| Selling more than 75 million records | | | | up to charges of exploitation. Signing with |
| world-wide in his all-too-short career, the | | | | Death Row Records in late 1995, 2Pac released |
| legend that is Tupac Shakur continues to live | | | | the double-album All Eyez on Me in the spring |
| on today. 2Pac became the unlikely martyr of | | | | of 1996, and the record, as well as its hit |
| gangsta rap when he died on September 13, | | | | single "California Love," confirmed his |
| 2006, six days after being shot during a | | | | superstar status. |
| drive-by shooting. | | | | |
| | | | Although Shakur was selling records and |
| 2pac's young life and career began in | | | | earning praise for his music and acting, he |
| relatively normal fashion. He did well in | | | | began having serious altercations with the |
| school, stayed out of trouble and was | | | | law (prior to becoming a recording artist, he |
| interested in acting, music and | | | | had no police record). He was arrested in |
| entertainment. Before he could graduate from | | | | 1992 after he was involved in a fight that |
| high school, Shakur's family moved to Marin | | | | culminated with a stray bullet killing a |
| City, CA, when he was 17 years old. Over the | | | | six-year-old bystander; the charges were |
| next few years, 2pac lived on the streets and | | | | later dismissed. 2Pac was filming Menace II |
| began hustling. Eventually, he met Shock-G, | | | | Society in the summer of 1993 when he |
| the leader of Digital Underground. The | | | | assaulted director Allen Hughes; he was |
| Oakland-based crew decided to hire him as a | | | | sentenced to 15 days in jail in early 1994. |
| dancer and roadie, and as he toured with the | | | | |
| group, he worked on his own material. | | | | 2pac was shot just after seeing the Mike |
| | | | Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand. |
| At the onset of his career, it didn't appear | | | | As he was leaving the hotel, 2Pac got into a |
| that he would emerge as one of the definitive | | | | fight with an unnamed young black man. It has |
| rappers of the '90s -- he started out as a | | | | been suggested that this was the cause of the |
| second-string rapper and dancer for Digital | | | | drive-by shooting, and it has also been |
| Underground, joining only after they had | | | | suggested that Knight's ties to the mob and |
| already landed their biggest hit. 2Pac made | | | | to gangs were the reason; another theory is |
| his first recorded appearance on the group's | | | | that the Notorious B.I.G. arranged the |
| spring 1991 record, This Is an EP Release, | | | | shooting as retaliation for 2Pac's comments |
| and he also appeared on their second album, | | | | that he slept with Biggie's wife, Faith |
| Sons of the P. The following year, he | | | | Evans. Either way, Shakur was shot four times |
| released his own debut, 2Pacalypse Now. The | | | | and was admitted to University of Nevada |
| album became a word-of-mouth hit, as | | | | Medical Center. He died six days later. |
| "Brenda's Got a Baby" reached the R&B Top 30 | | | | |
| and the record went gold. | | | | The music of 2pac continues to live on today. |
| | | | He is remembered as a true innovator, who |
| His escalating outlaw reputation helped his | | | | would stop at nothing to get his views heard |
| 1995 album Me Against the World enter the | | | | and his message across. |
| charts at number one, and it also opened him | | | | |