20 YEARS ANNIVERSARY OF DA DON KILLUMINATI: TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR, THE GREATEST RAPPER THAT EVER LIVETH

Today marks 20years since the day Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. Born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971 in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His mother, Alice Faye Williams and his father Billy Garland, both were active

members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After Alice Faye Williams married Mutulu Shakur, who became Pacs Stepfather and the man in his life, she changed her name to Afeni Shakur. Mutulu was muslim, and Shakur stands for "Thankful to god". Afeni changed Tupacs name in 1972. Tupac Amaru is arabic and means "Shining serpent"

THE BEGINNING

At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's 127th Street Repertory Ensemble and in 1986, the family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. In June 1988, Shakur, then 17, and his family moved to Marin City, California  where he attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley.

His professional career began when he debuted in Digital Underground's "Same Song" from the soundtrack to the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble. He performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons of the P.

He released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now on November 12, 1991, in reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on April 19, 1995 for sales of 500,000 copies in the USA. His second studio album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z, was released in February 1993.

HIS CONVICTION

In November 1993, Shakur and others were charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room. Shakur denied the charges. According to Shakur, he had prior relations days earlier with the woman that were consensual (the woman admitted she performed oral sex on Shakur). The complainant claimed sexual assault after her second visit to Shakur's hotel room; she alleged that Shakur and his entourage raped her. As a result of the trial, Shakur was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, and acquitted of the weapons and sodomy charges. The judge described the crimes during the sentencing of Shakur to 1½–4½ years in prison, as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman

Shakur began serving his prison sentence on sexual-assault charges at Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterward, he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World  on March 14, 1995 Shakur became the first artist to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. After serving nine months of his sentence, Shakur was released from the Clinton Correctional Facility on October 12, 1995, due in large part to the help and influence of Suge Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records, who posted a $1.4 million bail pending appeal of the conviction, in exchange for Shakur releasing three albums under the Death Row label. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of his release on bail.

HIS DEATH

Tupac Shakur attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada On the night of September 7, 1996. The entourage had brief alteration  brawl with Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, an alleged Crips gang member from Compton, California, in the MGM Grand lobby. He left MGM in Knight's 1996 black BMW 750iL sedan as part of a larger convoy, which included many in Shakur's entourage.

At 11:15 p.m. while they were stopped at a red light at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac with an unknown number of occupants pulled up to the sedan's right side, rolled down a window, and rapidly fired gunshots at Shakur. He was hit four times, twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the thigh. One of the bullets went into Shakur's right lung. Knight was hit in the head by fragmentation.

Police and paramedics took Knight and a wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. At the hospital, Shakur was heavily sedated, was placed on life-support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed.While in the intensive-care unit, on the afternoon of Friday, September 13, 1996, Shakur died from internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not stop the haemorrhaging. His mother, Afeni, made the decision to tell the doctors to stop. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 P.M. The official causes of death were noted as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds.

Shakur's body was cremated the next day. Some of his ashes were later mixed with marijuana  and smoked by members of the Outlawz. However, E.D.I. Mean claimed in an interview in 2014 that, despite his belief at the time that the ashes were those of Shakur, he later found that the ashes did not belong to Shakur.

HIS GROUPS

*THUG LIFE

In 1992, Tupac and Randy "Stretch" Walker formed the group THUG LIFE (acronym The Hate U Gave Lil Infant F**k Everybody). Soon Tyruss “Little Psycho” Himes joined the group, under the name Big Syke.  Later Macadoshis, The Rated R and Tupac’s stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, later joined the group.On September 26, 1994, Thug Life Volume 1 was released.

MEMBERS- Tupac Shakur (aka Makavelli died 1996), Tyruss Himes (aka Big syke),Macadoshis, Mopreme Shakur (aka Mocedes), Rated R, and Stretch ( aka Big stretch died 1995)

*OUTLAWS

Formerly known as Outlaw Immortalz and Dramacydal, after Tupac was released from prison in 1995, he signed to Death Row and formed OUTLAWZ (acronym Operating Under Thug Laws As Warriorz)  he recruited step brother Mopreme Shakur and Big Syke from Thug Life,  Hussein Fatal, Napoleon, E.D.I. Mean, Kastro,Yaki Kadafi, and Storm (the only female Outlaw) were also added, and together they formed the original line up of the Outlaw Immortalz that debuted on 2Pac's multi-platinum smash All Eyez on Me. They later dropped the Immortal part of their name after the untimely deaths of 2Pac and Yaki Kadafi and moved on as Outlawz without the members of Thug Life also moved on also.

