Tupac Shakur Story [Bio]

Tupac Shakur

Also known as 2Pac

Tupac Shakur

Makaveli Born June 16, 1971 New York City, New York USA
Origin Oakland (1991-1992)
Los Angeles (1992-1996)



Died
September 13, 1996 Las Vegas USA (Age 25)

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Incan
revolutionary who led a Peruvian uprising against Spain and was
subsequently sentenced to death. "Shakur" comes from the Arabic word thankful (to God). His mother, Afeni Shakur, was an active member of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Shakur was born just one month after her acquittal on more than 100 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 court case. Although officially unconfirmed by the Shakur family, several sources list his birth name as either Lesane Parish Crooks or Parish Lesane Crooks.
Afeni supposedly feared her enemies would attack her son, and disguised
their relation using a different last name, only to change it three
months or a year later, following her marriage to Mutulu Shakur.
Violence and criminality surrounded Tupac from an early age. Shakur's godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery. His stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982, when Tupac was a pre-teen. Mutulu was wanted in part for having helped his sister Assata Shakur, Tupac's godmother, to escape from prison in New Jersey, where she had been incarcerated for shooting two state troopers to death in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for an attempted robbery of a Brinks armored car in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Tupac had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older step-brother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared on many of his recordings.
At age 12, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's famous "127th Street Ensemble." His first major role with this acting troupe was as Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. In 1984, his family relocated to Baltimore, After completing his sophomore year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, and jazz. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in the role of the Mouse King in The Nutcracker. Tupac, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beatbox, won most of the many rap competitions that he participated in and was considered to be the best rapper in his school.
Although he lacked trendy clothing, he was one of the most popular kids
in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills,
and ability to mix in with all crowds. He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until Shakur's death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection,
Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole
life," and Smith calls Shakur "one of my best friends. He was like a
brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we
had, you only get that once in a lifetime." A poem written by Shakur
titled "Jada" appears in his book, The Rose That Grew From Concrete, which also includes a poem dedicated to Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes".
In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved once again, this time to Marin City, California, where he attended Tamalpais High School.
He joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in
entertainment. His mother's crack addiction led him to move into Leila
Steinberg's home with his friend Ray Luv
at the age of 17. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Shakur,
an avid reader. Steinberg has kept copies of the books that Tupac read,
which include J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Jamaica Kincaid's At the Bottom of the River, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Eileen Southern's Music of Black Americans, and the feminist writings of Alice Walker and Robin Morgan. Most of these books were read before the age of 20. It has been claimed that Shakur was in fact more well-read and
intellectually well-rounded at that age than the average student in the
first year class of most Ivy League institutions.
In 1989, Leila Steinberg organized a concert with Shakur's group,
Strictly Dope. The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory
who set him up with Digital Underground. In 1990, he was hired as a back-up dancer and roadie for up-and-coming rap group Digital Underground.

Shakur's professional entertainment career began in early 1991, when he debuted his rap skills on the single "Same Song" from the Digital Underground album This is an EP Release. Also in 1991, he appeared in the music video for "Same Song". In late 1991, after his rap debut, Tupac Shakur performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons Of The P. Later that year, he released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Initially he had trouble marketing his solo debut, but Interscope Records executives Ted Field and Tom Whalley eventually agreed to distribute the record.
Shakur claimed his first album was aimed at the problems facing
young black males, but it was publicly criticized for its graphic
language and images of violence by and against police. In one incident, a young man claimed his killing of a Texas trooper was inspired by the album. Former Vice President Dan Quayle publicly denounced the album as having "no place in our society". 2Pacalypse Now did not do as well on the charts as future albums, spawning no top ten hits. His second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. Heavily produced by Stretch and the Live Squad, the album generated two hits, "Keep Ya Head Up" and "I Get Around", , the latter featuring guest appearances by members of the Digital Underground. It was originally going to be a Digital Underground track but instead Shock G gave it to Shakur.

