2pac Shakur Biography

Tupac Shakur (2pac) was a very active young man who had a brilliant rap career that was only surpassed by his acting abilities. These two natural talents were shadowed by the terribly violent life he lead. Here is a detailed biography of the slain rapper.

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 bail, 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 is an Inca name meaning, "shining serpent." Shakur is Arabic for "thankful to God."

1975-1983: Tupac's family shuttles between the Bronx and Harlem, at times living in shelters. In ‘83 Legs comes to live with the Shakur family; Tupac "claims" him as his father. Legs gets Afeni into 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 1986: Shakur's family moves to Baltimore. As MC New York, Tupac writes his first 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. "Leaving that school affected me so much," he said later. "I see that as the point where I got off 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 and rapper. While on tour, he learns that his mother is using crack.

January 3, 1991: Tupac makes his recording debut on the DU's, this is an E.P. Release.

November 12, 1991: 2Pacalypse Now is released. Shortly thereafter, Tupac files a $10 million lawsuit against the Oakland police for alleged 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 best 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 claims 2Pacalypse Now, which was in his client's tape deck, incited him 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 buy released due to lack of evidence.

September 22, 1992: Tupac is denounced by Vice President Day 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 limousine 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 Singleston's "Poetic Justice," starring Tupac and Janet Jackson, is released. Before filming began, Janet demanded Shakur take HIV tests before she would do any kissing scenes.

October 31, 1993: Tupac is arrested for allegedly shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers. He says they were harassing a black motorist. Charges are eventually dropped.

November 18, 1993: A 19 year-old women, whom Tupac picked up four days earlier in a New York nightclub, 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 sentenced to fifteen days in a Los Angeles jail for punching out director Allen Hughes. Hughes and his brother, Albert, had dropped Tupac from "Menace II Society."

March 23, 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 there inspiration.

November 30, 1994: While on a trial for sex and weapons charges, Tupac is shot five times and robbed of $40,000 worth of jewelry in the lobby of a Times Square recording studio. Tupac checks himself out of the hospital less than three hours after surgery. The case remains unsolved.

December 1, 1994: Tupac is acquitted of sodomy and weapons charges but is found guilty of sexual abuse.

February 14, 1995: Tupac is sentenced to up to four and a half years and immediately begins severing his jail time in New York's Rikers Island Penitentiary.

April 1, 1995: While he's incarcerated, Tupac's third album, Me Against the World, debuts at No. 1 on the 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 friends 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 flies to LA, signs with Death Row, and begins recording 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 12, 1996: Shakur is headed back to jail for four months for disdaining to do road clean-up work for a parole violation. He and Snoop also shot a video in Los Angeles last weekend for, "Two Of America's Most Wanted," MTV paid a visit. MTV Article

April 25, 1996: All Eyez On Me goes quintuple platinum.

May 1996: Tupac and Snoop release "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted." In the video, caricatures of Biggie and Puffy are punished for setting up Tupac.

June 4, 1996: Death Row releases Tupac's Hit 'Em Up," a brutal diatribe against Biggie, Bad Boy, Mobb Deep, and others.

September 4, 1996: Tupac returns to New York for the MTV Music Video Awards and gets into a scruffle.

September 7, 1996: After leaving the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon fight in Las Vegas in Suge Knight's car, Shakur is shot four times in the chest by an assailant in a white Cadillac. Knight, who has connections with the Bloods, escapes with a minor injury. Shakur is rushed to University Medical Center, where he undergoes surgery, including the removal of his right lung.

September 11,1996: A Compton man who police say is associated with the LA Crips is shot to death while sitting in his car, the first in a series of gang related murders. Police begin investigating possible connections to Tupac's shooting.

September 13, 1996: After six days in critical condition, Tupac Shakur is pronounced dead at 4:10 p.m.. He was 25. MTV Article

September 20, 1996: Las Vegas police say they still have no leads on suspects or motives in the murder. For the first time on television, Marion "Suge" Knight, speaks publicly. MTV Article