SPIN
November 1996
by Julia Chaplin

SOUNDBITES

by Julia Chaplin

Tupac Shakur, 1971-1996

Gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur died in a Las Vegas hospital on September 13, six days after he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. He was 25. Shakur was riding a BMW driven by Death Row Records head Suge Knight on the night of September 7 when he was shot several times by unknown assailants in another car. Knight and Shakur had attended the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon fight earlier that evening.One of hip-hop's most popular and controversial artists, Shakur had been arrested numerous times and was seriously injured in a November 1994 shooting in New York.Named after Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru by his mother, a former Black Panther, Shakur debuted on the hip-hop scene in 1991, teaming up with Digital Underground for an EP. Recording as 2Pac, he released three solo albums before signing with Death Row in 1995. After serving an eight-month prison term on a sexual abuse charge, he recorded his final album, All Eyez on Me , which has sold more than five million copies since its February release. Shakur starred with Janet Jackson in the film Poetic Justice , appeared in Juice and Above the Rim , and was working on another movie, Gridlock , before he died."Shakur was like a James Dean figure," said StepSun Music President/ CEO and former Def Jam VP Bill Stephney. "He represented the angst of the young black generation better than anyone."