Table of Contents
Tupac Shakur
Birth
Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in East Harlem, New York, despite his West Coast upbringing.1)
Real Name
Lesane Parish Crooks was Shakur's true name. 2)
Tupac's Mother Renamed Him
Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, renamed him Tupac Amaru Shakur a little less than a year after he was born.3)
Name Origin
Tupac Amaru was a revolutionary from South America who led the indigenous revolt against Spanish tyranny. His oppressors would execute the revolutionary. 4)
His Mother Was A Black Panther Party Member
Afeni Shakur was an active Black Panther Party member. Tupac Shakur was born one month and three days after Afeni was acquitted of “Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks.”5)
Travis Younger
When he was 13, he portrayed Travis Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, which was staged at Harlem's Apollo Theater to benefit Jessie Jackson's presidential campaign. 6)
Ballet Dancer
He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied dancing.7)
Mouse King In Nutcracker
In the Nutcracker, he played The Mouse King. 8)
MC New York
Shakur began rapping under the alias MC New York in Baltimore. 9)
Jada Pinkett Smith
Tupac and Jada Pinkett Smith had a very close platonic friendship.10)
Young Communist League USA
He joined the Young Communist League USA while still in high school in Baltimore.11)
The Digital Underground
Shakur began his showbiz career as a backup dancer for The Digital Underground in 1990. 12)
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Shakur completed The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory in seven days, taking three days to create and record the tracks and four days to mix the album under his new stage name Makaveli. 13)
Keisha Morris
According to Shakur's ex-wife Keisha Morris, Shakur auditioned for the role of Bubba in Forrest Gump but did not receive the job. 14)
Menace II Society
Shakur was set to play the lead in Menace II Society, but he was replaced by Larenz Tate after an altercation with co-director Allen Hughes.15)
Poetic Justice
Shakur claims that when filming Poetic Justice, he was requested to undergo an HIV test before filming a love scene with Janet Jackson. 16)
Madonna
He was in a relationship with Madonna.17)
Fan Of Shakespeare
He was a Shakespeare connoisseur. 18)
Growing Up To Music
He grew up listening to English and Irish pop performers such as Kate Bush, Sinead O'Connor, Culture Club, and U2. 19)
Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones, then 17, wrote an angry letter to Shakur in 1993 after he chastised her father, Quincy Jones, for having affairs with white women.20)
Friends With Notorious B.I.G
Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. were actually pals before the whole East Coast vs. West Coast spat.21)
Me Against the World
'Me Against the World' debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, marking Shakur the first musician to do so while in prison. 22)
Tupac and Ice-T
Tupac and Ice-T once performed a duet.23)
Machiavelli
While in prison, Shakur was strongly affected by Niccol Machiavelli's writings, particularly The Prince. 24)
Shakur's Ashes
Members of the Outlawz smoked marijuana after mixing some of Shakur's ashes with it after he was cremated. 25)
Dear Mama
“Dear Mama” became the third rap song in history to be inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2010. 26)
Joshua's Dream
Shakur changed the name of his publishing company, Ghetto Gospel, to Joshua's Dream in honor of 11-year-old Joshua Torres. 27)
Shakur Shot And Killed Two Off-duty Police Officers
Shakur shot and killed two off-duty police officers. Charges were dismissed, however, after it was determined that the policemen were inebriated, in possession of stolen firearms, and lied to police officers. 28)
Maya Angelou
He sobbed after speaking with Maya Angelou on the set of Poetic Justice.29)
Death
Tupac was shot four times in the chest by an unidentified shooter on September 13, 1996. 30)