Line #150 Music/TupacShakur


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2pacpics91-1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:THUG LIFE.]]
3	[floatboxright:Influences:
4	* Music/KateBush
5	* Music/CultureClub
6	* Music/DonMcLean
7	* Creator/WilliamShakespeare
8	* Music/SineadOConnor
9	* Music/{{U2}}
10	]
11	->''"You see, you wouldn't ask why the rose that grew from the concrete had damaged petals. On the contrary, we would all celebrate its tenacity. We would all love its will to reach the sun. Well, we are the roses, this is the concrete and these are my damaged petals. Don't ask me why. Thank God, nigga -- ask me how!"''
12	-->-- '''Tupac Shakur'''
13
14	->''"A lot of people think that it was about [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]] on the East Coast and 2Pac on the West Coast. It wasn't like that. Big ran New York. 2Pac ran ''America''."''
15	-->-- '''Cormega'''
16
17	Tupac Amaru Shakur (born Lesane Parish Crooks[[note]]Renamed at age 1 after Túpac Amaru II, the descendant of the last Incan ruler, Túpac Amaru[[/note]], June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac (or simply Pac) and Makaveli, was an American rapper. In addition to his status as a top-selling recording artist, Shakur was a promising actor, a poet and a social activist.
18
19	Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in society and conflicts with other rappers. Shakur's work is known for advocating political, economic, social and racial equality. Shakur was initially a roadie and backup dancer for the alternative hip hop group Music/DigitalUnderground, before forming his own group Thug Life then going solo.[[note]]this hasn't stopped people on Website/YouTube from re-labeling Digital Underground songs as "Digital Underground featuring 2Pac", even if he didn't actually appear in the song.[[/note]]
20
21	Shakur became the target of lawsuits and experienced other legal problems. He was later shot five times and robbed in the lobby of a recording studio in New York City. Following the event, Shakur grew suspicious that other figures in the rap industry had prior knowledge of the incident and did not warn him; the controversy helped spark the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur was later convicted for rape, but he insisted all relations were consensual.
22
23	After serving eleven months of his sentence he was released from prison on an appeal financed by Marion "Suge" Knight, the CEO of Creator/DeathRowRecords. In exchange for Suge's assistance, Shakur agreed to release three albums under the Death Row label. The first of such was ''Music/AllEyezOnMe'', Shakur's first double album (as well as the only double album released during his lifetime) as well as one of the earliest double albums in hip-hop.
24
25	In addition to his music, Shakur was also one of the first rappers to have a successful acting career. What separates him from the others (and what many people didn't realize), is that he actually went to school for acting and would have seriously pursued it had he not gotten into music. As a child, he played Travis in ''Theatre/ARaisinInTheSun'' during a run at the Apollo Theater. As an adult, his best-known movies include ''{{Film/Juice}}'' with Creator/OmarEpps, ''Film/PoeticJustice'' with Music/JanetJackson, and ''Film/AboveTheRim'' with Creator/DuaneMartin.
26
27	On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Center. For a few years, Tupac was just as prolific in death as in life. [[FanDumb Rabid fans]] and [[EpilepticTrees conspiracy theorists]] have speculated that he staged his murder to escape his enemies, though this urban myth has largely died down. In 1997, Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, founded Creator/AmaruEntertainment to handle her son's posthumous releases, and inherited the rights to most of his prior studio albums.
28
29	Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide. A wealth of posthumous material continues to be released as of 2010, but cynical listeners have always seen it as a way of cashing in on his legacy, especially since most of the songs were remixed with current musical trends and artists, which sometimes clash with Shakur's style. Nonetheless, he was one of the defining musicians of TheNineties.
30
31	In 2017, after seven years of DevelopmentHell, a {{Biopic}} about Shakur's life was released, entited ''Film/AllEyezOnMe''. In 2019, it was revealed that all of Tupac's masters were destroyed in a fire at a Universal Studios lot 11 years earlier, along with nearly 200,000 other master tapes from other artists.