Young Noble was later added and appeared on 2Pac's second Death Row release The Don Killuminati: the 7 Day Theory. It was on 2Pac's Makaveli album that Outlawz first came to the greater rap community's notice, appearing on a few songs. Tupac gave each of them a name of a dictator/military leader;

*Tupac Shakur (MAKAVELLI died 1996) named after Italian philosopher, Miccolo Machiavelli

*Tyruss Himes aka Big Syke (MOOZALINY) named after Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini

*Mopreme Shakur (KOMANI) named after Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

*Yafeu Fula (YAKI KADAFFI) named after Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddaffi.

*Mutah Beale (NAPOLEON) named after French military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte

*Malcolm Greenride (E.D.I MEAN) named after Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin.

*Katari Cox (KASTRO) named after Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.

*Bruce Washington (HUSSEINFATAL) named after Iraqi leader, Saddan Hussein

*Donna Harkness (STORM) only female in the group

*Rufus Cooper II (YOUNG NOBLE) last member of the group

Yaki Kadaffi was killed by Napoleon's cousin on November 10, 1996, 2 months after the death of Makaveli. Hussein fatal left the group after the killings of Pac and Yaki. He felt that the remaining group members were going against Tupac's wishes by signing contracts with Death Row. He more recently rejoined the Outlawz, which then comprised him, Young Noble and Edi before being killed in a car accident on July 10, 2015.  Napoleon left the group to be a Muslim motivational speaker.

HIS DISCOGRAPHY

1991- 2PACALYPSE NOW

1993-STRICTLY FOR MY NIGGAZ

1994 –THUG LIFE VOL 1 ( WITH THUG LIFE)

1995- ME AGAINST THE WORLD

1996- ALL EYEZ ON ME

1996- THE DON KILLUMINATI: THE 7 DAYS THEORY

1997-R U STILL DOWN (REMEMBER ME)

1998- GREATEST HITS

1999- STILL I RISE (WITH OUTLAWZ)

2000-THE LOST TAPE

2001-UNTIL THE END OF TIME

2002-BETTER DAYS

2003-TUPAC RESURRECTION

2004- LOYAL TO THE GAME

2006- PACS LIFE

HIS FILMOGRAPHY

1992- JUICE

1993-POETIC JUSTICE

1994- ABOVE THE RIM

1996- BULLET

1997-GRIDLOCK’D

1997- GANG RELATED

HIS LEGACY

*Shakur had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared in many of his recordings

*His godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt,was a high-ranking Black Panther.

*His bandana tied into rabbit ears struck mythic chords and remains one of hip-hop's most recognizable style flourishes to date.

*While serving his sentence, he married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, on April 4, 1995; the couple divorced in 1996. Shakur stated that he married her "for the wrong reasons"

* He was also engaged toKidada Jones,daughter of American record producer, Quincy Jones. He produced Michael Jackson's albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987).

*While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolò Machiavelli, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and other works aboutpolitical philosophy and strategy. The works inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the album The Don Killuminati: the 7 Day Theory.

*To preserve Shakur's legacy, his mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation (later renamed the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation or TASF) in 1997.

* On November 14, 2003, a documentary about Shakur entitledTupac: Resurrection was released under the supervision of his mother and narrated entirely in his voice. It was nominated for Best Documentary in the 2005 Academy Awards.

*On April 17, 2003, Harvard University co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero". The speakers discussed a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur's impact on everything from entertainment to sociology.

*In late 2003, the Makaveli Branded Clothing line was launched by Afeni. In 2005, Death Row released Tupac: Live at the House of Blues. The DVD was the final recorded performance of Shakur's career, which took place on July 4, 1996, and features a large number of Death Row artists. In August 2006,Tupac Shakur Legacy was released. The interactive biography was written by Jamal Joseph. It features unseen family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 removable reproductions of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other personal papers. Shakur's sixth posthumous studio album, Pac's Life, was released on November 21, 2006. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of Shakur's death. He is still considered one of the most popular artists in the music industry as of 2006.

*According to Forbes, in 2008 Shakur's estate made $15 million. In 2002, they recognized him as a "Top-Earning Dead Celebrity".

*BET named 2Pac 'The Most Influential Rappers of All Time'.

*Shakur's hit song "Dear Mama" is one of 25 songs that were added to the National Recording Registry in 2010. The Library of Congress has called Dear Mama "a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper's own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference."