2pac Biography

Hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur was embroiled in a feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers and was murdered in a drive-by shooting in 1996, leaving behind an influential musical legacy at the age of 25.

Who Was Tupac Shakur?

Tupac Shakur (June 16, 1971 to September 13, 1996) was an American rapper and actor who came to embody the 1990s gangsta-rap aesthetic and in death became an icon symbolizing noble struggle. He has sold 75 million albums to date, making him one of the top-selling artists of all time. A sensitive, precociously talented and troubled soul, Tupac was gunned down in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 and died six days later. His murder has never been solved. Tupac began 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. As fate drove him towards the nihilism of gangsta rap, and into the arms of the controversial Death Row Records impresario Suge Knight, the boundaries between Shakur's art and his life became increasingly blurred — with tragic consequences. 

On March 9, 1997, six months after Tupac died, Biggie Smalls was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; his murder has never been solved, either.

Is Tupac Alive?

Tupac Shakur died of gunshot wounds in 1996. However because his murder has never been solved, conspiracy theories have raged ever since. Fans have speculated that Tupac faked his death. On his album Life Goes On, Tupac rapped about his funeral; his song “I Ain’t Mad at Cha” was released two days after he died. There have been several reported potential Tupac “sightings” since his death, including in 2012 by Kim Kardashian.

In September 2017, Suge Knight hinted that Tupac might be alive in an interview. "When I left that hospital me and 'Pac was laughing and joking. I don't see how someone can go from doing well to doing bad," said Knight, adding that “with Pac you never know” if he could be alive and living in secret somewhere.

In early 2018, BET aired an episode of Death Row Chronicles in which former Crips member Duane "Keffe D" Keith Davis admitted that he was riding in the car with the man who killed Shakur; he declined to identify the shooter in the interview, revealing only that the shots "came from the back seat," though he had earlier told federal investigators that the gun was in the hands of his nephew Orlando Anderson (now deceased).

The revelation fueled the launch of a change.org petition that called for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to declare the case "cleared." It also led to rumors that new arrest warrants were pending, but the LVMPD shot down those rumors in July, saying that they were reviewing the details of what "remains an open homicide case."

Tupac’s Albums and Songs

Tupac has released a total of 11 platinum albums: four during his career, with seven more released posthumously. To date, Tupac has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. As of September 2017, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) listed Tupac as the 44th top-selling artist of all time by album sales and streaming figures.

'2Pacalypse Now'

Tupac's first album as a solo artist was 2Pacalypse Now. Although it did not yield any hits, it sold a respectable 500,000 copies and established Tupac as an uncompromising social commentator on songs such as "Brenda's Got a Baby" — which narrates an underaged mother's fall into destitution — and "Soulja's Story," which controversially spoke of "blasting" a police officer and "droppin' the cop." The song was cited as a motivation for a real-life cop killing by a teenage car thief called Ronald Ray Howard, and was condemned by the then-U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle. "There is absolutely no reason for a record like this to be published," Quayle said. "It has no place in our society." With those words, Shakur's notoriety was guaranteed.

'Strictly 4 My Niggaz'

Tupac’s second album, Strictly 4 My Niggaz, dropped in February 1993. It continued in the same socially conscious vein as his debut. On the gold-certified single "Keep Ya Head Up," he empathized with "my sisters on the welfare," encouraging them to "please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up." The video featured a cameo from his good friend, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, whom Tupac had met in high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland.

The album also featured contributions from Tupac's step-brother, Mopreme. Mopreme became a member of the hip-hop group Thug Life, which Tupac started and which released the album Thug Life: Volume 1 in 1994.