Juice

In addition to rapping, Shakur began acting in films. He made his first film appearance in the 1991 film Nothing But Trouble. His first starring role was in the 1992 movie Juice as Bishop, a trigger happy teen, for which he was hailed by Rolling Stone's Peter Travers as "the film's most magnetic figure." He went on to star in Poetic Justice (with Janet Jackson) and Above the Rim. After his death, three of his completed films Bullet, Gridlock'd and Gang Related were posthumously released. He had also been slated to star in the Hughes brothers' Menace II Society but was replaced by Larenz Tate after assaulting the directors. Director John Singleton claimed that he wrote the film Baby Boy with Shakur in mind for the leading role. It was eventually filmed with Tyrese Gibson
in his place and released in 2001, five years after Shakur's death. The
movie features a mural of Shakur in the protagonist's bedroom as well
as featuring "Hail Mary" in the movie's score.

Thug Life



In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a few of his friends, including Big Syke, Macadoshis, his step-brother Mopreme Shakur, and Rated R. The group released their first and only album Thug Life Vol. 1 on September 26, 1994. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur.
The concept of "Thug Life" was viewed by Shakur as a philosophy for
life. Shakur developed the word into an acronym standing for "The Hate
U Gave Little Infants Fucks Everybody". He declared that the dictionary
definition of a "thug" as being a rogue or criminal was not how he used
the term, but rather he meant someone who came from oppressive or
squalid background and little opportunity but still made a life for
themselves and were proud.

Even as he garnered fame as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained
notoriety for his conflicts with the law. On October of 1991 he filed a
$10 million lawsuit
against the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him
over a jaywalking incident. The suit was later settled for $42,000.
In October 1993, in Atlanta, Georgia,
Shakur shot two off-duty police officers (one in the leg, one in the
buttocks) who were harassing a black motorist. Charges against Shakur
were dismissed when it was discovered that both officers were
intoxicated and were in possession of stolen weapons from an evidence
locker during the incident.
In
December 1993, Shakur was charged with sexually abusing a woman in his
hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur sodomized
the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur
vehemently denied the charges. He had prior relations days earlier with
the woman who was pressing the charges against him. She performed oral
sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had sex in his hotel
room. The allegations were made after she revisited his hotel room for
the second time where she engaged in sexual activity with his friends
and claimed Shakur's entourage had gang-raped her, saying to him while
leaving, "How could you do this to me?"[verification needed]
Shakur stated he had fallen asleep shortly after she arrived and later
awoke to her accusations and legal threats. He later said he felt
guilty for leaving her alone, and did not want anyone else to go to
jail, but at the same time he did not want to go to jail for a crime he
didn't commit. Shakur was convicted of "sexual abuse (forcibly touching
the buttocks)". In sentencing Shakur to one-and-a-half years in prison,
the judge described the crime as "an act of brutal violence against a
helpless woman".
In 1994, he was convicted of attacking a former employer while on a
music video set. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail with additional
days on a highway work crew, community service, and a $2000 fine. In 1995,
a wrongful death lawsuit was brought against Shakur for a 1992 shooting
that left Qa'id Walker-Teal, a six-year old of Marin City, California
dead. The child had been the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout
between
Shakur's entourage and a rival group, though the ballistics tests
proved the bullet was not from any members Shakur's entourage's guns.
Criminal charges were not sought, and Shakur settled with the family
for an amount estimated between $300,000 and $500,000.
After serving part of his sentence on the sexual abuse conviction, he
was released on bail pending his appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge
sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of
probation.

On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the verdict in his
sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was shot five times in
the
lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan by two black men
described as "gun trotting thugs" in an apparent robbery attempt. He
would later accuse Puff Daddy, Andre Harrell, Biggie Smalls,
and his close friend Randy "Stretch" Walker — all of whom he saw after
the shooting — of setting him up. According to the doctors at Bellevue
Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident,
Shakur was shot five times; twice in the head, twice in the groin (just
missing his testicles)
and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital,
against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. The day following
the incident, December 1,
1994, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found
guilty of three counts of sexual abuse, but innocent of six others,
including sodomy.

