Tex t THE SHORT LIFE OF TUPAC SHAKUR Tupac Shakur was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1971. Early in his life, he moved to Baltimore , MD, where he attended The Baltimore School for the Performing Arts. At this school, Tupac left a lasting impression on his teachers and was showing tremendous po tential. Unfortunately, Tupac was unable to continue his training. He moved to Oakland, California with the rest of his family. That's when Tupac began to, as he called it, "Hang with the wrong crowd." Not held back by his lack of formal education, Tupac joined the Rap group Digital Underground as a dancer. Not long befort the group achieved award winning success, Tupac released his own album "2pacalypse Now", which was also a success. The hit single "Brenda's Got A Baby" launched Tupac's career like a rocket. His stunning talent also got him a role in the motion picture, "Juice". Tupac eventually released a second album "Strictly for my Niggaz," which was an even bigger success. The highlight of Tupac's acting career came when he appeared in "Poetic Justice" besides Janet Jackson. The role made Tupac a household name and showed the world that music may not be Tupac's #1 attribute. In the midst of a role in the movie "Above the Rim" and a Platnum album "Me against the world," Tupac's rising career was snagged. He was brought up on sexual assault charges by a woman he met at a nightclub. Hours before Tupac would be found guilty, Tupac was robbed at gun point by men whose intent and purpose is still uncertain. Tupac was eventually released at over $1 Million in bail. After his release, Tupac answered his critics by releasing his best album, "All eyes on me." "All eyes on me" has currently sold around 6 million copies, which is revolutionary for a double cd. Especially in Hip Hop music. As the album climbed the charts, Tupac also completed work on two films, one entitled "Gridlock." While on his way to do charity work, Tupac Shakur was assassinated by the bullets of unknown gunmen on September 13, 1996.
LAS VEGAS SUN REPORTS: LIFE AND DEATH OF TUPAC SHAKUR
"Gangsta" rapper Tupac Shakur died Friday from wounds suffered six days ago in a car-to-car shooting on a busy street a few blocks off the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur, 25, was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. Friday at University Medical Center. He died of respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest, a hospital spokesman said. Las Vegas police have struggled to discover who shot Shakur, but family friends grieving at the hospital suggested that they know who murdered him.
Family and friends milled around the hospital comforting each other until 6 p.m., even though a mortuary van took his body to the Clark County Coroner's office about 5:10 p.m. Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight, chairman of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, were shot while Knight was driving Shakur on East Flamingo Road. A white Cadillac pulled up next to them and a gunman emptied a semiautomatic pistol into the passenger side of their car.
Shakur was hit four times in the chest and abdomen. Police believe he was the target. He lingered in a coma and was nonresponsive until he died, a friend outside the hospital said. Knight was slightly injured from bullet fragments. The two were in a caravan of cars leaving the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight fight Saturday night when the gunman, inside a car with two or three black men inside, opened fire on S about retaliation here. That'll come later." Police still have few clues leading to the gunman, Sgt. Kevin Manning said. Manning said today he had no new information.
Marcos, when asked if the assailants would eventually leak information that they shot Shakur, said, "They already have." He declined to say where the purported suspects live, only that "they're not from Las Vegas." George Pryce, Death Row Records spokesman, said they were preparing a statement. "Give people a moment to get over the shock," he said. Shaneeka Jackson, 22, said she came down to see if any celebrities would come to the hospital. "Some friends said they saw M.C. Hammer but I haven't seen him," Jackson said.
It was the second time Shakur had been gunned down in less than two years. In November 1994 he was shot five times during an apparent robbery in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio. Arrested repeatedly in recent years, he was released last year on bail pending appeal after serving eight months in a New York prison for sex abuse.
The Las Vegas attackers got away. Knight, with three lawyers, talked to investigators four days after the shooting but was of no help, police said.
