OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) — A section of MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland was officially named after hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur on Friday. Between Van Buren Avenue and Grand Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard is now “Tupac Shakur Way.”
Tupac lived in Marin City and Oakland before moving to Los Angeles, where he made his name as one of the most famous rappers of all time. According to the Mercury News, Tupac lived in an apartment on 275 MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland, just north of where Tupac Shakur Way now lies.
Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife, radio host Sway Calloway and Bay Area rap icon E-40 were all present Friday at the ceremony.
“We love him,” Fife said. “People try to say he wasn’t from here. He wasn’t born here. It ain’t about where you’re from, it’s about where you at, and he claimed Oakland. He said Oakland gave him his game, right? And it’s done that for a lot of us.”
Tupac lived in New York and Baltimore before arriving in the Bay Area when he was 16, but as Fife said, he is not shy about showing love to his Oakland roots.
“I give all my love to Oakland, if I’ma claim somewhere I’ma claim Oakland,” he once said.
Shakur was killed in Las Vegas in 1996 at just 25 years old, but he did enough when he was alive to establish himself as one of hip-hop’s legends.
“He spoke up for our people, for our culture,” E-40 said Friday. “He’s the greatest rapper that ever did it, man. He did so much in so little time.”
Duane Keith “Keefe D” Davis was arrested in September in connection with Shakur’s death. Davis pleaded not guilty.