32	----
33	!!Songs of note:
34
35	* "Only God Can Judge Me"
36	* "Shorty Wanna Be A Thug"
37	* "Keep Ya Head Up"
38	* "I Get Around"
39	* "Pour Out A Little Liquor" (with Thug Life)
40	* "Dear Mama"
41	* "California Love"
42	* "Ghetto Gospel"
43	* "How Do U Want It"
44	* "To Live & Die In LA" (as Makaveli)
45	* "So Many Tears"
46	* "Temptations"
47	* "Me Against the World"
48	* "Brenda's Got a Baby"
49	* "All Eyez On Me"
50	* "Hit 'Em Up"
51	* "I Don't Give a Fuck"
52	* "Changes"
53	* "Do For Love"
54	* "I Wonder If Heaven Got A Ghetto"
55	* "Hail Mary" (as Makaveli)
56	* "Definition of a Thug Nigga"
57	* "Pain"
58	* "Loyal To The Game"
59	* "Toss it Up" (as Makaveli)
60	* "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" (with Thug Life)
61	* "Me And My Girlfriend"
62	* "Thug Luv" (with Music/BoneThugsNHarmony)
63	* "Staring At The World Through My Rear View"
64	* "Lost Souls"
65	* "Ghetto Gospel" (with Music/EltonJohn)
66
67
68	----
69	!! Albums of Note
70
71	[[index]]
72	* 1991 ''[[Music/TupacalypseNow 2Pacalypse Now]]''
73	* 1993 ''[[Music/Strictly4MyNiggaz Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z...]]''
74	* 1994 ''Thug Life''
75	* 1995 ''Music/MeAgainstTheWorld''
76	* 1996 ''Music/AllEyezOnMe''
77	* 1996 ''Music/TheDonKilluminatiThe7DayTheory'' (Essentially finished prior to his death and thus not a 'true' posthumous album in the strictest sense.)
78	[[/index]]
79
80	Released Posthumously:
81	* 1997 ''R U Still Down? (Remember Me)'', Probably the most popular of the posthumous releases.
82	* 1998 ''Greatest Hits'' (Notable in that it included the original version of ''California Love'' (the one released on ''AEOM'' was a remix), a new mix of ''Toss It Up'', and four previously unreleased tracks, including the popular ''Changes'')
83	* 1999 ''Still I Rise'' (With the Outlawz)
84	* 2001 ''Until the End of Time''
85	* 2002 ''Better Dayz''
86	* 2004 ''Loyal to the Game''
87	* 2006 ''Pac's Life''
88
89	!!Music Videos:
90	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCEmTaWSPTk Trapped]]"
91	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2meZCM4Ols&feature=related If My Homies Call]]"
92	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzoF1ZmisTs Brenda's Got A Baby]]"
93	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXwmDGJAB8 Keep Ya Head Up]]"
94	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnDR8OngS1U I Get Around]]"
95	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcloTmvTeA Dear Mama]]"
96	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbs7wWLXLpw So Many Tears]]"
97	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVKvDGl8TyY Temptations]]"
98	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXtYNH0CQJo All About U]]"
99	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOsbGP5Ox4 California Love]]"
100	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgjA5NLFjKM Hail Mary]]"
101	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41qC3w3UUkU Hit 'Em Up]]"
102	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jp20gOwlS4 To Live and Die in LA]]"
103	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yre5nBXAxyk Do For Love]]"
104	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdYTz6d7wHY&feature=related I Wonder If Heaven's Got A Ghetto]]"
105	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA13uMi9Hp0 How Do U Want It]]" (NSFW)
106
107	----
108	!!All Tropez on Me:
109
110	* AnimatedMusicVideo: "Do For Love" was released after Pac's death, so they had to get creative for the music video. It depicts him in a variety of styles, such as more typical animation, anime, and even claymation.
111	* AnthropomorphicPersonification: "Me and My Girlfriend" is about a man and his gun. It's frequently mistaken for a romantic song.
112	* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: The uncut version of the video for "How Do U Want It?" It even featured several porn stars from the era.
113	* TheApunkalypse: The first half of the "California Love" video.
114	* AttackBackfire: As he pointed out in "Rebel of the Underground", not only did the people who kicked up a fuss over his earlier albums help draw attention to them, they also inadvertently gave him ideas for material to use in future albums.
115	-->They say they hate me; they wanna hold me down.\
116	I guess they're scared of the rebel; the [[TitleDrop rebel of the underground]]!\
117	But I never let it get me.\
118	I just make another record 'bout the punks trying to sweat me!
119	* BrokenRecord: The end of "Tradin' War Stories" has him repeat the chorus until fadeout.