There had been trouble ealier. Shakur and associates were in a fight outside a Las Vegas hotel just before the shooting. And at the recent MTV awards in New York, police broke up a confrontation between Shakur's entourage and six other men. But then there always seemed to be something brewing.
Shakur was up-front about his troubled life in the 1995 release "Me Against The World," a multi-million-selling album that contained the ominously titled tracks "If I Die 2Nite" and "Death Around The Corner."
"It ain't easy being me - will I see the penitentiary, or will I stay free?" Shakur rapped on the album, which produced the Grammy-nominated "Dear Mama" and standout singles "So Many Tears" and "Temptations."
Yet Shakur was not just the fury, expletives and anger of songs like "Fuck the World." He could be poignant ("It was hell hugging on my mama from a jail cell") and both sympathetic and critical of young black men trying to become "gangstas" ("You could be a fucking accountant, not a dope dealer, you know what I'm saying").
The Las Vegas shooting occurred as Shakur's fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. The song "How Do You Want It - California Love" was a top 20 single on Billboard magazine's charts.
The rapper had a more hopeful outlook on "All Eyez." In a comment released by his label, Shakur had described the making of the album: "I just said what I wanted to say, and it liberateg," 2C including Knight, have frustrated police because they have provided few details on the suspects and possible motives.
"Nobody wants to help the police," Marcos said. "What for? What are they going to do? I'm just saying that whoever did this is going to get found. The people who findm, Earnest Dickerson film "Juice."
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in 1971 in the Bronx. He moved to Baltimore to about retaliation here. That'll come later." Police still have few clues leading to the gunman, Sgt. Kevin Manning said. Manning said today he had no new information. Marcos, when asked if the assailants would eventually leak information that they shot Shakur, said, "They alreaARelease" and on the album "Sons Of The P." That same year Shakur achieved individual recognition with the album "2Pacalypse Now," which spawned the successful singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got A Baby."
The album, with references to police officers being killed, drew notoriety when a lawyer claimed a man accused of killing a Texas trooper had been riled up by the record. Then-Vice President Dan Quayle targeted "2Pacalypse Now" in his 1992 battle with Hollywood over traditional values.
Shakur followed up in 1993 with the strong selling album "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z...," which produced the singles "I Get Around," "Keep Ya Head Up," and "Papa'z Song." That year he was nominated for an American Music Award as best new rap hip hop artist.
The next year he appeared with Thug Life on the "Above The Rim" soundtrack and on the group's album "Volume 1." In a photo on the album liner he framed his face between his two extended middle fingers. While in prison last year he indicated he was rethinking his lifestyle.
"Thug Life to me is dead. If it's real, let somebody else represent it, because I'm tired of it," Shakur told Vibe magazine. "I represented it too much. I was Thug Life." The Associated Press also contributed to this story.
Timeline of events TimeLine Times are approximate. Saturday, Sept. 7 8:30 p.m. - People start leaving the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon fight that was held at the MGM Grand. Tupac Shakur attended the fight which started at 8 p.m. Tyson was declared the winner after 109 seconds in the ring with Seldon. 8:30 to 9 p.m. - Shakur and his bodyguards are involved in a physical altercation with a man near the hotel's Grand Garden. Police do not believe the man was in any way connected to the later shooting of Shakur. 11:15 p.m. - Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight are shot. Shakur had been standing up through the open sun roof of a 1996 BMW 750 sedan that was eastbound on Flamingo Road. Shakur is shot four times in the chest. Shrapnel grazed Knight's head. A tota 13 shots were fired at the car Shakur was in. After the shooting, Shakur's car made a U-turn and head West on Flamingo. Police reached the car on the Strip where it was caught in traffic. An ambulance then picked up Shakur and Knight transporting th em to University Medical Center, where Shakur underwent the first of three operations.
Sunday, Sept. 8 11 a.m. - Knight is released from the University Medical Center. 6:20 p.m. - Shakur undergoes a second operation at UMC to repair damage from the bullet wounds.