Tupac in a police mugshot (March 8, 1995)

Shakur
began serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility on
February 14th, 1995. Shortly afterwards, he released his multi-platinum
album Me Against the World. Shakur is the only artist ever to have an album at on the Billboard 200
while serving a prison sentence. The album made its debut on the
Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for 5 weeks. The
album had first week sales of 240,000 copies which was the record for
highest
first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time. He married his
long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, while serving his sentence. This
marriage was later annulled. While in prison Shakur read many books by
Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy. He also wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated.
In October 1995, Shakur's case was on appeal but due to all of
Shakur's legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. After
serving eleven months of his one and a half year to four and a half
year sentence,
Shakur was released from prison, due in large part to the help and
influence of Marion "Suge" Knight, CEO of Death Row Records. Knight
posted $1.4 million bail pending appeal of the conviction, in exchange
for which Shakur was obligated to release three albums for the Death
Row label.

Image of Tupac, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Suge Knight during Tupac's tenure on Death Row Records. (1996)

After
his release from prison, Shakur immediately went back to work
recording. He began a new group, The Outlawz, and with them released
the notorious "diss track" "Hit 'Em Up", a scathing lyrical attack on
The Notorious B.I.G (Christopher Wallace) and others associated with
him. In the track, Shakur claims to have had sex with Faith Evans,
Wallace's wife at the time, and attacks Wallace's street cred. Though
there is no hard evidence suggesting that they did, Tupac was convinced
that Wallace and Sean "Puffy" Combs had known about the shooting
beforehand based on their behavior that night and what his sources told
him.

Shakur
aligned himself with Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who was already
bitter toward Combs and his successful Bad Boy label; this added fuel
to the building East-West feud. Wallace and Shakur would remain bitter
enemies until Shakur's death.
In February 1996, Shakur released his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me.
This double album was the first and second of his three-album
commitment to Death Row Records. It sold over 9 million copies. The
album was a general departure from the introspective subject matter of Me Against the World,
being more oriented toward a thug and gangsta mentality. Shakur
continued his recordings despite increasing problems at the Death Row
label. Dr. Dre left his post as house producer to form his own label, Aftermath.
CEO Suge Knight was under investigation for illegal and unethical
activities and business practices. Despite these problems, Shakur
produced hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which
would be released on posthumous albums such as Better Dayz and Until the End of Time.
He also began the process of recording an album with the Boot Camp Clik
and their label Duck Down Records, both New York-based, entitled One Nation.
The goal of this project was to bring closure to the East Coast-West
Coast feud by bringing together what Shakur thought were the best
rappers from both coasts. This project remains unreleased, though some
of Tupac's contributions to the album have been used in various other
posthumous releases.
By the end of his life, Tupac was in the middle of starting his film development company Euphanasia,
and was going to start writing and directing films. Tupac wanted to
host concerts that would be free for students who get a C or above, and
wanted to build community centers and start baseball and football
leagues
for inner-city children. Tupac and Johnny "J" were starting up 24/7
Productions and Tupac was starting up Non-Stop Productions. Thug Passion
was a drink that Tupac was planning on bottling and selling; the song
"Thug Passion" was made to be a theme song for the drink. Tupac was
going to step back from rapping by releasing albums every five years or
so on his new record label, Makaveli Records,
which would have been distributed by Death Row Records. Tupac and Suge
Knight were in the process of expanding Death Row to the East,
establishing a Death Row East. Tupac died before this could be
fulfilled.