120	* BrooklynRage: Despite being considered a West Coast rapper, he was born and grew up in New York.
121	* ByronicHero: He was a very troubled and passionate person, to say the very least.
122	* TheCameo: The music video for "Temptations" had the following: Music/IceT, Music/{{Coolio}}, Music/SaltNPepa, Jasmine Guy, Creator/JadaPinkett, Marcus Chong, Treach, Bill Bellamy, Yo-Yo, B-Real, Music/IsaacHayes, Warren G, Adina Howard, Crystal Waters, Shock G, Kenya Moore and Joe Torre.
123	* TheCasanova: He was extremely attractive, and charismatic.
124	* ClusterFBomb: "Hit 'Em Up" is ''filled'' with swear words. In particular, the outro has the F-bomb dropped ''28 times'' alone.
125	* ConspiracyTheorist: Tupac's ''The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory'' album.
126	* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Pops up from time to time in his work, especially on ''All Eyez on Me''.
127	* DealWithTheDevil: Invoked by Tupac to his childhood friend Watani Tyehimba, who begged him not to sign with Death Row Records and its notoriously violent CEO Suge Knight. Tupac said he knew what he was getting into, but was caught between a rock and a hard place due to financial troubles.
128	* DeathByMusicVideo: Tupac is gunned down in the "I Ain't Mad At Cha" video. [[HarsherInHindsight It was the last video he ever filmed before his death in a drive-by.]]
129	* DisappearedDad: Tupac talks about the pain of his father's absence in "Dear Mama."
130	* DisposableSexWorker: "Brenda's Got a Baby" is about a 12-year-old girl from the inner-city with an uncaring family who gets involved with and pregnant by her 20-something cousin. (Who abandons her sometime during the pregnancy.) Shortly after she gives birth, her mother throws her out of the house, and she's out on the street. When selling drugs fails, she is driven to prostitution, and killed (presumably by one of her clients.)
131	* TheDissTrack: From the infamous "Hit 'Em Up" to lesser-known disses like "Against All Odds" and "Watch Ya Mouth", many other rappers felt his wrath:
132	** Music/TheNotoriousBIG - Tupac felt that [[WeUsedToBeFriends his former friend]], along with Biggie's manager Music/SeanCombs, were responsible for his shooting in 1994. Even though they denied this, Pac was unconvinced and just aimed "Hit 'Em Up" primarily at them and all other personalities associated with them. Biggie mostly ignored the beef, though he did sneak in a few subliminal disses here and there and [[https://genius.com/Busta-rhymes-the-ugliest-lyrics had a guest spot]] on an unreleased Music/BustaRhymes song that dissed Tupac more directly.
133	** Mobb Deep - The duo featured on Capone N Noreaga's "L.A, L.A" remix, which dissed the West Coast, and 2Pac felt it dissed him, so he took a few potshots at them - most notably on "Hit Em Up", in which he mocked Prodigy's sickle-cell anemia (which many felt went too far). Mobb Deep replied with "Drop a Gem on Em".
134	** Music/JayZ - Jay-Z never dissed 2Pac, but due to being a prominent East Coast rapper who was good friends with Biggie, he still fell into 2Pac's crosshairs. Most infamously, the song "Fuck Friendz" had the line "Ain't no nigga like me / Fuck Jay-Z!", which Nas would later sample on his own Jay-Z diss "Ether". The intro to "Bomb First (My Second Reply)" also mentions Jay as being "of 'Hawaiian Sophie' fame", which was a Jaz-O song that Jay guested on and is infamous for being his first appearance in a music video, which featured him looking very uncool in a [[HawaiianShirtedTourist Hawaiian shirt and lei]]. "Hit Em Up" also originally had a line aimed at Jay-Z, but the Outlawz felt that he didn't really have anything to do with the beef and talked Pac into taking it out. On his end, Jay had his own diss aimed at 2Pac, but when Pac died, while Jay did [[http://www.mtv.com/news/2240652/jay-z-tupac-2pac-diss-clark-kent/ perform it once]], he opted not to release it out of respect.