Monday, Sept. 9 8 p.m. - Metro Police and about 20 friends of Shakur are in an altercation over what police call a "misunderstanding." Tensions are calmed with help from a female friend of Shakur's and four men originally handcuffed during the scuffle are release d. No one was arrested. Police have been patrolling outside the hospital out of concern for retaliation after the shooting.
Wednesday, Sept. 11 6 p.m. - Knight, accompanied by his attorneys speaks to METRO Police for about an hour.
Friday, Sept. 13 4:03 p.m. - Shakur dies from his injuries.
Reaction to Shakur's death "The most unfortunate thing that has ever happened in the hip hop culture. It saddens me. I hope this is a wake up call for a lot of us. I pray for him and his loved ones." -- Recording Artist, actor and Uptown Records Chief Executive Officer Heavy D "This is so, so sad. Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call. He couldn't break the cycle." -- Rev. Jesse Jackson
"There ain't nothing wrong with speaking the truth. But I want my brothers to realize we're killing ourselves. It's a crying shame to still be living this way." -- Michelle Swift, Shakur fan in Las Vegas.
"Despite some of his shortcomings, he always gave you something with his music. He gave you some things to think about or he gave you something to laugh about or he gave you something to cry about." -- fellow rapper Coolio
"I hope in the on over what police call a "misunderstanding." Tensions are calmed with help from a female friend of Shakur's and four men originally handcuffed during the scuffle are release d. No one was arrested. Police have been patrolling outside the hospital out of concern for retaliation after the shooting.
Wednesday, Sept. 11 6 p.m. - Knight, accompanied by his attorneys speaks to METRO Police for about an hour.
Friday, Sept. 13 4:03 p.m. - Shakur dies from his injuries.
Reaction to Shakur's death "The most unfortunate thing that has ever happened in the hip hop culture. It saddens me. I hope this is a wake up call for a lot of us. I pray for him and his loved ones." -- Recording Artist, actor and Uptown Records Chief Executive Officer Heavy D "This is so, so sad. Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call. He couldn't break the cycle." -- Rev. Jesse Jackson
"There ain't nothing wrong with speaking the truth. But I want my brothers to realize we're killing ourselves. It's a crying shame to still be living this way." -- Michelle Swift, Shakur fan in Las Vegas.
"Despite some of his shortcomings, he always gave you something with his music. He gave you some things to think about or he gave you something to laugh about or he gave you something to cry about." -- fellow rapper Coolio
"I hope in the on over what police call a "misunderstanding." Tensions are calmed with help from a female friend of Shakur's and four men originally handcuffed during the scuffle are release d. No one was arrested. Police have been patrolling outside the hospital out of concern for rember of the Grammy-nominated group Digital Underground he appeared on the track "Same Song" from "This is an EP Release" and on the album "Sons Of The P."
1992 Shakur appeared in the Earnest Dickerson film "Juice." 1993 Appeared in John Singleton's release "Poetic Justice." 1994 Release of "Thug Life." Appeared in "Above The Rim"
November: Shakur's New York sex assault trial opens. November: Shakur is shot during apparent robbery attempt outside a music studio in New York.
December: One day after being shot, Shakur is convicted of sexually abusing a woman he had invited to his hotel room. He is acquitted of sodomy and weapons charges.
1995 Release of "Me Against The World," a multi-million-selling album. February: Sentenced in New York to 4 1/2 years in prison for sex abuse. May: Shakur married longtime girlfriend, Keisha Morris. October: After nearly eight months in prison, Shakur is released on bail while he appeals.
1996 Shakur's fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, goes on to sell about 5 million copies. The song "How Do You Want It California Love" was a top 20 single on Billboard magazine's charts. Acted as a detective in Orion's urban crime thriller "Gang Related." Sept. 7: Shakur shot in Las Vegas. Sept. 13: Shakur pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. (R.I.P 2PAC WE WILL MISS YOU PAC)
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