Tupac Amaru Shakur
Rachel Galyean, Bethany Powell,
Briana Price, Johnny Gardner
Early Life
 Born to 2 members of the Black
Panthers
 Tupac Amaru Shakur
 Birth name may possibly be
Parish Lesane Crooks or
Lesane Parish Crooks
 Unknown father
 Mother: Alice Faye Williams
a.k.a Afeni Shakur
 Pregnant and incarcerated,
Afeni rubbed her stomach and
said, “This is my prince. He
is going to save the black
nation.”
Early Life
 Born in East Harlem on June
16, 1971
 One month prior, his mother
had been acquitted on 156
counts of conspiracy to
overthrow the government
 Step Father: Mutulu Shakur
stayed on FBI’s Ten Most
Wanted Fugitives for 4
years, also a Black Panther
 Half Sister: Sekyiwa
 Step Brother: Mopreme
Shakur
Early Life
 “Black Prince”
 For misbehaving, his
punishment- read an
entire edition of the
New York Times
 Surrounded by poverty,
struggle and
incarceration, his
mother taught him to
respect the value of an
education
Education
 Age 12- Enrolled in “127th
Street Ensemble” in Harlem
 1984- Family moved to
Baltimore, MD, spent 2 years at
Paul Lawrence Dunbar High
School and then transferred to
Baltimore School for the Arts
 1988- Moved to Marin City
California and attended
Tamalpais High School and
joined the Ensemble Theater
Company
 Age 17- Mother’s crack
addiction forced them to move
in with Leila Steinberg and he
dropped out of school
Early Career
 1990- Tupac signed with
Atron Gregory who
hooked him up with Digital
Underground
 Initially a back-up
dancer/roadie but
eventually debuted his
rapping skills
 Had gotten into some
legal trouble and facing
prison the next day when
shot 5 times and robbed
leaving a record studio
East Coast-West Coast
 Controversy over the
allegations sparked the
East Coast-West Coast
hip hop rivalry
 After serving 11 months,
Marion “Suge” Knight
financed his release in
return to produce 3
records under Death
Row Records
“When I die, let me be, and when
they come for me, Bury me a G”
 September 7, 1996
 After leaving Mike TysonBruce Seldon boxing match
and an altercation with
Orlando “Baby Lane”
Anderson, a Southside Crip,
Tupac and Suge Knight
headed for Club 662
 The famous shot taken in the
last moments of his life
 Died on Sept. 13, 1996
Rap Career
 2 Pac or Makavelli
 1990-Debuted on “Same
Song”, Digital Underground
 1991-2Pacalypse Now
 1993-Strictly 4 My
N.I.G.G.A.Z.
 1994-Thug Life
 1995-Me Against the
World
 1996-All Eyez on Me
 1996-The Don Killuminati:
The 7 Day Theory
Posthumous Albums
 1997-R U Still Down?
(Remember Me)
 1999- Still I Rise
 2001- Until the End of Time
 2002-Better Dayz
 Tupac: Resurrection
 Loyal to the Game
 Pac’s Life
 Beginnings: The Lost Tapes
1988-1991
 Along w/ 14 Greatest
Hits/Mixtape Albums
Honors
 2002- Inducted into HipHop Hall of Fame
 2003- MTV’s “22
Greatest MC’s” #1
 VH1 Hip Hop Honors
 2004- Vibe Magazine’s
rated “Greatest Rapper
of All Time
Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation
Founded in 1997
Mission Statement: “Provide training and
support for students who aspire to
enahnce their creative talents”
Sponsors essay contests, charity events,
a performing arts day camp for teens
and undergraduate scholarships”
Center for the Arts
 The Tupac Amaru
Shakur Foundation
officially opened the
Tupac Amaru Shakur
Center for the Arts in
Stone Mountain, GA on
June 11, 2005
 Statue of Shakur in the
Peace Garden in Stone
Mountain
Harvard University
 April 17th, 2003- “All
Eyez On Me: Tupac
Shakur and the
Search for the
Modern Folk Hero”
 Topics from
entertainment to
sociology
State University of New York
 English Professor Mark Anthony Neal
 “Thug N***a Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity
Gramscian”
 Public Status and Public Persona
 “Organic Intellectual”
 Since death has left a “leadership void
amongst hip-hop artists”
Northeast University
 Professor of Communications Murray Forman
 “Tupac Shakur: O.G.(Ostensibly Gone)
 Mythical status surrounding Shakur’s life &
death
 Addressed symbolism & mythology
surrounding Shakur’s death
 Tupac’s fans have “suceeded in resurrecting
Tupac as an etheral life force”
Northeastern University
 Professor of Music Emmett Price
 Compared Tupac’s public image to that of a
trickster African American to those who gave
the “bad man” image post slavery
 “Profilific artist” who was “driven by a terrible
sense of urgency” in a quest to “unify mind,
body, and spirit”
Other Universities
 University of Pensylvania
 Michael Dyson
 “Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac
Shakur”
 “Spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who
bears witness to the pain of those who would
never have his platform
 University of California
 Student-led course “History 98: Poetry and History
of Tupac Shakur”
Virginia Tech Memorial
The Rose That Grew From
Concrete
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a
crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk
with out having feet.