While
in prison Shakur read and studied Niccolò Machiavelli and his works,
which inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the
album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album,
Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making
this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur
wrote and recorded all the lyrics in only three days and the production
took another four days, combining for a total of seven days to complete
the album (hence the name). The album was completely finished before
Shakur died and Shakur had complete creative input on the album from
the name of the album to the cover which Shakur chose to symbolize how
the media has crucified him. The album debuted at #1 and sold 663,000
copies
in the first week. Shakur had plans of starting Makaveli Records which
would have included the Wu-Tang Clan, The Outlawz, Big Daddy Kane, Big
Syke, and Gang Starr.

The famous photograph of Shakur and Suge Knight just moments before the shooting, from the cover of the book The Killing of Tupac Shakur

On
September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon boxing
match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After the boxing match, Shakur
spotted 21 year-old Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the
Southside Crips
in the MGM Grand lobby. Shakur rushed him and knocked Anderson down,
and Shakur's entourage beat him. The incident was captured on the
hotel's video surveillance. Anderson and a group of Crips had beaten up
a member of Death Row's entourage in a Foot Locker
a few weeks earlier, precipitating Shakur's attack. After the fight
with Anderson, Shakur met up with Suge Knight to go to Death Row-owned
Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). Shakur rode with Knight
in
Knight's 1996 black BMW 750i sedan, as part of a larger convoy of cars
including some of Shakur's friends, The Outlawz, and bodyguards.

At approximately 11:10 PM, Suge pulled over to an intersection by
another vehicle so Shakur could exchange words with the two
unidentified women in the other vehicle and invite them to go to the
club with them.
At approximately 11:15 p.m., while stopped at the intersection of East
Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, Shakur was shot at several times in a drive-by shooting.
Shakur was struck by four bullets out of the twelve shots that were
fired at him; he was hit twice in the chest, and once each in his left
arm and thigh, while Knight was grazed in the head by a piece of flying
glass.

At the time of the shooting, Shakur was riding alongside with Suge
Knight, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones,
Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when
he was about to ride along with the rapper in Suge Knight's car, Shakur
asked him to drive Kidada Jones' car instead just in case they were too
drunk and needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel.
Shortly after the shootings, the bodyguard reported in his documentary,
Before I Wake, that one of the convoy's cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard back from the occupants.

After
arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Shakur and Knight to
the University Medical Center. Shakur was placed on life support until
his death six days later, on September 13, 1996, at 4:03 PM PDT at the
age of 25. News of his apparent death came as an unexpected shock to
many. The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiac
arrest. After his death, Shakur's body was cremated. His ashes were
spread over Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean, Shakur's aunt's land and
his mother's land in North Carolina, and some has been mixed with
marijuana and smoked by The Outlawz. Family and friends plan to spread
the remaining ashes during a ceremony in Soweto, South Africa. The
ceremony has been delayed from September 13, 2006, to June 16, 2007,
which is the 31st anniversary of the Soweto uprising and would have
been Shakur's 36th birthday.

Although no one has ever been formally charged, nor publicly
identified by the police as a suspect, police sources have indicated
they believe that Anderson (who has since been murdered himself) was
the killer. Officers in the Compton, California Police Department Gang
Unit claimed in a leaked report the Crips were bragging about the
killing soon after Anderson returned from Las Vegas. Officers further
indicated they were disappointed with the lack of initiative shown by
the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in pursuing Shakur's
killer(s).

Due largely to the perceived lack of progress on the case by law
enforcement, many independent investigations and theories of the crime
have emerged. Because of the acrimony between Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.)
and Shakur, there was speculation from the outset about the possibility
of Wallace's involvement in the murder. Wallace vehemently denied
involvement. However, in a notable 2002 investigation by the Los Angeles Times,
writer Chuck Phillips claimed to have uncovered evidence implicating
Wallace
as an accomplice to Anderson and the Southside Crips. In the article,
Phillips quoted unnamed gang-member sources who claimed
Wallace had ties to the Crips, often hiring them for security during
West Coast appearances. Phillips' informants also stated that using
those contacts, the gang members hoped to profit from their planned
retaliation against Shakur after the fight at the MGM Grand. The
informants stated that Wallace was in Las Vegas that night and that
they visited him and asked him for $1 million in exchange for killing
Shakur. The informants claimed that Wallace supplied the gang members
with one of his own guns and accepted the deal on the condition that
that gun be the one used in the attack. By the time Phillips' specific
allegations were published, however, Wallace himself had been murdered.

Wallace's
family and associates have vehemently denied Wallace's involvement in
Shakur's death. In support of their claims, Wallace's family submitted
documentation to MTV
indicating that Wallace was working in a New York recording studio the
night of Shakur's murder. Wallace's manager Wayne Barrow and rapper
James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Wallace's
involvement in the murder and claiming further that they were both with
Wallace in the recording studio the night of the shooting.

The
high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the
attention of British filmmaker Nick Broomfield who made the documentary
film Biggie & Tupac,
which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those
close to Wallace, Shakur, and the investigation. Shakur's close
childhood friend and member of the Outlawz, Yafeu "Yaki Kadafi" Fula,
was in the convoy when the shooting happened and indicated to police
that he might be able to identify the assailants. He was killed shortly
thereafter in a housing project in Irvington, New Jersey.

In the first few seconds of the song "Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply) on the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur can be heard saying "Shoulda shot me".Many theorists mistook the statement as "Suge shot me" or "Suge shot
'em" until confirmation by multiple audio tests and confirmation from
members of The Outlawz. This, along with reports of Knight's
strong-arm tactics with artists and other illegal business tactics
including involvement with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang gave rise to
a theory that Knight was complicit in Shakur's murder, as it was
reported that Suge Knight owed Tupac up to seventeen million dollars in
back royalties, but no evidence has been provided to support this
theory.

Other
theories have been put forth, including a conspiracy theory that Shakur
is alive and well, but in hiding. Many supporters of these theories
point to the symbolism in Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album and in the video for the single "I Ain't Mad at Cha". Efforts exposing these conspiracy theories include 2Pac Lives The Death of Makaveli / The Resurrection of Tupac Amaru (Volume 1) released in 2005.

Shakur's first album, 2Pacalypse Now,
revealed the socially conscious side of Shakur. On this album Shakur
attacked social injustice, poverty and police brutality on songs
"Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped" and "Part Time Mutha". His style on
this album was heavily influenced by the social consciousness and
Afrocentrism pervading hip-hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s. On
this initial release, Shakur helped extend the legacy of such rap
groups as Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, X-Clan, and even Grandmaster Flash, as he became one of the first major socially conscious rappers from the West Coast.

On his second album, Shakur continued to rap about the social ills
facing African-Americans, with songs like "The Streetz R Deathrow" and
"Last Wordz." He also showed his compassionate side with the
inspirational anthem "Keep Ya Head Up", while simultaneously putting
his legendary aggressiveness on display with the title track from the
album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. He even added a salute to his former group Digital Underground
by including them on the playful track "I Get Around." Throughout his
career, an increasingly aggressive attitude can be seen pervading
Shakur's subsequent albums.

The contradictory themes of social inequality and injustice,
unbridled aggression, compassion, playfulness, and hope all continued
to shape Shakur's work, as witnessed with the release of his incendiary
1995 album Me Against the World. In 1996 Shakur released All Eyez on Me. With many tracks on the album considered to be classics, including "Ambitionz Az a Ridah", "I Ain't Mad at Cha", "California Love (RMX) [Remix]", "Life Goes On" and "Picture Me Rollin'", many critics consider this album to be a classic. All Eyez on Me
was a change of style from his earlier works. While still containing
conscious songs and themes, Shakur's album was heavily influenced by
party tracks and tended to have a more "feel good" vibe than his
earlier albums. Shakur described it as a celebration of life.
Nonetheless, the album was critically and commercially successful.

