Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996) was an American hip hop artist, poet, and actor. He is considered by many to be one of the most revolutionary, popular and legendary rappers of all time.

Shaped in the genre of Gangsta Rap, most of Shakur's songs are about growing up around violence and hardships in United States ghettos, racial inequality, and sometimes his feuds with fellow rappers. Tupac is mostly known for his political, economic, and racial equality messages, and for his sometimes violent tendencies.


Early life
He was born Lesane Parish Crooks in New York City on June 16, 1971 to Afeni Shakur, a member of the Black Panthers. Serving jail-time on bombing charges while pregnant with him, his mother faced a sentence of up to three years in prison. Acting as her own attorney, she won the verdict and was released one month before Tupac was born.

Shakur said, "I never knew where my father was or who my father was for sure." His godfather, Geronimo Pratt, was also a high-ranking Panther. His step-father Mutulu was a drug dealer who, according to Shakur, was rarely present to give him the discipline he needed.

Much of Shakur's upbringing revolved around the Black Panther philosophy. Impoverished during most of his childhood, his mother, his half-sister Sekyiwa (pronounced Setchua), and he moved between homeless shelters and cheap accommodations around New York City. As a result, he retained few friends and relied on writing poetry and diary entries to keep himself busy. At the age of 12, Shakur joined a Harlem theatre group and acted as "Travis" in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

In 1986, Shakur's mother brought him and his sister to live in Baltimore, Maryland. They lived on Greenmount Ave. in East Baltimore, where his looks, name, and lack of "trendy" clothing made him unpopular. He attended Roland Park Middle School, then spent his freshman year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High. For his sophomore year, Tupac was accepted to the Baltimore School for the Arts. He enjoyed his classes there, studying theater, ballet, and other arts. It was during this time that Shakur became close friends with another student named Jada Pinkett. Shakur was already outspoken on the subject of racial equality. His teachers remembered him as being a very gifted student. He was an avid reader, delving into books on eastern religions, and even entire encyclopedia sets. Hiding his love of literature from his peers, he gained the respect of his peers by acting like a tough guy. Shakur composed his first rap in Baltimore under the name "MC New York". The song was about gun control and was inspired by the fatal shooting of one of his close friends.

Two years later, Afeni was having trouble finding work (reportedly due to drug addiction and her past with the Black Panthers), and moved the family to live with a friend in Marin City, California. Shakur described this move from Baltimore and the arts school as "where I got off track". He showed contempt for law enforcement, being hassled occasionally for playing music loudly. In August of 1988, his stepfather Mutulu was sentenced to sixty years in prison for armed robbery after being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for several years. Shakur soon moved in with a neighbor and started selling drugs on the street, but also made friends who helped spark his interest in rap music. One of these was Ray Luv, and with a mutual friend named DJ Dize ("Dizz-ee"), they started a rap group called Strictly Dope. Their recordings were later released in 2001 under the name Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes. Their neighborhood performances brought Shakur enough acclaim to land an audition with Shock G of Digital Underground.

In 1990, Shakur joined as a roadie and dancer for Digital Underground. His early lyrics were unremarkable, and he was viewed ambivalently due to his tendency toward self-important or occasionally violent behavior. On a song for the Nothing But Trouble movie soundtrack, Same Song, Shakur was given his first opportunity to rap on a big-time record. Later, other members from the Digital Underground group, most notably Shock G, would recall being impressed by Tupac's ability to say so much in such a little amount of time, being given only eight bars on the record.

Discography:-





Albums
Released while living:

2Pacalypse Now (1991)
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993)
Thug Life: Thug Life Vol. 1 (with Thug Life) (1994)
Me Against the World (1995)
All Eyez on Me (1996)
Makaveli: The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory (as Makaveli) (1996)
Released (offically) posthumously:

R U Still Down? (1997)
2Pac's Greatest Hits (1998)
Still I Rise (with Tha Outlawz) (1999)
The Rose that Grew from Concrete (2000)
Until the End of Time (2001)
Better Dayz (2002)
Tupac: Resurrection (OST) (2003)
Loyal to the Game (2004)
The Rose, Vol. 2 (2005)