135	** Chino XL - Chino's style involves dissing pretty much ''everyone'', and his song "Riiiot!" has a line poking fun at the theory that 2Pac [[PrisonRape was raped in jail]]. Pac didn't take too kindly to this, and included a quick diss on "Hit Em Up" ("Chino XL, '''fuck you too!'''"). Amusingly, the song also dissed ''Biggie'', with a line poking fun at "Biggie's stretch marks". For what it's worth, Chino claimed that he wasn't really dissing Pac with that line, and that the emphasis was on "trying ''not'' to get fucked", as Pac was definitely trying not to get raped while in jail. Chino did [[https://genius.com/Chino-xl-2pac-freestyle-diss-lyrics record a proper diss track]], but the two eventually ironed out the misunderstanding and were on good terms at the time of Pac's death.
136	** Music/{{Nas}} - 2Pac felt that one of Nas' lines on "The Message" ("Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, [=CB4=] Gusto) was aimed at him, and took shots at Nas on a few tracks on ''The 7 Day Theory''. Interestingly, 2Pac and Nas had a chat face-to-face where they squashed the beef, and 2Pac promised to remove the disses against Nas from the album, but died before he could.
137	** All of Junior M.A.F.I.A. - This is really no surprise, what with them basically being Biggie's answer to the Outlawz.
138	** Music/LLCoolJ - 2Pac felt that the song "I Shot Ya" (not to be confused with Biggie's song "Who Shot Ya?") was aimed at him, and approached Keith Murray about it, but they were luckily able to defuse tensions before a beef could really start.
139	** Even Music/DrDre on his last album, after Dre had left Death Row to form Aftermath. Pac mistakenly thought Dre had abandoned him in prison, when he'd really just realized that Suge Knight was a godawful manager. Obviously Tupac wasn't going to feel the same way about the man who'd just bailed him out of jail due to Knight's notoriously violent threats towards those who oppose him.
140	*** Adding on to the Dr. Dre entry, listen to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwbaC-BjRZ0 original beat]] of "Toss It Up", which was produced by him. When Dre left Death Row, he took the beat with him and tweaked it with Teddy Riley to create Blackstreet's hit song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KL9mRus19o "No Diggity"]], which forced Tupac to alter his song's beat, and led to him dissing Dre and Blackstreet in turn.
141	* DownerEnding: "Ghetto Gospel", thanks to the flashbacks of the day. It doesn't get better knowing how it ended.
142	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: "Dear Mama". "Keep Ya Head Up" also has shades of this, with Tupac proclaiming that men shouldn't hate women because, when you get down to it, all men came from women.
143	* FatAndSkinny: Him and B.I.G. when they were still friends.
144	* FunWithAcronyms:
145	** Nigga: '''N'''ever '''I'''gnorant '''G'''etting '''G'''oals '''A'''ccomplished.
146	** Also "Thug Life"= '''T'''he '''H'''ate '''U''' '''G'''ive '''L'''ittle '''I'''nfants '''F'''ucks '''E'''verybody.
147	* GFunk: Began dabbling in the sound with ''Me Against The World'', before diving in headfirst with ''All Eyez On Me'', which was executive produced by Dr. Dre.
148	* GangstaRap: One of the greats. In case you didn't notice.
149	* GlorifiedSpermDonor: Deconstructed in "Papa's Song".
150	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Treach from Naughty by Nature.
151	* HardcoreHipHop: "Hit 'Em Up" is one of the most infamous examples of the genre.
152	* {{Horrorcore}}: "Hail Mary", a minimalist, yet chilling beat filled with funeral bells and creepy synths, layered with some of the darkest verses Tupac had wrote up to that point. Its music video ups the horrorcore vibes by essentially being a short-form slasher flick.
153	* ICallItVera: "Me And My Girlfriend", which is often misinterpreted as a romanticized outlaw tale ala ''Film/BonnieAndClyde''. However, the "girlfriend" of the title is really his gun. The misinterpretation has been aided in no small part by Music/JayZ's version, which turned it into a duet with Music/{{Beyonce}}.
154	* IconicOutfit: His bandanna and "Thug Life" stomach tattoo.
155	* IntercourseWithYou: The first verse of "How Do U Want It?", The first two verses of "Toss It Up", and both "Whatz Ya Phone #" and "Thug N U Thug N Me" in its entirety.
156	* JunkieParent: Tupac mentions his mother's drug abuse in "Dear Mama", but despite this she was always there for him.
157	** In "Brenda's Got a Baby," it's mentioned that Brenda's father was too busy shooting up to pay attention to his 12-year-old daughter, or notice that she was in an ''extremely'' inappropriate relationship with her 20-something cousin, or notice that she was pregnant. Her mother wasn't much better, either.
