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Tupac Shakur Biography

Tupac Shakur 1971-1996
Born: June 16, 1971 in New York, New York, United States
Died: September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Ethnicity: African American
Occupation: Rap Musician, Musician, Actor
"Don't shed a tear for me ... / I ain't happy here / I hope they bury me and send me to my rest / Headlines readin' murdered to death."--from "If I Die Tonight" on Me against the World (1995)
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
With his tattoo-splattered physique, piercing deep-set eyes, and shaved head, Tupac Amaru Shakur came across as middle America's worst nightmare, the darkest strain of hip-hop. To fans, Shakur was only "thuggin' against society, thuggin' against the system that made me," as he once rapped. Like some other rappers, Shakur was criticized for his sexist lyrics He celebrated his mother, Afeni, but was equally capable of debasing women in his music. The contradictions hardly ended there. In his last video, "I Ain't Mad at Cha," Shakur--newly arrived in Heaven--saluted an old friend for quitting the "thug life." In "Only God Can Judge Me," Shakur foresaw death bearing down on him, yet seemed unable to tolerate his rival, The Notorious B.I.G. and B.I.G.'s mentor, Sean "Puffy" Combs. Shakur's "Hit 'Em Up," the last single issued during his twenty-five-year lifetime, set new highs of profane rage against B.I.G., who was later gunned down after Shakur's own untimely death.
Yet millions of fans found something meaningful in Shakur's troubled life and lyrics, like a thirty-two-year-old Detroit accountant buying her first Shakur album. "I've never supported that kind of music," she told the Detroit News, "but there was something so tragic about the way he died ... It's almost like I'm looking for answers." Politician Jesse Jackson also tried to explain Shakur's downfall and apparent appeal, telling the Los Angeles Times: "Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call."...