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Biography

The formative years...

Time Line Of Life

SEPTEMBER. 1968: Afeni Shakur joins the Black Panthers. She is 22

APRIL 1969: Afeni Shakur is picked up and arrested for conspiracy to bomb several public areas in NY CITY. During this time, Afeni Shakur is released on bail and during this time "lopes" with two men. One, 2pac knows as "Legs" and the other Billy. Billy is involved with the Black Panther Movement.

FEBRUARY 1971: Afeni Shakur is sent to a Women's House of Detention while pregant with Tupac.

JUNE 16th, 1971: Afeni Shakur is acquitted on the charges brought against her, and in Tupac Shakur is born in the state of New York.

(TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR) TUPAC AMARU is named after Inca words meaning "shining serpent". SHAKUR is arabic for "thankful to God."

1974-1983: Tupac's family living in the Bronx, moves to Harlem. It is mentioned that during this time, Tupac and family were moving from shelter to shelter for a place to live.

SEPTEMBER 1983: At age 12, Tupac is enrolled in the 127th Street Ensemble, which at the time is a Harlem Theater Group. Tupac appears in a small play, A Rasin in the Sun.

JUNE 1986: The Shakur family moves out of Harlem, and into Baltimore. Tupac during this time takes the name MC NEW YORK and starts what will later become his great rapping career.

SEPTMEBER 1986: Tupac is enrolled in the Baltimore School for the Arts. He studies acting, continues his career writing rap, and does some ballet.

JUNE 1988: Once again, Tupac and family move, this time to Marin City. It is in Marin City that Tupac begins selling drugs to make some money.

AUGUST 1988: Mutulu Shakur, Tupac's "Stepfather" is laid down a sentence of 60 years in prison for the 1981 Armored Car robbery, leaving Tupac again without a father figure.

MARCH 1990: Tupac joins the group Digital Underground as a roadie. While touring, he becomes favored amongst others in the group, and they make him a dancer/rapper for their shows. While away on tours, Tupac says he learns of his mother's use of crack.

NOVEMBER 12 1991: Tupac releases 2Pacalypse Now. During this same year, Tupac files a 10 million dollar lawsuit against Oakland Police Department for a jaywalking incident that turns brutal.

JANUARY 1992: Tupac takes his acting skills to the test, and is given a role in Ernest Dickerson's JUICE. Tupac's character Bishop shines the spot light.

AUGUST 22 1992: While in Marin City, Tupac attends the 50th Ann. of the city and it's during this party that an altercation takes place with Tupac and some of his long time enemies. During the fight, a 6 year old little girl is shot and killed.

SEPTEMBER 1992: Dan Quayle takes aim at Tupac and says that the album 2Pacalypse Now "Has no place in our society."

FEBRUARY 1993: Tupac releases his next album, STRICTLY 4 MY N.I.G.G.A.Z is released and goes platinum.

MARCH 1993: A limo driver accuses Tupac of using drugs in his limo while in Hollywood and files a report. Tupac is arrested but the charges are later dropped.

APRIL 1993: Tupac is again arrested, this time in Michigan for swinging at a rapper with a baseball bat. Tupac is sentenced to 10 days in jail.

JULY 23, 1993: POETIC JUSTICE, a John Singleton film is released featuring Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson. During the production of the movie, Tupac and Janet get off on bad terms when he refuses to take a HIV test that Janet wants him to take.

OCTOBER 31, 1993: Tupac is arrested for allegedly shooting two off duty police officers. Tupac states that the officers were harassing a black motorist near by. The charges are later dropped do to lack of evidence.

NOVEMBER 22 1993: Tupac is arrested again this time for allegedly sodomizing and sexually abusing a 19 year old woman just 4 days before.

DECEMBER 1993: Tupac is dropped from his role in HIGHER LEARNING.

MARCH 10 1994: Tupac faces 15 days in jail for knocking out director Allen Hughes for being dropped from MENACE II SOCIETY.

MARCH 23 1994: ABOVE THE RIM is released, Tupac playing the role of Birdie.

NOVEMBER 30 1994: Tupac is shot five times in the lobby of Times Square recording studio, and robbed of 40k worth of jewelery. (Theres a history to this, but I don't have the time right this second to go into this one. I will post this later) After surgery, it is recorded that Tupac checked himself out of the hospital less than 3 hours after he is placed in the Att. Care unit. Tupac states that he didn't feel safe being there and had a hearing the next day.

