FREE ESSAY ON TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR

TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR

"REBEL OF THE UNDERGROUND"
The Life and Works of Tupac Amaru Shakur
Both Tupac and Amaru are words of Inca origin. Together they mean, shining serpent.
Shakur means thankful to God, from the Arabic language. Tupac, commonly known as
America's most controversial rapper was labeled a gangster rapper and one of the largest
figures in the rap community. He was always known for doing what he wanted and not caring
what others thought of him. His life symbolized what a lot of people have gone through.
Through his music and movies he showed how hard life can be. 
On June 16, 1971 Tupac was born to Alice Faye Williams in Brooklyn, NY. His mother was a
revolutionary as she called herself Afeni Shakur. For many years she associated herself
with members of the well-known Black Panther Party. She joined a New York chapter of the
Panther Party in 1964 and fell in love with an organizer, Lumumba Abdul Shakur. After
four years with Lumumba, Afeni started to see another party member, William Garland who
was another activist working with the party members to support their causes. Around this
time things were going downhill for Afeni. In 1969 she and other members of the Panther
were arrested and charged with several felony counts, including conspiracy to bomb a
public place. A well-educated schoolteacher, Afeni decided to defend herself. However,
things took a turn for the worst. While out on bail she became pregnant with Tupac. Soon
after, her bail was revoked. Afeni recalls: having previously miscarried four or five
times, she did not expect to carry him to term. But Tupac, she says, wanted to be in this
world. She remembers while in her cell she would pat her belly and say, This is my
prince. He is going to save the black nation (Kin 151).
Acquitted and released on 156 counts from the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich
Village for lack of evidence, she was now out of jail and eight months pregnant with
Tupac. 
By the time Tupac was born, Afeni had already lined up a job as a paralegal and things
started looking up. However, soon after his birth, Afeni started snorting cocaine. For a
while she was a very loving mother. Afeni started to see a man by the name of Mutulu as
she tried to bring a father figure into Tupac's life. He was also a member of the Panther
party. Soon after, Afeni was pregnant with her second child, Sekyiwa. A few months before
her due date, Mutulu had been sentenced to sixty years for a fatal armored car robbery.
Afeni was once again a single mother raising Tupac along with his sister. A couple of
years later his mother decided to move her family to Baltimore, Maryland, for a fresh
start. While in Maryland the world got its first true taste of the life and works of
Tupac Amaru Shakur. 
By the age of twelve Tupac had already landed his first role with the 127th Street
Ensemble, a theater group he attended in the impoverished Harlem section of Manhattan.
Having to suddenly leave the group, Tupac wanted to continue studying theater. In
Baltimore, Tupac was quickly enrolled in the High School of the Performing Arts. His
mother made sure he was well educated, she recalls He was articulate. I trained him.
Punishment for him was reading The New York Times. At age fifteen Tupac began to study
acting and ballet at the Baltimore School of the Arts. Although mostly white students
attended the school, Tupac felt in touch with them. He recalled:
Them white kids had things we never seen. That was the first time I saw there was white
people who you could get along with. Before that, I just believed what everyone else
said: They were devils. But I loved it. I loved going to school. It taught me a lot. I
was starting to feel like I really wanted to be an artist. (Tupac)
While in the school of Arts, Tupac met a special friend, Jada Pinkett, whom he shared
time with and created performances for anyone interested. Most teachers said he looked
very promising; unfortunately he never finished school because his mother felt she needed
an overall change. 
Afeni Shakur then moved her family to a small town outside Oakland, CA. Shortly after
Tupac moved to California, he enrolled in a college program, which allowed him to finish
his high school credits. Tupac gained his rap experience through writing poetry, although
no one recognizes this as one of his talents. In 1993, Tupac entered a poet circle where
he wrote poems, which foretold his death. In The Event of My Demise is one of the poems
taken from actual writings of Tupac Shakur from The Poetry Circle which seemed to
indicate he was aware of his eminent death: 
IN THE EVENT OF MY DEMISE
In the event of my Demise 
when my heart can beat no more
I Hope I Die For A Principle
or A Belief that I had Lived 4
I will die Before My Time 
Because I feel the shadow's Depth
so much I wanted 2 accomplish
before I reached my Death
I have come 2 grips with the possibility
and wiped the last tear from My eyes
I Loved All who were Positive
In the event of my Demise (1993)
This poem caused many people to stop and think about the reasons that could have possibly
made Tupac write this. Could it have been an assignment given by the Poets Circle or
could it have been his overwhelming feelings of what was yet to come. Several common
people were randomly asked who they thought the author of this poem was, why was it
written and who was the audience. Most believed the author was writing to a family member
or to people who didn't like what he stood for. It was also felt that the author accepted
his fatal death, but overall wanted to be understood. Others believed the author was
aware he was dying and was actually writing his own eulogy. After disclosing the poem was
written by Tupac, most were surprised yet were able to gain a better understanding of how
deep he really was.
Sometime after moving to California with his family, he moved out on his own to Marin
City, California and began to sell drugs. Around this time he also started to focus his
time on dancing and rapping. In the late eighties, Tupac teamed up with Humpty-Hump
(a.k.a. Eddie Humphrey, a.k.a. Gregory Shock-G Jacobs) and other Oakland-based rappers to
create Digital Underground. The rap group was different; they had a live bass band, and a
somewhat funk sound. With the low-key member Tupac, Digital Underground had great
success. This opened the door for 2Pac to enter the rap game, where his socially
conscious lyrics earned him the nickname 'Rebel of the Underground'.
In 1991, Tupac achieved his dream and released his first solo album, 2pacallyps Now.
Tupac told Vibe: 
Everybody knew me even though my album wasn't out yet, I never went to bed. I was working
it like a job. That was my number-one thing when I first got in the business. Everybody's
gonna know me. (Vibe, 1995)
This first album gained Tupac national popularity and created the first of his many life
controversies. One song that attracted controversy was Trapped, which addressed certain
issues and feelings of some young black males not having hope in white America. Another
controversial song off the album was Brenda's Got A Baby, which dealt with the alarming
rate of black female pregnancy. However, in April, 1992 the album gained more
controversy. A Texas state trooper was shot to death by a 19 year old young man, Ronald
Howard, who later claimed to have been listening to Soulja Story off of Tupac's album
2Pacalypse Now. The man cited Tupac's lyrics:
...is it my fault, just cause I'm a young black male cop sweat me as if my destiny is
makin' crack sells only 15 and got problems cops on my tail, so I bail till I dodge 'em
they finally pull me over and I laugh remember Rodney King and I blast on his punk ass
now I gotta murder case. (Tupac)
This incident pushed Vice President Dan Quayel and a number of other politicians to call
for a band on gansta rap. While all of this was going on with Tupac's rap career, he
believed it was the best time to start his acting career. In Ernest Dickerson's 1992 film
"Juice", Tupac played Bishop, a kid who become addicted to violence. Some people said
that after Tupac played Bishop, he began to become Bishop. 
He began to lead a violent life. On August 22, 1992, he returned to his old neighborhood
in Marin City; where he was in a shoot out which left a 6 year old boy dead. In April 5,
1993, he assaulted a fellow rapper with a baseball bat. October 31, 1993, he was charged
with shooting two off duty police officers in Atlanta, Ga. The charges were later
dropped. On September 7, 1994, there was another claim toward Tupac's song Souljah's
Story by 2 teens that murdered a police officer. The teens said Tupac's song was their
inspiration. On November 19, 1993, he was charged with sexual assault of a 19-year-old
New York female. On November 31, 1994, Tupac is found guilty of sexual assault, but is
acquitted of sodomy and weapon charges. While out on bail waiting sentencing, he was shot
five times during an attempted robbery outside a music studio in New York. Tupac was
sentenced to eighteen-months to four and one-half years. Afterward, Tupac spoke with
Vibe's writer Kevin Powell, from behind bars he spoke of his disavowed Thug Life: 
Thug life to me is dead. If it's real, let somebody else represent it because I'm tired
of it. I represented it too much. I was Thug Life. I'm going to show people my true
intentions, and my true heart. I'm going to show them the man that my mother raised. I'm
going to make them all proud. I see my incarceration as a gift--straight up. It's God's
will. Being getting clean after years of incessant marijuana smoking has cleared my head
and given me a new perspective on my work. If we're really saying rap is an art form then
we got to be true to it and be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody
dying because of what you saying, it don't matter that you didn't make them die, it just
matters that you didn't save them. (Vibe, 1995)
Throughout his troubles with the law, Tupac had a very promising career. His first album
"2Pacallyps Now" went gold. He released two more albums, February's 1993 "Strictly for my
Niggaz"(platinum) and April's 1995 "Me Against The World" (multi-platinum). He made two
more movies "Poetic Justice" (1993) with Janet Jackson and "Above the Rim"(1994). In May
1995, while still in the New York's Rickers Island penitentiary, Tupac married Keisha
Morris. Tupac is released from jail on bail in October 1995 when Suge Knight, CEO of
Death Row Records, paid $1.4 million to free him. In return, Tupac signs a record
contract with Death Row, in Los Angeles. The last album released before he died, All Eyes
on Me, was out April 25, 1996. This album sold over 6 million copies and was a
groundbreaking for it's quintuple platinum sales and was the first double CD for rap
music. 
