About Me
Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, was acquitted of over 100 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" after successfully defending herself in the New York Panther 21 case, just one month before Tupac was born. * On the birth certificate Afeni Shakur, his mother, wrote Parish Lesane Crooks because she was in fear of someone hurting her son. After one year Afeni Shakur changed his name to Tupac Amaru Shakur. He was named after the Incan revolutionary Tupac Amaru II. In Arabic Tupac Amaru means "Shining serpent" and Shakur means "Thankful to God". * Tupac's step father is Mutulu Shakur, his godfather is Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt and his godmother is Assata Shakur. * He was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan. * Tupac's first acting role was Travis in A Raisin in the Sun, the play benefited the presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson. * Tupac and his family moved to Baltimore in 1984. For his freshman and sophomore year Tupac went to school at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School. * After Tupac's sophomore year he earned a scholarship to the Baltimore School for the Performing Arts. Despite not having trendy clothing Tupac was one of the most popular kids in high school and mixed in with all crowds. At the Baltimore School for the Performing Arts Tupac studied acting, poetry, and jazz. He performed in Shakespeare plays and landed the role of the Mouse King in The Nutcracker. * In Baltimore Tupac competed in many rap competitions and never lost one. He had a wall full of nothing but 1st place awards. He was known as the best rapper in his school. * Tupac was offered a record contract when he was 13 years old, however his mother did not allow him to sign it at such a young age. * Tupac had a hand written rap on the wall of the Enoch Pratt Free library in Baltimore. It sat next to poetry by Edgar Allan Poe. (It has since been added to the vaults). * In 1988 Tupac and his sister relocated to Marin City, California after their mother developed an addiction to crack-cocaine. When Tupac was 17 years old he moved in with Leila Steinberg with his friend Ray Luv. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Tupac, who was already an avid reader at the time. * In Marin City, Tupac formed a rap group, Strictly Dope. Leila Steinberg organized a concert that landed Tupac a deal with manager Atron Gregory, who set up Tupac's audition with Shock G of the Digital Underground. In 1990 Tupac was hired as a back-up rapper and dancer for Digital Underground. * While in Marin City, Tupac worked at Roundtable Pizza where he made and delivered pizzas. * Tupac has said the only song he wrote while not high was "Same Song". * After Pac had released 2Pacalypse Now he wanted to bring out a group called "Nothing Gold." He was going to do production for them while they wrote their own lyrics, but it never happened. He was also working with a female artist called "A Sister Named Mister," but she never came out either. * In October of 1993 Tupac was arrested for shooting two cops who were harassing a black motorist. Witnesses have stated one of the officers fired the first shot. The charges were dropped when it was discovered the two cops were drunk, using weapons from the police evidence locker, and had a history of making racist comments. * Tupac was slated to star in Menace II Society, but was fired. After assaulting one of the Hughes Brothers for firing him he was sentenced to 15 days in prison. * Tupac was to be starring in Higher Learning but was dropped due to legal troubles. * Tupac never said Biggie or Puffy of setting him up, he said they had prior knowledge of the shooting and never warned him. * The last time the RIAA updated Me Against the World's certification was on December 6th, 1995 when it was certified 2x Platinum. * Me Against the World made Tupac Shakur is the only artist ever to have an album at 1 on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. 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. * Tupac has created conceptual track listings for albums titled Troublesome 21 (which turned out to be Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.), Crucify (which turned out to be Me Against the World), Americaz Euphanasia (which turned out to be All Eyez on Me), Supreme Euphanasia (which also turned out to be All Eyez on Me) * All Eyez on Me reached Platinum qualification in only 4 hours. * All Eyez on Me has sold over 7 million copies, which would qualify for Diamond (and 14x Platinum) certification by the RIAA. Each disc of a 2 disc album counts as a sale. It was last certified 9x Platinum in 1998. * Besides the intro to The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Biggie was never mentioned on All Eyez on Me or The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. * The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory made it's debut at 1 on the Billboard 200. It sold 663,000 copies in it's first week. * As of 1998, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory sold 7 million copies in the United State alone and 28 million copies worldwide. * "Me and My Girlfriend" was about a gun not a girl. * Near the end of Tupac Shakur's life he started Euphanasia, a film development company. The word "Euphanasia" derives from the words "Euphoria" (a feeling of well-being or elation) and "Euthanasia" (the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy). Tupac Shakur wore the Euphanasia chain (pictured above), which depicts the a muscular thug angel with a Makaveli tattoo (to symbolize anger, pain, or any emotion), a teardrop of blood (honoring fallen soldiers), a halo, and wings (to symbolize protection). Tupac wore the chain while in New York for the MTV Music Video Awards on September 4th, 1996 and the day of his fatal shooting, September 7th, 1996 (seen below). Tupac Shakur was planning to start writing and directing movies which would be developed by Euphanasia. Due to Tupac Shakur's death, the company never did anything. * He started a management company. * He was starting his own label, Makaveli Records. * He started a production company with Johnny "J" called Non-Stop Productions. * In 1996 Tupac teamed up with the Boot Camp Click to create One Nation, which was to be a 2 disc album. Tupac intended for the album to clear up any misconception and make it apparent that his beef was with Bad Boy and not the east coast. * Tupac did not want to go to Las Vegas for the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight, but Suge Knight insisted. * Tupac was supposed to go on tour with Snoop and Tha Dogg Pound in October 1996. The name of the tour was "All Eyez On Us." * The parents of a dying boy wrote to Tupac telling him their kid's last wish was to meet him. Tupac flew to his side in Maryland, and after the boy died, he renamed his publishing company Joshua's Dream. * Tupac helped pass out 850 toys to kids at Foster Elementary School in Compton. * On Thanksgiving, Death Row paid for free food to be passed out on the block of a South Central L.A. community center at 11 a.m. Tupac helped pass out $400,000 worth of turkeys. * Tupac took the step daughter of a murdered friend to her prom. * Tupac went to the House of Blues and noticed there was nobody dancing with a woman in a wheelchair. He danced with her for four hours. * While in prison Tupac married Keisha Morris, they later got divorced. Tupac married her because he wanted her to get more respect with the title of his Wife when speaking to record executives. * At the time of Tupac's death he was engaged to Kidada Jones, who is the daughter of Quincy Jones. * If Tupac were to be alive the album after The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory would have had songs produced by the legendary Quincy Jones. * He guaranteed to start a political party in time for the 2000 election. He had the political backing of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and the financial backing of Quincy Jones (as Tupac was marrying Quincy Jones' daughter) * He wanted to run for mayor of Los Angeles and at the end of his life he planned to clean up his act in 6 months. Mama's Boy. He also began an inspirational book about how to get out of the ghetto and succeed. Tupac was also going to create a cookbook including the favorite recipes of the music industry's stars. * Tupac had plans of venturing into real estate and restaurants. He planned on opening the Powamekka Cafe, which he was designing himself. * Tupac was 5'10'', and weighed 168 pounds. * Tupac's favorite colors are black and gold. * Tupac's favorite meal was fried chicken and hot sauce. * Tupac's favorite soft drink is orange soda. * Tupac is the top-selling rapper in the world. * Tupac created a backronym for "Thug Life", "The Hate U Give Little Infants F's Everybody". * Tupac created a backronym for "Outlaw", "Operating Under Thug Laws As Warriors". * Tupac created a backronym for "Nigga", "Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished". * Tupac created a backronym for "MOB", "Money Over Bitches"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_SD5M6Q9eA