DECEMBER 1 1994: Tupac beats the sodomy and weapons charges brought against him, but is found guilty for sexual abuse with the 19 year old woman.

FEBRUARY 14, 1995: Tupac is sentenced to a max time of 4 1/2 years and is sent to serve time at New York's Rikers Island penitentiary.

APRIL 1, 1995: ME AGAINST THE WORLD hits #1 on the Billboards. The hit "Dear Mama" is on that album. This album later goes double platinum.

OCTOBER 1995: Death Row CEO Suge Knight puts up 1.4 million dollars bond for the release of Tupac Shakur. Tupac flies directly to L.A. and signs a 3 album deal with Death Row Records. It is in this time that Tupac starts the production of ALL EYEZ ON ME.

NOVEMBER 30, 1995: Randy Walker, aka Stretch is murdered in Queens, New York. Stretch was a close friend of Tupacs, that Tupac mentioned as one of the men who had set him up in the Time Square shootiing.

DECEMBER-FEBRUARY 1995/1996: Tupac starts slingin' that he has been sleeping with Biggie's wife, singer Faith Evans. During this time to present, Faith denies all such stories.

FEBRUARY 13, 1996: ALL EYEZ ON ME is released under Death Row Records, being the first double CD to come from rap.

MARCH 29, 1996: During the Soul Train awards, Death Row and Bad Boy employees have a heated confrontation. During this fight, a gun is pulled and later is linked to following events. (Soul Train awards was held in Los Angeles.)

APRIL 1996: ALL EYEZ ON ME goes quintuple platinum. Tupac's career with Death Row seems to be bonded 4 life, and his career seems untouchable.

JUNE 4, 1996: Tupac's "HIT EM UP" is released under Death Row. In this video, Tupac hits hard against Bad Boy, Mobb Deep, Biggie, and the whole East Coast crew connected to Bad Boy Ent.

SEPTEMBER 4, 1996: During the MTV MUSIC AWARDS, a fight breaks out between Tupac and some Bad Boy employees and fans. (MTV MUSIC AWARDS was held in New York City.)

SEPTEMBER 7, 1996: After the Mike Tyson vs Bruce Seldon fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tupac and Suge head out to Suge's place for a few drinks before the event at CLUB 662, a club owned by Suge Knight. The club that night was having a retirement party for some fighters. During the ride to the club from Suge's place, a white Cadillac pulls up side of Tupac's BMW on the right side. Suge is driving and Tupac is in the passenger seat. A large caravan of cars are following Pac and Suge to the Club for the party. As the Cadillac pulls up side of Tupac's BMW, an assailant from the Cadillac steps out and fires 14 shots into the BMW at as they are stopped at a traffic light. Tupac takes 4 gunshot wounds. Two wounds to the chest, one to the hand in an attempt to deflect the shots, and another in his pelvis as he tries to jump in the back of the BMW. Suge gets "grazzed" by a bullet in the head. After a U turn and a mile later Suge is pulled over and Tupac is rushed to University Medical Center, where he undergoes the first in the surgeries to save his life. After initial surgery, doctors cannot stop the internal bleeding that Tupac has taken, and they remove his right lung in an attempt to save the young man's life.

SEPTEMBER 13th, 1996: (FRIDAY 13th) Tupac Amaru Shakur is pronounced dead at 4:03 P.M. His body taken for an autopsy and is cremated the next day. Tupac was 25.

NOVEMBER 5 1997: Makaveli: The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory is released

After Death

Tupac Shakur, the rapper whose raw lyrics seemed a blueprint of his own violent life, died Friday from wounds suffered in a drive-by shooting. He was 25. Shakur, his mother at his bedside, was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. EDT at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, according to hospital spokeswoman Nancy Collins.

Collins said doctors determined Shakur died from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest. The rapper had been in a medical-induced coma after having his right lung removed earlier this week.

Shakur was hit by four bullets September 7 as he rode near the Las Vegas Strip in a car driven by the head of Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, who was slightly wounded. It was the second time in less than two years that the rapper was gunned down.

The Las Vegas attackers got away, and no arrests have been made.