Tupac was not happy recording under Death Row Record label and worked hard to fourfold
his contact. By September of that year he had recorded over 2 albums for Death Row but
was also mysteriously shot. On Friday, September 13, 1996, at 4:03 p.m. PDT, Tupac Amaru
Shakur was pronounced died of respiratory failure and cardio-pulmonary arrest at
University Medical Center, Las Vegas, after lingering in a coma for days. He died of
bullet wounds to the abdomen and chest received seven days prior. Tupac was only 25 years
old. To date, police still have no suspects in his murder. 
After Tupac's death, Death Row released "Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory" under the
artist name Makaveli. On this album, Tupac speaks of his death as his resurrection as
Makaveli. This led many people to believe that he may still be alive. Soon after his
death, Afeni released a new album by Tupac under her own label Amaru Records called 2Pac
R U Still Down? [remember me]. This album was also a double CD that had several
unreleased recordings by Tupac that he previously recorded at Interscope Records. Along
with his other albums, this was also controversial. Only Fear of Death is the title of
one of the most controversial songs on the album with such lyrics:
...They wanna bury me, I'm worried -- no need to lie. I pray to God I don't scream when
it's time to fry. Nowhere to rest I'm losin homies, ain't that a bitch. When I was rich I
had clout, now a nigga's lonely. I put the pistol to my head, and say a prayer. I see
visions of me dead, Lord are you there? Then tell me am I lost cause I'm lonely. I
thought I had friends but in the end a nigga dies lonely. Nowhere to run I'm in terror,
and no one cares. A closed casket at my funeral and no one's there. Is there a future for
a killer? I change my ways... But still that don't promise me the next day... They wonder
if I'm hell bound... well Hell can't be worse than this, cause I'm in Hell now... Never
will I die, I'll be back Reincarnated as a mother*censored*in mack... I love it cause in
heaven there's no shortage on G's. I'm tellin you now, you mother*censored*ers don't know
me...(Tupac)
In this portion of the song, Tupac once again foretells his vision of his death. The
irony of the song is that it was released after his death, which lead many people to
believe that he is still alive. Throughout the song, he repeatedly mentions not fearing
his death, but rather, returning after death resurrected. 
Tupac then continues the song with:
... Hahaha, I ain't scared to die. I ain't scared to die. To my homies in heaven, I ain't
scared to die. Do you wanna live forever? Are you scared, to die? Or will you scream,
when you fry? I don't fear death. My only fear of death is comin back, reincarnated.
(Tupac).
Tupac ended the song with the emphasis of being resurrected. The final chorus
continuously repeated Only fear of death is comin back reincarnated. This further lead
people to wonder who the song was directed. 
Just as Afeni, Tupac was thought of as a revolutionary. He knew people wouldn't
understand what he stood for, but knew in his heart and mind that if he didn't stand for
what he believed in he couldn't stand for anything at all. Rev. Jesse Jackson best
explained Tupac while standing outside the hospital in which Tupac died as he was talking
to society as a whole: Tupac has had many close calls. But this is about more than Tupac.
It's about the culture of violence that we live in, this survival of the fittest
mentality that too often calls out for revenge, for retaliation. This is so sad,
sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with
material success, it continues to call. He couldn't break the cycle. 
I believe Tupac, though he lived a violent life, mostly tried to keep others away from
the life he had lived. He died after going farther than a lot of people would have gotten
in their entire life. Some believe that Tupac's death was faked but I do not know which
to believe. This man was great at what he did, rap, and movies and that is what I admire
him for.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Powell, Kevin. Vibe. New York: February 1995, April 1995.
Tupac Shakur. Contemporary Black Biography. Volume 14. 1997.
Castro, Peter and Ken Baker. All Eyes on Her; Afeni Shakur Tends to Her Son Tupac's
Fortune-And Some of His Troubles A Once-Wayword Mother Defends Her Son's Legacy. People 1
December 1997: 151+.
Pareles, Jon. Tupac Shakur, Rap Performer Who Personified Violence, Dies. New York Times
14 September 1996, Sec. 1: 1+.
URL:http://www.daveyd.com/pactribute.html (23 Oct. 1998).
Hilburn, Robert and Jerry Crowe. Rapper Tupac Shakur, 25, Dies 6 Days After Ambush. Times
Mirror, 14 Sep. 96. Home Ed: A1+.
Marriott, Michael. Deadly Rhythms. New York Times, 16 Sep 96. Late Ed: A1+.