158	* JustifiedCriminal: His songs overlap with this a lot and occasionally so did his life. In one notable incident, he avoided charges in Atlanta for shooting two off-duty cops in the asses after seeing them harass a black driver. (The case was dropped due to insufficient evidence)
159	-->I didn't choose the thug life; the thug life chose me.
160	* Letters2Numbers: In addition to his stage name, he did this quite a bit with his song titles.
161	* ManlyTears: Rapper Fat Joe claimed that he cried after hearing the song Changes. For the longest time he wanted to hate Pac cause Joe himself was loyal to Biggie. But hearing the said song broke him.
162	* {{Minimalism}}: The beat to "Hail Mary".
163	* MeaningfulName / NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: He was named after José Gabriel Condorcanqui who in turn renamed himself Túpac Amaru II after the last Inca and his ancestor. Túpac Amaru II was the leader of a UsefulNotes/{{Peru}}vian indigenous uprising against the Spaniard colonizers. This is reflective of his family's Black Panther background.
164	* MoodWhiplash: His albums tend to be this, from the somber and reflective (Dear Mama), to the angry and defiant (Only God Can Judge Me) to the lighthearted and humorous (All About You).
165	* MoralityBallad: "Brenda's Got a Baby" is about a 12-year-old girl who becomes pregnant, turns to prostitution just to stay afloat, and is murdered. It's stated that had her family and society at large had just looked after her, this tragedy would not have had to happen.
166	--> I hear Brenda's got a baby, but Brenda's barely got a brain\
167	A damn shame, the girl can hardly spell her name\
168	"That's not our problem, that's up to Brenda's family!"\
169	Well, let me show you how it affects the whole community.
170	* MrFanservice: The man was a former dancer, so his ripped and often [[ShirtlessScene displayed]] physique is justified.
171	* PepTalkSong: "Keep Ya Head Up" and "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)"
172	* PlatonicLifePartners: With Creator/JadaPinkett, during his lifetime.
173	* PoliticalRap: Especially before his Death Row stuff. His debut album ''[=2Pacalypse Now=]'' is quite a bit different than ''All Eyez on Me'' in terms of subject matter.
174	* ProfaneLastWords: According to the officer that arrived to the scene of Tupac's drive-by shooting, his last words were "fuck you" (to the cop).
175	* ProperlyParanoid: After he got shot the first time...
176	* ReallyGetsAround: "I Get Around" lampshades this.
177	** Also, he had sex with all the women who appear in the video for "How Do U Want It?" within such a short period of time that he wound up in the emergency room for "exhaustion."
178	* RealMenWearPink: He did ballet in school.
179	* RemixAlbum:
180	** ''Nu-Mixx Klazzics'' takes songs from ''All Eyez On Me'' and gives them new backing tracks and new guest vocals.
181	** ''Nu-Mixx Klazzics 2'' has a similar concept though it also includes songs from ''The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory''.
182	* RenaissanceMan: Outside of rapping, Shakur was also a poet and an actor.
183	* StageNames: Averted until the formation of the Outlawz, then... hoo boy. The group was originally called Dramacydal; Pac got the idea for the change after reading Machiavelli in prison. Nearly every member of the group took a stage name inspired by a famous dictator: Hussein "Fatal", Napoleon, [[strike: Idi Amin]] E.D.I. Mean, [[strike: Khomeni]] Komani, Yaki [[strike: Qaddafi]] Kadafi, Big Syke aka Mussolini, [[strike: Castro]] Kastro... pretty much every one ''but'' [[GodwinsLaw the one you're thinking of.]] The real significance of the names was that they were enemies of America.
184	* TheNineties: One of the decade's defining artists and public figures. Every last album, from his debut to the final one that was produced before he passed away, blended well with the decade's culture.
185	* TemptingFate: Pac taunted the people who shot him that first time.
186	* TrueCompanions: The Outlaw Immortalz.
187	* VocalDissonance: Downplayed. While Pac's overall build gave off the impression that he was a short and skinny man with a deep, booming voice, he was actually a fairly average height of [=5'9''=] with a decently buff physique.
188	* XtremeKoolLetterz: He did this all the time.
189	* WarriorPoet: An iconic example.

Context Music / TupacShakur