Shakur's work has influenced many modern rap artists. Eminem, Nas, Lloyd Banks,Rick Ross, Ja Rule, The Game, and 50 Cent all acknowledge his influence on their work. The likes of Snoop Dogg, Diddy, Pharrell, Ghostface Killa, Lil' Scrappy, DMX, Lil' Jon, Mary J. Blige, Juvenile, Outkast, Jermaine Dupri, WC, Sean Paul, Ice Cube, Missy Elliot, Mike Tyson and Nelly have all named songs by Shakur that they personally enjoyed.

Tupac Shakur has one of the largest personal legacies of any music
artist in history. The music and messages in his work pervaded the
styles of the following generations and his music had great impact all
over the nation and world. At a Mobb Deep concert following the death of the famed icon and release of his The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album, Cormega recalled in an interview that the fans were all shouting "Makaveli", and emphasized the influence of the The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
and of Shakur himself even in New York at the height of the
media-dubbed 'Inter-coastal rivalry'. About.com named Tupac the most
influential rapper ever.

To preserve Shakur's legacy, his mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation (later re-named the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation
or TASF) in 1997. The TASF's stated mission is to "provide training and
support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents." The
TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a performing arts
day camp for teenagers and undergraduate scholarships. The Foundation
officially opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts (TASCA) in
Stone Mountain, Georgia on June 11, 2005.

Tupac: Resurrection, a 2003 documentary on Shakur's life

On November 14, 2003, a documentary about Shakur entitled Tupac: Resurrection, was released under the supervision of his mother and narrated entirely in his voice. The movie was nominated for "Best Documentary" in the 2005 Academy Awards. Proceeds will go to a charity set up by Afeni Shakur.

On April 17, 2003, Harvard University
co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled "All Eyez on Me: Tupac
Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero." The speakers discussed
a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur's impact on everything from
entertainment to sociology.

In late 2003, seven years after the death of Shakur. The Makaveli Branded Clothing line was launched by Afeni Shakur.

Many of the speakers discussed Shakur's status and public persona, including State University of New York
English professor Mark Anthony Neal, who gave the talk "Thug Nigga
Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian" in which he argued that
Shakur was an example of the "organic intellectual" expressing the
concerns of a larger group.
Professor Neal has also indicated in his writings that the death of
Shakur has left a "leadership void amongst hip-hop artists."
Neal further describes Tupac as a "walking contradiction", a status
that allowed him to "make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary
people".

Professor of Communications Murray Forman, of Northeastern University, spoke of the mythical status surrounding Shakur's life and death. He addressed the symbolism
and mythology surrounding Shakur's death in his talk entitled "Tupac
Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)". Among his findings were that Shakur's
fans have "succeeded in resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force".
In "From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero",
Professor of Music at Northeastern University, Emmett Price, compared
Shakur's public image to that of the trickster-figures of
African-American folklore which gave rise to the urban "bad-man"
persona of the post-slavery period. He ultimately described Shakur as a
"prolific artist" who was "driven by a terrible sense of urgency" in a
quest to "unify mind, body, and spirit".

Michael Dyson, University of Pennsylvania Avalon Professor of Humanities and African American Studies and author of the book Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur indicated that Shakur "spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who
bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform.
He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his
identity." At one Harvard Conference the theme was Shakur's impact on entertainment, race relations, politics and the "hero/martyr". In late 1997, the University of California, Berkeley offered a student-led course entitled "History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur."

In August 2006 Tupac Shakur Legacy was released. The interactive biography was written by Jamal Joseph.
It features unseen family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20
removable reproductions of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts,
scripts, poetry, and other personal papers.

Shakur's album 6th posthumous studio album, Pac's Life, was released on November 21, 2006
to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Shakur's death. Even 10 years
after his death he is still considered one of the most popular artists
in the music industry.

[Source Wikipedia ] And Other's P.J KING research