Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur was a very influential person in 20th century USA. He

was born on June 16, 1971 in Brooklyn New York, and died on

September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas Nevada (unknown author, no title, no

page, letter code C). But his family moved around a lot while he was a

kid (Bastin, J.D.). He eventually ended up in the Bay Area California

alone and spent his first two years there homeless (unknown author, no

title, n.p., letter code D). He grew up with only his mom and loved her

very much. He even wrote 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 (u.a., "original area," n.p.). He started as a tour dancer but

then started rapping live (u.a., "original area," n.p.). From there he

released a couple albums and then was offered to be in some movies.

He became friends with a couple of popular rap artists like Snoop Doggy

Dogg and Dr. Dre (Placid n.p.). He made some songs and music videos

with them that made it big on the Billboard charts. This really helped his

popularity. He released a double CD with the songs on it and a lot of his

own songs and sold millions of copies (u.a., n.t., n.p. letter code D)

More people were influenced to buy his CD. People listened to the

music and did what he said he did. So Tupac was influencing all of

these people.

Tupac was rich and famous now. He was showing off his own style now

and didn't need his popular friends. This is the time that many people

saw the real Tupac and loved him. He was now very influential to fans.

They wanted to be just like him. He starred in more movies and could

be who he really was. He did a lot of interviews that showed his beliefs.

He said self esteem and self respect was very important and said "I feel

as though I am a shining prince just like Malcolm and feel that all of us

are shining princes, and if we live like shining princes, then whatever

we want can be ours. Anything." (Patrick, Tony, n.p.) And when he

says all of us, he means all men. He also said he doesn't care if

someone is white or black. And no one can be judged by their skin. "So

just because it's Black don't mean it's cool, and just because it's White

don't mean it's evil."(Patrick, Tony n.p.) If he judged a man, he judged

them by what they do to or how they treat others. Tupac wasn't racis!

t against any body. And he showed that. I've seen him treat everyone

equal that I see him with on TV or even on movies. This is an influence

because since people want to be like him, they will follow his beliefs.

And if Tupac believes in non-racism, then the people will believe in that

too.

This is a big difference from him and other rap artists. A lot of others