As a member of the New York 21, she was accused-and subsequently acquitted-of conspiring to bomb department stores and police stations.īorn in New York City in 1971, Tupac Amaru Shakur made his acting debut at age 13 in a production of “Raisin in the Sun” at the Apollo Theater in a benefit for Jackson’s 1984 presidential bid. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was a member of the Black Panther Party and spent part of the time she was pregnant with him in prison.
#IS 2PAC DEAD FREE#
Shakur was free on $1.4 million bail after serving eight months in a New York prison following his conviction last year on two counts of sexual abuse for offensive touching without consent. Knight, with three lawyers, talked to investigators Wednesday but was of no help, police said. No arrests have been made and police have expressed frustration over the lack of eyewitness details. The wounds caused extensive internal bleeding that doctors tried for two days to stop. Doctors at the hospital had said earlier in the week that four bullets struck Shakur, and the two wounds to the chest were the most life-threatening. Since entering the hospital late Saturday night, Shakur had been listed in critical condition. “Trying to maintain in this dirty game, keep it real, and I will even if it kills me.” “Don’t wanna be anotha statistic out here doin’ nothin’ ,” he said in another song. “If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day.”īut his music included elements of misogyny and violence that celebrated the gangsta lifestyle. “I wish I could take the pain away,” he wrote in the song. His best known song, 1995’s Grammy-nominated “Dear Mama,” was a tender expression of love for his mother-and his thanks for all the sacrifices she had made.
30, 1994, he was shot five times during a robbery in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio.ĭespite his tough-guy exploits, there is a layer of discontent and doubt beneath the swagger of his most introspective songs that recalls the troubled isolation of Marvin Gaye.
The next year, he was accused-but never convicted-of shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers. Shakur often boasted of his “gangsta” ties and had the words “Thug Life” tattooed across his abdomen.Īt a 1992 festival in Marin County, Shakur was involved in a scuffle that left a 6-year-old dead, killed by a stray bullet. In both his music and his life, Shakur, who recorded under the name 2Pac, had trouble resolving the conflicting sides of his personality.
#IS 2PAC DEAD SERIES#
The rapper’s death-the latest in a series of violent episodes in the short but troubled history of Death Row-closed one of the most successful and controversial chapters in the notorious music style that has been widely attacked for its celebration of violence and drugs.Īt its best, however, rap has also served over the last decade as a revealing chronicle of the anger and pain of a social underclass-a contemporary form of the classic blues.Īlong with such artists as Ice Cube and Chuck D., Shakur was among the most gifted of those voices, writing from his own experiences-and his own demons.īursting on the rap scene in 1991 with the hit album “2Pacalypse Now,” Shakur went on to sell more than $90 million in records. Knight was grazed in the head by a bullet fragment, but suffered only minor injuries. He remained on a respirator in intensive care until his death. Shakur was taken to University Medical Center, where surgeons removed his right lung. As Knight drove to his Club 662 after the fight about 11:15 p.m., a white Cadillac pulled alongside his BMW and opened fire. Police said Shakur, who was in Las Vegas last Saturday to attend the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon boxing title match with an entourage from Death Row Records, was shot while in a car with label co-founder and president Marion “Suge” Knight.