Tribute to ''2 Pac the
Rapper"
Rapper, Actor, Activist, Thug, Poet,
Rebel. Visionary. Though his
recording career lasted just five
years, Tupac Amaru Shakur is one
of the most popular artists in
history, with over 75 million
records sold worldwide. More than
half of his eleven studio albums
sold over three million copies in
the U.S., and both 1996's All Eyez on
Me and his Greatest Hits collection
have been certified diamond,
surpassing the ten-million mark
and placing them among the
top-selling albums of all time.
Intent on escaping Baltimore's
violence, his family relocated to
Marin City, California when he was
17. He hooked up with the popular
Bay Area rap crew Digital
Underground, starting as a roadie
and back-up dancer, and
eventually working his way up to
contributing a verse to the 1991 hit
"Same Song," his recorded debut.
4
Tupac was signed to lnterscope
Records by Tom Whalley (who still
oversees his estate today}, and his
first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now,
arrived a few months later,
generating both acclaim and
controversy. Though the single
"Brenda's Got a Baby"
demonstrated his empathy and
conscience, the album's unsparing
examinations of street
violence and police harassment
led to a public condemnation by
Vice President Dan Quayle.
Things got even bigger in 1996 with
All Eyez on Me,
Tupac's best-selling album, which
spawned five
singles, including two Number One
hits, "California Love" and "How Do
U Want It." At the height of his
phenomenal success, Tupac's life
was cut short on September 13,
1996 when he was murdered in a
drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
the age of 25.