Tupac Shakur has been dead for longer than the 25 years he
lived. During his lifetime, he rose to levels of stardom matched by few other
rappers, rocketing quickly from a Digital Underground backup dancer to a
chart-topper and movie star, all while courting controversy with law
enforcement and presidential administrations. In the decades since his 1996
killing in Las Vegas, he has endured as one of the genre’s defining figures, in
no small part because of the mystery surrounding his death.
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The Friday arrest of Duane Keith Davis in connection with
Shakur’s killing — he was indicted on a murder charge — is a step in solving
one of hip-hop’s greatest tragedies and longest mysteries. Nearly two years
before his death, Shakur had been ambushed and shot in New York. The assault
instigated a visceral feud between Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., a New York
rapper who was slain nearly six months after Shakur, forever linking the rivals
and the coastal feud that hung over ’90s hip-hop.
Shakur’s breadth as a rapper included enduring anthems like
“Dear Mama,” “Keep Ya Head Up”, and “California Love,” while also featuring
songs laced with misogyny and vengeance. He poignantly rapped about social
activism and the oppression of Black Americans, which helps his music resonate
just as strong today as it did in the ’90s.
“His death caused people to really magnify what he was doing
musically and when they saw it, they were like, ‘Oh, my Lord,’” said Greg Mack,
a radio programmer who helped bring hip-hop music into the mainstream on the
West Coast. “We didn’t know that’s who we had.”
Part of Shakur’s staying power is because his murder
investigation stayed open longer than he lived, allowing fans to offer up
theories about what may have happened. Almost immediately after his Sept. 13,
1996, death was announced, rumors circulated that Shakur was actually alive and
well, recording in solitude on some far-off island. These wild theories
continued with regularity over the years.
(In one 2011 example, hackers gained access to the PBS
website and wrote that Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. were living together in
a small New Zealand town. The story spread quickly on social media even after
PBS removed it.)
Shakur often prophesied an early death in lyrics and
interviews. He recorded a trove of music during his lifetime, and much of that
material saw the light of day after his death. Over the course of a decade,
Shakur’s estate released several albums that culminated with 2006’s “Pac’s
Life.”
His posthumous output extends beyond his own albums. A
holographic image of Shakur memorably performed at 2012’s Coachella festival.
Kendrick Lamar used excerpts from a rare 1994 Shakur interview for the two to
engage in a conversation on his influential album “To Pimp a Butterfly.” In
June, Shakur received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Actors including
Anthony Mackie and Demetrius Shipp Jr. have portrayed him in films.
More than a dozen documentaries, plays and books have been
shot, acted, and written to display and dissect Shakur’s short life, including
2003’s “Tupac: Resurrection,” which earned an Academy Award nomination for best
documentary feature.
This year, director Allen Hughes released “Dear Mama: The
Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur,” a five-part docuseries that examines Shakur’s
relationship with his mother, Afeni Shakur. (Tupac Shakur once assaulted Hughes
for firing him from the movie “Menace II Society.”) Next month, Staci Robinson,
who knew Shakur in high school, will publish the first estate-approved
biography on Shakur, a book she worked on for more than 20 years.
“Tupac Shakur no longer belongs to Tupac Shakur,” Neil
Strauss of The New York Times wrote in 2001. “Soon he won’t even belong to
Afeni Shakur. He will belong to playwrights, filmmakers, novelists, television
executives and other modern-day mythmakers. ” That prediction has largely rung
true.
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