Tupac Shakur

Rapper / Actor

Tupac Shakur was a member of the hip-hop group Digital Underground, whose 1990 album featured the hits "Humpty Dance" and "Doowutchyalike." In 1992 he began his solo career, and his debut album 2Pacalypse Now propelled him to stardom and made him one of the more prominent practitioners of gangsta rap. His other albums and appearances in movies such as Juice (1992) and Poetic Justice (1993) helped him to become a mainstream pop artist. Shakur made headlines over a string of run-ins with the law, and in 1994 he was robbed and shot five times. He recovered and in the next year released the successful albums Me Against The World and All Eyez on Me. Embroiled in a complicated feud with fellow gangsta rappers, Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas in 1996.

Extra credit: Nikki Giovanni's poem "All Eyez on Me" is about Shakur... As with the fans of Elvis Presley, some fans of Tupac maintain that the rapper never really died. Although the rumor is widespread, no evidence exists that it is true.

Tupac Shakur joins Miles Davis and Halle Berry in our loop on Black History... Other rappers on Who2 include Big Punisher, Eminem, Jay-Z and Foxy Brown.