Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur was one of the most controversial rappers to ever live. The way he lived life and his sudden death caused more controversy than has ever been seen before. Tupac rapped mostly about gunfights, gangs, sex, and thug life. He had a wild reputation and he never ceased to live up to it. Tupac went to jail and was shot because of these issues. Even though Tupac was very controversial, he was able to connect to people like no one ever before. His lyrics were so powerful that it was hard not to listen to what Tupac had to say. Many looked up to Tupac while others looked down upon him.

Tupac’s career was brief but very full of many intriguing experiences. Many of these experiences are full of accomplishments and achievements while other experiences are horrific. Tupac was brilliant with his lyrics and was an extremely talented rapper. While alive, Tupac came out with five albums, five movies, and made many guest appearances in only five years in the music industry.

Tupac’s music was just as controversial as his lifestyle. Tupac’s first album came out in 1991 and it was entitled, 2Pacalypse Now. The album caused a huge uproar across the country and was the cause of many censorships and controversies. Vice President Dan Quayle was one of the first people to let it be known of his disapproval. This huge uproar instantly made Tupac one of the most controversial rappers around. This album set the stage for Tupac’s rise to stardom. Some of his songs were very hardcore, rapping about drugs, sex, and gangs.

Tupac came out with his first movie, Juice, soon after his debut album. This movie caused much controversy also. The movie was about the same things Tupac mostly rapped about-gangs, sex, and drugs. Many people wondered if the movie was actually a portrayal of Tupac’s life. This notion made Tupac an even more controversial figure because in the movie, Tupac is definitely a thug.

Every album that Tupac came out with stirred up controversy. Anything to do with drugs and gangs usually does cause people to talk. Tupac brought many societal issues to public awareness and this makes him an intriguing man. Some people understood what he was talking about. “Even though many of these issues were vastly dispersed before he addressed them, he spoke about hem with a certain passion that aroused people’s hearts and minds. Although most of what Tupac spoke about was negative, he laid the framework for positive solutions to these problems because his words incite and inspire change” (Powell 4). As Powell said, Tupac challenged everybody to fix the problems that were out there. Tupac mainly rapped about real things that were going on in the world and how we as a nation need to go about fixing these problems.

Even when his music or movies were stirring up controversy, Tupac’s life in general was always in the middle of some kind of drama. Tupac was arrested many times and even spent an eight-month stint in jail for rape charges. There was a shooting of a child that he was linked to in Marin City. He wasn’t actually involved in the shooting but he was in a scuffle that led to a little boy being shot. Tupac was acquitted of any charges.
Tupac was always involved in acts of violence. He had many assault charges against him and he was also the victim of many heinous attacks. Once while Tupac was recording an album someone rushed into the studio and shot him five times and stole $40,000 worth of jewelry. Tupac blamed Puff Daddy and The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls) for the attack. Puff Daddy and Smalls were in the same building recording an album of their own when the incident happened. Puff Daddy and Smalls rushed down to see what happened. Tupac was soaked in blood and being taken out on a stretcher. He saw the two rappers and gave them the middle finger. Tupac checked himself out of the hospital that same night.

Puff Daddy and Biggie Smalls were east coast rappers. Puff Daddy was the producer for Bad Boy Entertainment and Smalls was their marquee rapper. After the whole shooting incident Tupac never liked anyone in Bad Boy. Over the next two years Tupac and his people on the west coast had a huge rivalry with the east coast company.

Soon after all of this commotion, Tupac was sent to jail for rape charges. While in prison Tupac’s third album, Me Against The World came out. After eight months in jail his case was appealed. Suge Knight, chairman of Death Row Records, posted the 1.4 million dollar bond and Tupac was released. Tupac signed with Death Row Records that same day. Tupac’s debut album with Death Row was All Eyez On Me. This was a double album, which was a first for any rap artist. The album had a number one single and sold more than five million copies. Rappers such as Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg appeared on some of his tracks and Death Row was becoming huge. Dre was going to leave soon to start his own record company and Snoop had not come out with an album of his own for awhile so Tupac became Death Row’s centerpiece.

Death Row was based in Los Angeles and Bad Boy was based in New York. They were rival companies and this started an east coast vs. west coast feud. Tupac already had bad feelings for Bad Boy due to the shooting so everything was building up to a huge problem. At one point Tupac and Biggie were friends. Tupac helped bring Biggie up in the music industry. Everything went sour and they had a feud that may have caused both of their deaths. Tupac came out with a song entitled Hit Em’ Up. The song was about killing everybody on the Bad Boy label. Tupac claimed that he had sex with Biggie’s wife. Bad Boy started coming out with songs about Tupac and the whole thing was a mess. The east coast vs. west coast feud caused much controversy and was often talked about in the media.

Tupac often talked about his death and in an interview with Vibe Magazine he said, “This is my last interview. If I get killed, I want people to get every drop. I want them to get the real story” (Shakur 79). Tupac often rapped about his death also. In his song “Only God Can Judge Me”, Tupac raps “I hear the doctor standing over me screamin I can make it got a body full of bullet holes layin here naked still I, can’t breathe, somethings evil in my IV cause every time I breathe, I think they killin me I’m having nightmares, homicidal fantasies I wake up strangling, dangling my bed sheets I call the nurse cause it hurts, to reminisce how did it come to this?” This verse is very intriguing because he is singing from the point of view that he is dying on his deathbed.

