album released in Tupac's lifetime. It had some big name guests on it, like Snoop Dogg, Method Man and Dr Dre, but the themes had moved away from the socio-political narratives of earlier records, and now focused on the conflict between poverty and luxury (something Shakur had experienced both of in his short life).
A new figure was on the scene, perhaps one that would alter the course of what was left of his life. Suge Knight was the big, imposing founder and CEO of Death Row Records - and it was he who largely put up the large bail ($1.4m) to get him an early release from jail. Tupac had no money and possibly had little choice if he wanted out, but the price was to sign a three album deal for Death Row, something that looking at it now, definitely had the feeling of selling your soul to the devil.
2Pac (w/ Roger Troutman & Dr Dre): California Love (Audio only)
This record was a double album and so got him two-thirds of the way through his deal in one go. But it also saw a definite turn into gangsta rap territory, with a lot more of machismo, misogyny and ego that you might expect from this end of the genre.
The rift that had grown between the West Coast rappers, headed by Shakur, and the East Coast rap big names like B.I.G. and Combs, had only widened after the accusations that had flown around following Tupac's shooting. Combs and B.I.G. released the provocative, Who Shot Ya?, before Tupac responded with Hit 'Em Up - and if there was any doubt on his gangster credentials by now (I can't print most of the lyrics) - which includes the riposte; "Who shot me? But ya punks didn't finish, Now ya' about to feel the wrath of a menace."
It always ends badly....
Tupac Shakur was back in Vegas on 7 September 1996 for the fight of the year - Bruce Sheldon versus Mike Tyson, at the MGM Grand.
He was there with his new boss, Suge Knight. When the two men and their entourage returned to their hotel after the fight, one of Knight's associates informed the group that another man in the lobby, Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson, had tried to rob them earlier. A big fight then kicked off, with Anderson being set upon.
After the dust had settled on that, Shakur, Knight and the gang headed in a convoy towards Knight's Club 662. At 11p.m. the vehicle that Knight and Shakur were travelling in was pulled over on Las Vegas Boulevard by the police for the music being too loud and there being no plates on the rear. With the licence plate retrieved from the trunk of the car and the music presumably turned down a notch, the convoy was back under way.
At 11.15, when they were stopped at a red light, a white Cadillac drew alongside and one of its occupants fired shots into Knight and Shakur's vehicle. While some of the others received minor wounds, Tupac was hit four times - in the arm, the thigh and twice in the chest, with one entering the right lung. He was rushed to the University Medical Center of South Nevada, ending up in ICU. On 13 September he was dead, from internal bleeding.
In the aftermath of the murder, accusations and conspiracy theories abounded. Some suggested that it was obviously Anderson who did it, having been beaten just hours earlier; while others were convinced that B.I.G. had some involvement, although he had an alibi for the actual murder. Doubts and theories swirled around the case for almost three decades, until in September 2023, Duane 'Keefe D' Davis was arrested for the murder, although he has pleaded not guilty. He has implicated Anderson (who died in 1998) as the actual shooter - the trial is currently due to commence in November 2024.
Ten years on.
A decade or so after his death, Tupac Shakur's ashes were transported to Soweto in South Africa. They were taken there by his mother, Afeni, who said it was because it was "the birthplace of his ancestors" and because of its significance in the fight against apartheid. A memorial was to be established in a 5-acre park that would benefit local children, promoting nature and education.
Jada
Tupac had a special relationship with Jada Pinkett, who he met as a teenager at school in Baltimore. He had written poetry about her at school (at least one of which she revealed years after his death) and he also helped her get her first acting role, ironically in Menace II Society, which is the film he was fired from.
It was later revealed that she had turned down a marriage proposal from him while he was in Rikers Island in 1995. Pinkett had also been one of the people who had contributed to his bail. Tupac touchingly said of her, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life. We'll be old together. Jada can ask me to do anything and she can have it." Pinkett would later reflect on their brief but beautiful friendship; "He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had you only get once in a lifetime."
Influence and legacy
Tupac drew his inspirations from far and wide. There was American and African-American cultural ties, the influence of the black nationalist movement that was with him from birth, but also his passion for theatre and poetry, and especially the works of Shakespeare. His background in jazz, poetry and theatre gave him the great control of rhythms and the natural flow that would come to define him.
