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(NewsNation) — Hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur was one of the leading voices of 90s gangsta rap.
His story began on June 16, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York. Born Lesane Crooks, his mother later renamed him Tupac Shakur after Peruvian revolutionary Túpac Amaru II. At age 13, he and his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he would eventually attend the Baltimore School for the Arts.
Donald Hicken, who previously worked as head of BSA’s theater department told Baltimore Magazine: “From the very beginning, we all sensed he was the real deal.” Later adding: “You could tell he was destined.”
Shakur spent two years at the arts school before his family moved to Marin City, California. According to Britannica, that’s where he became involved in the gang culture that would inspire some of his rap lyrics.
In 1990, he joined an Oakland-based rap group called Digital Underground known for the single “The Humpty Dance.” The next year, he released his solo debut 2Pacalypse Now. He would go on to have 11 platinum-selling albums and become one of the rappers who has sold the most albums of all time, Business Insider reports. Shakur’s website says he has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, with both 1996’s All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits collection being certified diamond.
He also found success in Hollywood, starring in films like Juice, Poetic Justice, Above The Rim, Gridlock’d, and Gang Related.
In 1994, Shakur was attacked in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan, which some say ignited a hip-hop feud and the infamous East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry.
“Everybody’s at war with different things. I’m at war with my own heart sometimes,” Shakur reportedly said in a 1996 interview with Vibe magazine.
In 1996, as he left a Las Vegas casino after attending a fight featuring Mike Tyson, Shakur was shot. The drive-by shooting sent shockwaves through the entertainment community, and Shakur died days later on Sept. 13, 1996, at age 25.
The case went cold for decades. In a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries, an ex-gang leader who prosecutors say ordered Shakur’s killing was arrested and charged with murder last year. Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ case is ongoing.
Shakur’s story didn’t end in death. His lyrical legacy lives on and continues to resonate with people around the world.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.