Funny it seems but by keeping it’s dreams, it
learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when
no one else ever cared.
And Tomorrow
Today is filled with anger, fuel with hidden hate.
Scared of being outkast, afraid of common fate.
Today is build on tragedies which no one want’s to face.
Nightmares to humanity and morally disgraced.
Tonight is filled with Rage, violance in the air.
Children bred with ruthlessness cause no one at home cares.
Tonight I lay my head down but the pressure never stops,
knowing that my sanity content when I’m droped.
But tomorrow I see change, a change to build a new,
Build on spirit intent of heart and ideas based on truth.
Tomorrow I wake with second wind and strong because of pride.
I know I fought with all my heart to keep the dream alive.
Quotes
 “For every dark night, there's a brighter day”
 “A coward dies a thousand deaths…a soldier dies but once”
 “My mama used to always tell me: If you can’t find somethin’ to
live for, you best find somethin’ to die for”
 During your life, never stop dreaming. No one can take away
your dreams”
 “Why am I fighting to live, if I’m just living to fight?
Why am I trying to see, when there ain’t nothing in sight
Why am I tyring to give, when no one gives me a try
Why am I dying to live, if I’m just living to die?
Someone tell me y”
Changes
“I see no changes wake up in the
morning and I ask myself
is life worth living should I blast
myself?
I'm tired of bein' poor & even
worse I'm black
my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for
a purse to snatch
Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a
hero
Give the crack to the kids who the
hell cares
one less hungry mouth on the
welfare
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal
the brothers
give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill
each other
It's time to fight back that's what
Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's
dead
I got love for my brother but we
can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes
learn to see me as a brother instead
of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if
he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we
played as kids
but things changed, and that's the
way it is”
Changes
“I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to
races
We under I wonder what it takes to
make this
one better place, let's erase the
wasted
Take the evil out the people they'll
be acting right
'cause both black and white is
smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we
kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal
each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black
President, uhh
It ain't a secret don't conceal the
fact
the penitentiary's packed, and it's
filled with blacks
But some things will never change
try to show another way but you
stayin' in the dope game
Now tell me what's a mother to do
bein' real don't appeal to the brother
in you
You gotta operate the easy way
"I made a G today" But you made it
in a sleazy way
sellin' crack to the kid. " I gotta get
paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is”
Changes
“We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some
changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way
we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to
do
what we gotta do, to survive.”
YouTube Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAn5RY
UiiZE&feature=related
Tupac’s Influence
“Tupac was one of the most influential rap artists of
the 90’s. His ideas on racism and drugs and
violence are as true today as they were then. His
lyrics are so powerful and true, that it’s hard to
disagree with the values he represented. The songs
he sang had such uplifting messages that
encouraged people to stand up and help make a
change. I believe anyone can pick up one of his
albums and learn something. Tupac had a lot to
say in the short time he was here on earth, but his
words of wisdom are worth listening to.”
Tupac Amaru Shakur
Any
Questions?