His lyrical content, especially early on, was all around social injustice, poverty, the impact of the police - and a word that comes up many times when people talk about him - compassion.
Eminem, no novice himself, believes Tupac to be the greatest songwriter of all time, while Nas went as far as saying, "I put Tupac beyond Shakespeare". Snoop, another with some hefty credentials, agrees - Tupac is "the greatest rapper of all time". So you could perhaps say that he was ' the rappers rapper!'
50 Cent, when writing about him in Rolling Stone, provided some more nuance:
"Every rapper who grew up in the Nineties owes something to Tupac. People either try to emulate him in some way, or they go in a different direction because they didn't like what he did. But whatever you think of him, he definitely developed his own style: He didn't sound like anyone who came before him."
The Black Entertainment Television network possibly summed him up best of all, talking about "his confounding mixture of ladies' man, thug, revolutionary and poet, has forever altered our perception of what a rapper should look like, sound like and act like."
Dear Mama - who was the real Tupac Shakur?
When Allen Hughes, the director who had been infamously assaulted by Tupac several decades earlier, was approached about a documentary on the man, he must have had mixed feelings.
So he framed Shakur's life through the relationship with his mother, using that to try and unpack his complex narrative. Tupac was a contradiction, a man who could be "sensitive and sweet... but also vengeful and cruel". As Hughes sums up his film, Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, he calls Tupac "a playboy and a mama's boy; and an activist and self-described revolutionary; but also, particularly in the latter part of his mere 25 years on Earth, steeped in gangster culture and awash in the criminal underworld."
Hughes went into more detail on that final twelve months with Shondaland: "I just couldn't make sense of [his] last year. I just couldn't. Where were the Dear Mama's and Brenda's Got A Baby's? All that poignant, reflective stuff. I just couldn't make sense of prison and what happened. My personal skirmish with him pales in comparison to what he came to represent." Was it the case that the High School Tupac was "a thoughtful and intellectual, artsy kid who succumbed to peer pressure to put on a macho act that followed him until his death."
Professor Jeffrey Ogbar points out the social statistics that were relevant to young Tupac's life and would have been a huge part of informing his mindset and lyricism.
In 1983, the unemployment rate in black U.S. communities was 21%.
The homicide rate for black men aged between 18 and 24, doubled from 1983 to 1993 - reaching a high of 196 per 100,000 population.
In 1970, a black man was 4.6 times more likely to be arrested than a white man - by 1990, that was 6.8 times more likely.
Ogbar pointed out that Shakur understood the destructive force of violence and had criticised drug dealers in his song Changes, as well as the impacts of mass incarceration that the black community felt. He said that Shakur tried to create a code of ethics for the dealers operating in black communities and forge truces between gangs. But, he acknowledges that ultimately, "he adopted Death Row's gangster rivalries, bluster and violence".
Mayer Wakefield (Counterfire 2021) places the blame for the change in Tupac firmly in the "corrosive influence" of Suge Knight, coupled with Ronald Reagan's war on drugs, which he says brought a "tsunami of gun violence to black communities across the United States", which also was part of the environment shaping Tupac.
Ogbar also has a go at making sense of Tupac's rollercoaster of contradictions:
"In the end, Tupac's life isn't just an embodiment of the struggles, contradictions, creativity and promise of a generation. It also serves as a cautionary tale. His life's abrupt end was a consequence of the allure of success, much like the pull of the streets. His sensitivity, intelligence and creativity were measured against the hostile external forces that had antagonised him since birth. And while these forces inspired him to rebel, they also tempted him, inviting him to gorge on the excesses of fame and celebrity".
As CBC's Kevin Russell pointed out, that it was only really white people who were labelling this genre as being gangster rap, because we love to "try to reduce people to labels". He reminds us that "He's just a human being. There were many things to him, and he deserves to be put in the same category as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, as John Lennon, in terms of global impact".
So, what is the point I am trying to make in writing this story?
I'm not really sure, to be honest with you - so you will have to make up your own mind on whether Tupac is a hero or a villain, or in all likelihood, some complex blend of the two.
"They goy money for wars, but can't feed the poor."
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