Trivia / Tupac Shakur

• Breakthrough Hit: "Brenda's Got a Baby".
• Cash-Cow Franchise: His death in 1996 hasn't stopped his record label from releasing every single studio outtake, rough mix, or demo track that he ever recorded, to the point that his posthumous record catalog is larger than what he released while he was alive (this has, naturally, spawned many convoluted theories that Shakur is still alive and recording in secret).
• Contractual Obligation Project: He signed a three-album deal with Death Row Records in exchange for them bailing him out of prison. All Eyez on Me was a double album , which was followed by The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: He considered Me Against the World to be his best album.
• Died During Production: He became incredibly prolific after death. After a stint in prison and making a deal with the devil in the form of signing with infamous record label Death Row, Tupac churned out a mammoth number of songs (mainly by way of recording the vocals for said song in marathon recording sessions) prior to his death. The logic for this was to both make up for lost time after spending a year in prison at the height of his career and get his Death Row label contract fulfilled ASAP due to him realizing what a huge mistake it was to sign with the infamous label. Since then, a good number of posthumous albums have been made and they've even constructed a lifelike hologram of him for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to perform tracks featuring Tupac alongside them in concert. Naturally, a common Epileptic Tree is that Tupac is still alive and producing new material.
• Doing It for the Art: In his own words:
  I look over at what's successful. Marky Mark, Hammer, New Kids on the Block selling twenty-two million copies, and I want that so badly, but... I would be wrong to do that, knowing what I know and having the brain that I have. For me to even go and write some simple shit would be wrong even though I would get paid and I would get more people's money. I would rather leave something so that when people pick up 2Pacalypse Now or any of my other albums in 1999, they'll go, "Damn! Brothers had it hard back in the day, but brothers were working it out."
• Follow the Leader: Many rappers continue to copy his style and attitude (minus the socio-political commentary, mind you).
• Hostility on the Set: The shoot for the "Hit 'Em Up" video was as intense as the actual song. He was engaged in an argument with someone, who was heard telling him "You'll get shot." His armed bodyguard assured him that he had nothing to worry about. He also broke up a fight involving his friend Muta during the filming and fired a production assistant on set. The assistant was answering Shakur's pager and returning his personal calls without his consent. Many callers were confused or angry that a female assistant was answering Shakur's calls. The assistant had mistakenly lost the pager, and with Shakur already growing wary of her, fired her for that reason.
• Money, Dear Boy: According to the Behind The Music story on The Notorious B.I.G., when the two rappers finally confronted each other at the height of their feud, Tupac admitted to instigating the whole thing as a way to generate controversy and sell records. By all accounts, it worked too well.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: He died at 25, leaving a profound influence on rap in his wake.
• What Could Have Been:
  • He was supposed to collaborate with R. Kelly on The Best of Both Worlds before his death.
  • He was allegedly George Lucas' first choice to play Mace Windu in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, though he was killed long before he could appear in The Phantom Menace. He also auditioned for the role of Bubba in Forrest Gump.

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