California Love sound clip
Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971-1996)
Tupac Shakur was born in New York City to Afeni Shakur, a member of the Black Panther Party who was pregnant with him while in jail on bombing charges. The name Tupac Amaru comes from the Incas meaning "shining serpent" and Shakur is Arabic meaning "thankful to God." In 1986, Shakur's family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where Tupac enrolled in the Baltimore School for the Arts. At the age of 15, Tupac wrote his first rap song under the name of M.C. New York. Everything was going well for Tupac until 1988 when his family moved to a small city outside of Oakland, California. Shortly after the move, Tupac moved in with a neighbor and started to sell drugs. Later that year Tupac's stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for his involvement in a 1981 armored-car robbery.
With all of the troubles around himself and his family, Tupac joined the Grammy-nominated rap group Digital Underground as a roadie/dancer /rapper. After touring with Digital Underground in 1990, Tupac released his first solo album in '91. Tupac received much recognition for his album, 2pacalypse Now, which spawned the successful singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got A Baby."
With the individual success that Tupac had received with his musical talent, he wanted to prove to the world that he was not just a rapper. In 1992, Tupac appeared in the Earnest Dickerson film "Juice." Within the next two years, Tupac appeared in the John Singleton movie, "Poetic Justice" with Janet Jackson, and "Above The Rim."
Legal troubles put a damper on the success of Tupac when in the fall of 1994 he was arrested on sexual assault charges in New York. Later that month Tupac was shot in an apparent robbery attempt outside a music studio in New York. After being shot, Tupac was convicted of sexually abusing a woman he had invited to his hotel room. He was acquitted of sodomy and weapons charges.
Tupac was back in the studio in early '95 and released the multi-million selling album, Me Against The World. In February of 1995, Tupac was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for sex abuse. After eight months in prison, Tupac was released on bail while he appealed the sentence.
Riding on the success of Me Against The World, Tupac released his fourth solo album, All Eyez On Me, which debuted at No.1 on Billboard' album chart. The album went on to sell five million copies.
On September 7, 1996, the world was shocked to here that Tupac Shakur was shot in an apparent drive-by in Las Vegas. Five days later, Tupac was pronounced dead. After his death, many questions have been raised about whether or not Tupac was really shot. To this day, many believe the questions remain unanswered.