His ability to put all this into hip-hop music was what earned him most of his admiration and at the peak of his career Tupac became the greatest influence for the rap and hip-hop followers in the 20th and 21st century U.S.A and keeps that position to this day, even after his passing away. .
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 16, 1971, and died on September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada. His father and his mother separated during the pregnancy and his mother, Afeni Shakur, went on to marry a member of the Black Panthers named Jeral Wayne Williams AKA Mutula Shakur. His mother, Afeni, was also a member of the Black Panthers. When he was two, his sister, Sekyiwa, was born. Their father, Mutulu, was an active Black Panther who, a few months before his sisters birth, had been sentenced to sixty years for a fatal armored car robbery. With their father away, Afeni was left to raise the children on her own and the family experienced hard times. No matter where they moved, the Bronx, Harlem, homeless shelters, Tupac was always distressed. Tupac eventually ended up in the Bay Area California alone and spent his first two years there homeless. He grew up with only his mom and loved her very much. On one of his many hit CD's, he even wro!.
te a song called Dear Mama to his mom and thanked her for how she tried her best at raising him. .
His public career started when he joined the seminal Bay Area rap ensemble. He started as a tour dancer for a group called Digital Underground but then started rapping live. From there he released a couple of albums and then his stunning talent also got him a role in the motion picture, "Juice". He quickly became friends with a couple of popular rap artists like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He made a number of songs and music videos with them that made it big on the Billboard charts. This really helped boost his reputation. In November of 1994, he was shot five times during a robbery and the thieves made off with $40,000 worth of his jewelry.