by Amazing Creations

Created on: September 09, 2009

Parish Lesane Crooks was born June 16,1971 in East Harlem, New York. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was a member of The Black Panthers in the 1960s and early 1970s. She feared that because of her affiliation with The Black Panthers they would seek retaliation against her and her family after she was aquitted of over 150 conspirary charges. She changed her son's name, and again changed it to Tupac Amuri Shakur after her second marriage.

At age 12, Tupac enrolled in Harlem's 127th Street Ensamble and performed at The Apollo Theatre. Even though the family was poor, Tupac was one of the most popular kids in school, due largely to his sense of humor and outgoingness. He competed in many rap competitions and was considered the best rapper in his school.

In 1988, Tupac and his family moved to Marlin, California, where he began studying poetry. In 1990, Shakur was hired as a back up dancer for the rap group Digital Underground. Tupac was able to showcase his rapping skills on a song with the group called "Same Song. "He performed with the group one more time on a second album and later began his rap career.

His first album was released in 1991 titled 2PacaplyseNow. The album did not do well and did not produce any top ten songs. It did go gold. His second release, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. was released in 1993 and went platinum. This album produced hiots such as "Keep Ya Head Up" and "I Get Around".

Tupac released back to back albums in 1995 and 1996, titled Me Against The World and All Eyez On Me. Both went platinum, with the latter album going platinum 9 times. Also released in 1996 was Don Kiluminati. This album only went gold.

Even as such a talented artist, Tupac faced many legal problems that all began after the rapper had found fame. In 1993 Tupac was charged with sexually abusing a woman. This was only the beginning of his legal issues. He was sentenced to a prision term of one and a half years. Again Tupac faced criminal charges after attacking a former employee, which landed him 15 days in jail along with a $2,000 fine and community service work.

In November of 1994, Tupac was shot 5 times in Manhattan by two armed, masked men. One year later, Tupac was found shot to death in an execution style murder in Queens, NY.

Learn more about this author, Amazing Creations.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.