Mesgana Yetay
Prof.E
Afro Ame Studies
10/19/2017
Tupac
On June 16, 1971 the greatest pro-black political rapper Tupac Shakur was born. When tupac was young he lived with his mother, sister, and grandmother through different chapters until he became of age to be living alone. In 1994, Tupac’s mother and sister have moved out to baltimore and he had followed along. It was a good experience for him because he was now able to study the arts in the new high school he was attending, called the Baltimore school of performance art. Though he was living in the a rough neighborhood with the most black on black crime, he was still able to to find a way of falling in love the the art of hip-hop music.
In around the year 1990 tupac made his first musical appearance to the general public by rapping over a song called same song with the help of the rap group detour underground. The group was very impressed with what he could do and would become very close to him as friends. With their friendship growing, they would often give him good advice and guidance which would lead to his first album called 2pacalypse now. It was released on november 12, by interscope records. After two long years he released his second album, here a bit more casual with no shirt and red pants. Throughout those two years, he also acquired many tattoos that are closely related to his music and the way he feels. For example one of the most famous tattoos would be holl greens.
As many expected at the time he was, his legal problems begins now. In 1998 the first charge against him was in was for having/carrying a loaded and concealed weapon at an outside a well know nightclub. He them pleaded with remorse with these words, “I just want Mesgana Yetay
Prof.E
Afro Ame Studies
10/19/2017
Tupac
On June 16, 1971 the greatest pro-black political rapper Tupac Shakur was born. When tupac was young he lived with his mother, sister, and grandmother through different chapters until he became of age to be living alone. In 1994, Tupac’s mother and sister have moved out to baltimore and he had followed along. It was a good experience for him because he was now able to study the arts in the new high school he was attending, called the Baltimore school of performance art. Though he was living in the a rough neighborhood with the most black on black crime, he was still able to to find a way of falling in love the the art of hip-hop music.
In around the year 1990 tupac made his first musical appearance to the general public by rapping over a song called same song with the help of the rap group detour underground. The group was very impressed with what he could do and would become very close to him as friends. With their friendship growing, they would often give him good advice and guidance which would lead to his first album called 2pacalypse now. It was released on november 12, by interscope records. After two long years he released his second album, here a bit more casual with no shirt and red pants. Throughout those two years, he also acquired many tattoos that are closely related to his music and the way he feels. For example one of the most famous tattoos would be holl greens.
As many expected at the time he was, his legal problems begins now. In 1998 the first charge against him was in was for having/carrying a loaded and concealed weapon at an outside a well know nightclub. He them pleaded with remorse with these words, “I just want the chance to make right from all the bad things i've got, I have a lot of people against me and a lot of people who look up to me and I don't want them to see me in jail. I do not want that, I think that I could do much more could to society if I was on the streets.” These words would later become some of the most famous and highly quoted words in modern hip hop culture.
Tupac was a very intelligent and logical person, he strongly believed that through music there is a very big part of social justice and equality that can be achieved. He was very repetitive when it comes to topics of race and equality because he believed if he had a good argument in his songs and he could convey that enough times; he would eventually be heard. He often explained that he purposely makes his rap have anger and sense of rage in it because that is how he believes that as African Americans we had a lot to be angry about and that was his way of showing it. He was very unapologetic in the way he spoke and explained that he did not want to be predictable rather he wanted to shock and change minds every time he spoke even if it's not polite. He was obsessed with the idea of changing the world but did not believe he himself could do it, yet he believed he could inspire someone else through his music to change the world. He states in one of his interviews ”I’m not gonna change it because I don’t know how but if i keep talking about how dirty it is somebody gonna clean it up.”
On the night of November 30, 1994, less than a day before the verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, on the main lobby of Quad Recording Studio, Tupac was robbed of all his things and shot mercilessly 5 times including one in his palm. According to assistant Chief John Hill of New York police explained that the suspects allegedly ordered tupac and his crew to the floor, when Tupac resisted he was shot twice in the head, once in the left arm, once in the thy, and palm. The suspects were never found and got away with over $5000 worth of jewelry. Later after his recovery, he explained that he felt like he was one of the representatives for African Americans and he never believed anyone the same race would every shoot him. He wanted to make them sorry that they ever did that to him and was willing to come back with even more determination to be better.
Unfortunately Tupac was being jailed for false sexual abuse case, yet that did not stop him. While he was in jail he wrote seven records and made an album that was released while he was in prison. 11 months later, the owner of death row records Suge Knight paid $1.4 to have him bailed out of jail. Not long after that, Tupac was back in the recording booth writing new songs, and would come to form a group called Outlaw Immortalz. He then recorded his most famous record titles All Eyes On Me at death row records. It sold a few million copies and it was no doubt that his life was changing in a good way, he stated that it was a good reward for him after being in maximum security prison and not acting out.
Tupac kept making hundreds of more records that talked about the real problems facing people of color and would very commonly strat lots of controversy. Regardless of what happened he was determined that he will one day bring equality and change into the neighborhoods he was raised in. He donated large amounts of his money into predominantly black schools, organizations, and neighborhoods. Even with his very large and increasing fame he always saw himself as an outlet or a mouth to the many African Americans that did not have as big of a voice as he does.
On the night of September 7th, there was a big boxing match that was going to go down in Las Vegas between Mike Tyson and Bruce Sheldon, and he was going to be attending it as an audience. After the match he would exit the arena and go on his way. While driving Tupac's car was surrounded by two cars in front, body guards behind him in another car, and two females in the car two the left of his. Since he was going to attend a after party to celebrate the boxing match victory he was engaged in a conversations with the women to tell them to meet him at the club. While focused on the conversation, Tupac and the others failed to see the white cadillac that was approaching to the right of them. At second notice, shot were fired and Tupac was shot in the chest, pelvis, thigh, and hand. Not know if there was more attackers Tupac and his friend drove into the Las Vegas strip, though their car was shot many times so it did not go too far. When police arrived, not knowing what happened; they treated Tupac and the person in the car as the shooters. Six days later Tupac died at university medical center. The person that shot him later was identified to be Orlando Anderson. At age 25 Tupac died at a very young age, and had much more potential that he could have offered to the world. Though he is not with us anymore, his ideas and music still live throughout our culture. He gave people of color a voice when they didn’t have one, he fought for equality, and he did it while doing what he was passionate about. He fought through many hardships, difficult childhood, many suitcases, shots to the head, and racism. However he found a way to go past all that and represent his race till the day he died. That and many other reasons is why Tupac Shakur is a legend and till this day one of the best African American leaders that has ever lived