Tupac knew that he was going to die in an act of violence. In the song “Niggas Done Changed”, Tupac raps “ I got shot and murdered, can’t tell you how it happened word for word but you best believe them niggas gonna get what they deserve.” Tupac almost acts as if he knew his fate, but it seems as if he is ready without fear. This verse is very powerful because it seems that Tupac is fearless.

On September 7, 1996, Tupac and Suge went to the Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas. After the fight, Tupac and Suge were involved in a confrontation so they were escorted out of the casino. Suge and Tupac were cruising the strip in Suge’s BMW. The duo was on their way to the after party at a club. A white Cadillac pulled up and fired 12 shots at the car. Tupac was shot seven times and a bullet grazed Suge. Suge was released from the hospital after some tests. Tupac had two surgeries on Sunday and one on Monday. Tupac “supposedly” died Friday, September 13, 1996. Tupac’s death was definitely the most controversial thing that he was involved in.

No one has ever been convicted of the murder and there are no suspects or any kind of leads. The murder of Tupac made the east coast vs. west coast war even worse after Tupac’s murder. Many people point their fingers at Bad Boy Entertainment. It was very ironic because Biggie Smalls was murdered six months later in Los Angeles in a very similar occurrence. Biggie and his crew were riding down a strip in Los Angeles when a car pulled up to them and shot Biggie down. Many people believe that Tupac and Biggie’s murders are connected.

Tupac’s death is so controversial because many believe that he faked his death. It isn’t illegal to fake your death in Las Vegas. There are countless amounts of theories as to why Tupac was killed and theories as to why he might still be alive. One theory on why he might be alive is that he was cremated the day he died. No one gets cremated the day they die. People wonder why the police could not catch the assailants considering they were in the middle of the desert. They could have had helicopters out conducting a search but there was never anything like that. There were never any pictures of the Tupac released from the hospital. The funeral was cancelled for unknown reasons. Tupac always wore a bulletproof vest everywhere he went. He was not wearing one the day he was shot and that is strange considering he was going to be at a huge event like a Mike Tyson boxing match. There are many things that just do not add up.

Tupac also came out with a new album right after his death called Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. He had a new name for himself though. His new name was Makaveli. This another reason people thought he faked his death because there was a man named Nicollos Machiavelli who was a 16th century Italian philosopher. He believed that you could gain power by staging your death. On the front of this new album was a picture of Tupac on a cross as if he was being crucified. This implies that he is reincarnated as Makaveli. The name of the album was The 7 Day Theory and he was shot on the 7th, lived through the 12th, and died on the 13th, making it seven days. These kinds of things just add to the controversy that Tupac had already erupted.

Tupac has come out with more albums since his death than he did while he was alive. It would be nearly impossible to make this much music while being in movies, and making all of the guest appearances that he did. There are still even more albums yet to come out.
If he is dead, there is no clue to who is responsible. Some believe that Biggie Smalls had the Crips kill Tupac. There is also a rumor that Suge Knight had it done. Tupac wanted to get out of the limelight and his thug ways. Tupac brought in the most money to Death Row. Suge may have had him killed so any of the unreleased tracks would go to him and he would be making tons of money. It was very risky if this is true considering Knight was two feet away when the murder happened. It is very odd that he wasn’t hurt. Investigations continue but there is not much hope for any kind of leads as to who really did it.

Many people see Tupac’s death in very different ways. Some see him as a martyr while others see his death as his own fault. “I believe because of what he survived (five gun shot wounds previous to the seven that killed him) coupled with the chaos he experienced in his life everyday Tupac has been constructed as a hero” (Scott 67). It seems as if many people believe Tupac is invincible and this makes people want to believe that he is still around.

Like him or not Tupac did care about the well being of our culture. Tupac may have seemed to degrade women and just sing about violent things, but there was much more to it than that. Tupac wrote a song entitled Dear Mama, which was about his appreciation for what his mother had done for him. In the song he talks about the mistakes she had made but how her strong will helped to raise him into a man.
Tupac really poured his heart into teenage pregnancy. This issue affected him because a young mother raised him. Tupac’s first hit single was about this problem and it was entitled Brenda’s Got a Baby. In the song Tupac discusses the lack of social support that a young person in the ghetto has to face when subject to something as confusing as a pregnancy at a young age. Tupac experienced many bad things in his life and that is what his music is about.

Even though it seems as if Tupac degrades women he made a song for wronged women everywhere. The name of the song is Keep Ya Head Up. The following is a verse from the song: “I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it’s time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real for our women, and if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, that make the babies, and since a man can’t make one he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one, so will the real men get up, I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up.” This song is very passionate and it shows the sensitive side of Tupac that often gets forgotten.

Tupac’s versatile life made him very controversial. His death was and still is one of the most controversial moments in music’s history. “ Tupac truly was ‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’ as his poetry suggests, for he overcame the most traumatic and emotionally deplorable circumstances on his path to becoming the most mythical rap artist of all time, and a social and marketing icon which will be respected and admired for eternity, just as he had intended” (Powell 2 ). He may not have said or did all the right things, but he was a genuine person. Never before was there a rap artist that could successfully relate to both men and women in the way Tupac was able to do. Tupac definitely was the most controversial rapper to ever live. Drama followed him everywhere he went. What really happened to Tupac may never be known, but if he is dead his music is alive and in the hearts of millions.

....................................
Special Thanks to Charlie Wooten!