Controversial career Known simply as 2Pac, with "Thug Life" tattooed across his stomach, Shakur embodied the extremes of pop culture. Fans loved him, buying millions of his records, while politicians and others denounced both him and his lyrics for glorifying violence and drugs and degrading women.

He was born Lesane Crooks in 1971 in New York City. His mother, Afeni Shakur, is a former Black Panther activist and the inspiration for the touching song "Dear Mama" on his Grammy-nominated album "Me Against The World."

As a member of the Grammy-nominated group Digital Underground, he appeared in 1991 on the track "Same Song" from "This is an EP Release" and on the album "Sons Of The P."

That same year, Shakur achieved individual recognition with the album "2Pacalypse Now," which spawned the successful singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got A Baby."

The album, with references to police officers being killed, drew notoriety when a slain police officer's family claimed Shakur's music drove the killer to action. By that time, Shakur had made his first film appearance in Earnest Dickerson's "Juice."

In the 1992 John Singleton film, "Poetic Justice," Shakur co- starred opposite pop singer Janet Jackson. But Shakur seemed to spend as much time in courtrooms and jail cells than he did on movie sets.

A 1993 confrontation with two off-duty Atlanta police officers led to charges that were later dropped.

In 1994, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail for assault and battery on a music video producer.

Then, in November 1994, he was shot five times and robbed of $40,000 worth of jewelry in the lobby of a New York recording studio.

In 1995, Shakur was found guilty of sexually assaulting a female fan in a New York hotel room. He served eight months before winning release pending his appeal. In 1996, a judge ordered him to serve 120 days in jail for probation violations. An appeal was pending, and he had recently completed filming a role as a detective for the Orion picture "Gang Related."

'Soldiers are out there' When the rapper appeared at the MTV Video Awards three days before the Las Vegas shooting, he explained why he stayed in touch with members of his "posse" by two-way radio.

"Well today, every young black man needs to be physically inclined and military-minded," he said. "And this (two-way radio) is part of the military mind. The soldiers are out there.

"I'm not the same guy that would come to the awards, have a problem with somebody and whup their ass in front of everybody," Shakur continued. "So now I got the radio. I see a problem, we quelch it. It's out. No big fires, just small, tiny little sparks that can be put out."

"That shows my growth," he said. "That shows our brain power. That shows the organization and not just Tupac, but Death Row as a whole."

Still there was trouble.

Police were called into the awards show to break up a confrontation between Shakur's entourage and six other men.

The night he was hit by four bullets, Shakur and his entourage had been involved in a fight outside their Las Vegas hotel.

Yet Shakur was not just the fury, expletives and anger of songs like "F--- the World." He could be poignant ("It was hell hugging on my mama from a jail cell") and both sympathetic and critical of young black men trying to become "gangstas."

He even admitted to being tired of the gangsta lifestyle.

"Thug Life to me is dead. If it's real, let somebody else represent it, because I'm tired of it," Shakur told Vibe magazine. "I represented it too much. I was Thug Life."

Still, there were forebodings of a violent ending.

When Shakur talked to Details magazine earlier this year, he said: "All good niggers, all the niggers who change the world, die in violence. They don't die in regular ways."

His Spirit

It's been years now since Tupac A. Shakur died in intensive care, but since then his spirit and voice have survived, and it's only getting louder. I don't know what most of you were doing when you heard Tupac was pronounced dead, or if you at the time even listened to him, but since then a whole lot has occurred.

Websites have grown in Tupac's favor, and these tributes to a great man have continued to spark the digital flame to keep his name alive. His influence continues to stretch out amongst the millions of loyal fans; everyday reaching further and further into our lives.

Tupac continues to top the charts with each album release, his latest Until The End of Time vanquished all the others on the charts, and it's sales continue to push forward. Another double-album is scheduled to be released sometime Q1 of 2002; and movies are being made which will reflect the short life Tupac once lived.

I only hope that there is life after death, something to grasp on to even if it's just a thought to comfort us, to shelter us. Such powerful spirits mustn't vanish, nor should they wander aimlessly in Time's past, a fading memory only kindled every so often.

If you have something to share or add to this, drop us a line.


	At a Glance Name: Tupac Amaru Shakur Date of Birth: June 16, 1971 Date of Death: September 13, 1996 Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York Place of Death: Las Vegas, Nevada Measurements: 6' 0" 165 lbs. Marital Status: Separated/Married Occupation: Rapper/Actor