Tupac Shakur:
A fiery ferocious MC,an auspicious actor,a man so beautiful he made you wanna touch the scree,the photograph,him.He made you wanna see those vanilla teeth,the wet sweet wild eyes,the fleshy lips,the lashes like fans like feathers on his fudgy skin.He made you want to kill him,defend him,make him your baby.He dared you to find the lies,to prove he's crazy.Tupac keeps you searching,even now,for the line between him and the him he put out there for you to see,for the line between being and acting,between how one rolls through life and how one rocks the microphone.
The troubled triumphant,tragic times of Tupac Shakur:
September 1968:Tupac's mother,Afeni Shakur,joins the New York Black Panther party at age 22.
April 1969:Afeni is arrested and charged with conspiracy to bomb several public areas in New york City.While out on bali,Afeni courts two men:Legs.a local hood,and Billy,a member of the party.
February 1971:Afeni,pregnant with Tupac,has her bail revoked;she's sent to the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village.
June 16,1971:Shortly after his mom is acquitted on bombing charges,Tupac Amaru Shakur is born in New York.Tupac Amaru are lnca words meaning "shining serpent."Shakur is Arabic for "thankful to God."
1975-1983:Tupac's family shutlles between the bronx and Harlem,at times living in shelters.
1983:Legs comes to live with the Shakur family;Tupac "claims" him as his father.Legs introduces Afeni to crack.
September 1983:Afeni enrolls 12-year-old Tupac in the 127th Street ensemble,a Harlem theater group.In his first performance,Tupac plays Travis in A Raisin in the Sun.
June 1896:Shakur's family moves to Baltimore.As MC New York,Tupac writes his forsy rap.
September 1986:Tupac enrolls at the Baltimore School for the Arts,where he studies ballet and acting.
June 1988:Tupac and his family move to Marin City,California "Leavin that school affected me so much," he said later."I see that as the point where I got off the track." Shortly after,Tupac moves in with a neighbor and begins selling drugs.
August 1988:Mutulu Shakur,Tupac's stepfather,is sentenced to sixty years in prison for his involvement in a 1981 armored-car robbery.
1990:Tupac joins Digital Underground as a roadie/dancer/rapper.While on tour,he learns that his mother is using crack.
January 3,1991:Tupac makes his recording debut on DU's This Is an E.P. Release.
November 2 1991:2pacalypse Now is released. Shortly thereafter, Tupac files a $10 million lawsuit against Oakland police for illegal brutality following an arrest for jaywalking.
January 17,1992:Tupac makes his big-screen debut in Ernest Dickerson's Juice,earning praise for his portrayal of Bishop.He is perhaps remembered for the line "I am crazy.And I don't give a fuck!"
April 11:1992:Ronald Ray Howard,19,shoots a texas trooper.Howard's attorney claimes 2pacalypse Now,which was in his client's tape deck,incited hin to kill.
August 22,1992:Tupac has an altercation with old acquaintances in Marin City.A 6-year-old bystander is shot in the head.Tupac's half brother,Maurice Harding,is arrested but released due to lack of evidence.
September 22,1992:Tupac is denounced by Vice President Dan Quayle,who says 2Pacalypse Now "has no place in our society."
February 1,1993:Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. is released and eventually goes platinum.
March 13,1993:Tupac has a fight with a limo driver in Hollywood who accuses him of using drugs in the car.Tupac's arrested,but the charges are dropped.
April 5,1993:Tupac is arrested in Lansing,Michigan, for taking a swing at a local rapper with a baseball bat during a concert.He's sentenced to ten days in jail.
July 23,1993:John Singleton's Poetic Justice,starring Tupac and Janet Jackson,is released.Before filming began,Jackson demanded Shakur take an HIV test before she would do any kissings scenes.
October 31,1993:Tupac is arrested for allegedly shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers who he says were harassing a black motorists. Charges are eventually dropped.
November 18,1993:A 19-year-old women,whom Tupac picked up four days earlier in a New york night club,is allegedly sodomized and sexually abused by the rapper and three friends.
December 1993:John Singleton is forced by Columbia Pictures to drop the rapper from the cast of his upcoming film, Higher Learning.
March 10,1994:Tupac is sentebced to fifteen days inLos Angeles jail for punching out director Allen Hughes .(Hughes and his brother,Albert,had dropped Tupac from Menace II Society.)
March23,1994:Tupac stars as Birdie,a troubled drug dealer,in above the rim.The soundtrack album featuring the song "Pour Out a Little Liquor," recorded by Tupac's group,Thug Life,sells two million copies.
September 7,1994:Two Milwaukee teens murder a police officer and cite Tupac's "Souljah's Story" as their inspiration.
November 30,1994:While on trial for sex and weapons charges,Tupac is shot 5 times and robbed $40,000 worth of jewelry in the lobby of a times square recording studio. Tupac checks himself out of the hospital less than 3 hours of his surgery.The case remains unsolved.
December 1,1994:Tupac is aquitted of sodomy and weapons charges but is found guilty of sexual abuse.
February 14,1995:Tupac is sentenced to up to 4 years and a half and immedialtely begins serving his jail time in New York's Rikers Island penitentiary.
April 1,1995:While he's incarcerated,Tupac's thurd album,Me against the world,debuts no.1 on Billboard's pop chart.Fueled by the single "Dear Mama" the album goes double platinum in seven months.
April 1995:In a VIBE interview from jail,Tupac renounces his "Thug Life" persona and commits himself to positive works.He also implicates Biggie Smalls,Puffy Combs,Andre Harrell,his close friend Stretch,and others in the recording studio ambush.
August 1995:Biggie,Puffy,and Harrell tell VIBE they had no connection to Tupac's shooting.
October 1995:Death Row records CEO Suge Knight posts $1.4 million bond to release Tupac,who immediately fies to LA,signs with Death Row and beginsrecording All Eyez on me.
November 30,1995:Exactly one year after Tupac's shooting,Randy"Stretch" Walker is murdered execution-style in Queens.
February 1996:In VIBE,Tupac suggests he's been sleeping with Biggie's wife,Faith Evans.Faith denies the stories.
February 13,1996:Tupac's Death Row debut,All Eyez on me-rap's first double CD-is released.
March 29,1996:Words are exchanged and a gun is pulled when Death Row and Bad boy employees face off after the soul train awards in Los Angeles.
April 25,1996:All Eyez on me goes quantuple platinum.
June 4,1996:Death Row releases Tupac's "Hit 'em up,"a brutal diatribe against Biggie,Bad Boy,Mobb Deep,and others.
September 7,1996:After leaving Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight in Las Vegas in Suge Knight's car,Shakur is shot four times in the chest by an assailant white cadillac.Knight,who has connections with Bloods,escapes with a minor injury.Shakur is rushed to University Medical Center,where he undergoes surgery,including the removal of his right lung.
Top 20 reasons why 2pac isn't DEAD!!
