Tupac Shakur Born: Rap's Poetic Voice Cut Short

Tupac Shakur merged poetic introspection with the raw violence of street life, producing albums that made him the best-selling rapper of the 1990s and a voice for urban Black America that resonated far beyond hip-hop. His murder in Las Vegas on September 13, 1996, at age 25, turned him into a cultural icon whose influence continued to expand for decades after his death. Born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971, in East Harlem, New York, he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur after a Peruvian revolutionary. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was a member of the Black Panther Party who was pregnant with him while awaiting trial on bombing charges. She was acquitted. He grew up in poverty, moving between New York, Baltimore, and Marin City, California. He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, and ballet alongside Jada Pinkett. He began rapping and was discovered by Digital Underground's Shock G, who featured him on "Same Song" in 1991. His debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, addressed police brutality, teen pregnancy, and racial inequality with a directness that drew condemnation from Vice President Dan Quayle. His music oscillated between tenderness and aggression. "Dear Mama" was a love letter to his mother. "Hit 'Em Up" was one of the most vicious diss tracks in hip-hop history, directed at the Notorious B.I.G. and Bad Boy Records during the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that dominated mid-1990s hip-hop. He was shot five times during a robbery at a recording studio in New York in November 1994. He survived. He blamed Sean "Diddy" Combs and Biggie Smalls, a feud that escalated through 1995 and 1996. He was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and died six days later. His posthumous discography is larger than what he released in his lifetime, compiled from a vast archive of unreleased recordings. He has sold over 75 million records worldwide. His influence on hip-hop, Black political consciousness, and American popular culture remains profound.