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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Only God Can Judge Me. - TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR -

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Sometimes , the person you'd take a bullet for ends up being the one behind the gun. - TUPAC -
2pac alive in 2013 birthday photo ??
Date of Birth 16 June 1971, East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA Date of Death 13 September 1996, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (homicide) Birth Name Lesane Parish Crooks Nickname 2Pac Makaveli Pac Height 5' 9¼" (1.76 m) Mini Biography Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith. His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. In the same year he received individual recognition for his album "2Pacalypse Now," but this album was also the beginning of his notoriety as a leading figure of the gangsta permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His solo movie career also began in this year with Juice (1992), and in 1992 he co-starred with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993). But law confrontations were soon to come: a 15-day jail term in 1994 for assault and battery and, in 1995, a conviction for sexual assault of a female fan. He was released after serving eight months pending an appeal, but following the Tyson vs Seldon fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, he was hit by four bullets while riding in a car driven by Death Row Records chief executive Marion 'Suge' Knight. His right lung was removed in emergency surgery and, after six days in a medical coma, he died. IMDb Mini Biography By: Bruce Cameron Mini Biography Notorious 25-year-old gangsta MC and actor Tupac Shakur was shot and killed before he had a chance to fulfill the promise of a successful career in both fields. He was born in New York City and his mother, Afeni Shakur, was a member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur spent much of his youth in Harlem, then Baltimore, Maryland. In 1988 his family moved to Oakland, California, where he first gained notice as an MC in 1991 with the group Digital Underground. Later that year, he released a solo album, "2Pacalypse Now." Filled with violent lyrics that promoted cop killing and misogyny, it earned both notoriety and acclaim for fans of the genre. Shakur began his acting career in the late 1980s with an appearance on the television series "A Different World" (1987). He made his feature film debut in 1992 with the film Juice (1992) and followed it up, co-starring with Janet Jackson, in Poetic Justice (1993) in 1993. Shakur had a certain charisma that always made him stand out in his films. This was especially true in Gridlock'd (1997) which proved that the versatile young artist had the makings of being a major star. Unfortunately, he was murdered during a drive-by shooting outside a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel a few months before its release. IMDb Mini Biography By: Gilbert Lee Mini Biography Tupac Shakur was undoubtedly one of the most successful MCs of all time. Even after his death, he has sold a total of 67 million records worldwide making him the highest selling rap/hip-hop artist of all time! Tupac is widely regarded as the greatest rapper of all time. Moreover, a recent poll in MTV placed him as the #1 MC of all time. However, 2Pac was much more than that. His strong lyrical content grew a huge array of followers, making him a hero among millions. He was a great poet and his theory on life influenced his fans to a huge extent. He was indeed the Rose That Grew from Concrete, whose ever-successful work couldn't have been more admired and loved. IMDb Mini Biography By: Nagib Ahmad Spouse Keisha Morris (29 April 1995 - 1996) (annulled) Trade Mark Socially conscious lyrics Shaved head and goatee Trivia Renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur in 1972 by his mother after Tupac Amaru, an Inca who was sentenced to death by the Spaniards. Tupac Amaru, in the Inca language, means "shining serpent". Son of black panther Afeni Shakur; grew up in Harlem, Baltimore, and Marin County, California. He had the words "thug life" tattooed across his abdomen. Was engaged to Kidada Jones Was going to play the role of Malik in Higher Learning (1995) Died on a Friday the 13th. More of his music has been released since his death than was while he was alive. Appeared in the Salt-N-Pepa video, "Whatta Man." Founding Member of the Outlawz Used the name Makaveli which is an altered spelling of Machiavelli, about whom he read while in prison. In the song "Life Goes On" from the "All Eyez on Me" album, he rhymes about his own funeral. As a young man, Tupac also studied dance, including ballet. Tupac is listed as the most successful gangsta MC in the "Guinness Book of World Records." Grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Jim Carrey was his favorite actor. Was cast in the movie Woo (1998), but was shot five days before principal photography began. He was offered a record contract at the age of 13. However, his mother refused to let him sign anything at such a young age. She felt he had a lot to learn about the world before joining the music industry. He read for the part of "Bubba" in Forrest Gump (1994). 10 albums have been released after his 1996 death; all have gone platinum. He was voted the 86th Greatest Rock 'n Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone. In November 1994, he was robbed and shot five times by a pair of muggers in the lobby of a New York recording studio. Tupac survived the attack, and afterwards frequently boasted of his durability in his lyrics. Was originally cast in Menace II Society (1993) but was fired after a physical altercation with director Allen Hughes. As a teenager, he studied drama at Baltimore's School for the Arts, where he rhymed under the name MC New York. When he was 12 years old, his mother enrolled him in Harlem's 127th St Ensemble. He played Travis in "A Raisin in The Sun" in his first acting role Started his career on Tommy Boy/Warner Bros. Records with Digital Underground. As a young man, he also studied ballet and dance His 1996 song "Ghetto Gospel" was released in 2005, with some vocals by Elton John, and went to #1 in the UK, despite the fact he had been dead for eight years. Was a good friend of fellow hip-hop MC M.C. Hammer, who also was from Oakland, California, USA. His albums have sold 38 million copies in the USA alone. Had been rapping since he was 18 years old (1989). According to Guiness Book of Records 2004, he is the highest selling rap/hip-hop artist selling over 67 million copies worldwide In a 2005 Rolling Stones Magazine Vote, Tupac was named #6 of the '100 immortal artists of all time' behind the likes of Elvis and Lennon He is the first rap/hip-hop artist in history to have a wax model of himself set to be placed in Madamme Tussaud's in Las Vegas Appeared on Forbes' "Top Earning Dead Celebrities" list in 2002, 2003 and 2004 with earnings of $7 million, $12 million and $5 million in each respective year. Wrote a song, but died before he could finish it. Rap artist Eminem finished the song with his own lyrics and released it shortly afterwards. First music artist to have a #1 LP while being in jail Biological Father Is Billy Garland. The harmonica in "So Many Tears" is a sample from Stevie Wonder's song "That Girl", which spent 9 weeks at number one on the R&B charts in 1982. His song "Hit 'Em Up", which Shakur considered a "classic battle record" is scathing attack on one-time friend Notorious BIG, Bad Boy Records, and Puff Daddy. In addition, Shakur claimed that he slept with Faith Evans (Notorious BIG's wife) in the song's lyrics. Was a fan of actor Tim Roth and was delighted to learn he would work with him on "Gridlock'd", released after Shakur's death. Read the article in "Entertainment Weekly" about his "Me Against The World" album's debut at number one, while incarcerated. The album's title song also appeared in Michael Bay's 1995 film "Bad Boys", which opened in March-- while Shakur was behind bars. Cited Prince as an inspiration and sampled his music on the "All Eyez On Me" album. Shakur mentioned in an MTV interview that "he [Prince] loves women like I love women.". Used an interpolation of the 1984 El Debarge song "A Dream" for his hit "I Ain't Mad At Ya". Tupac's version, however, is at a faster tempo than the original. Recorded much of his vocals of the "All Eyez On Me" album with a Neumann U87 microphone. In addition, entire album was recorded on analog tape. This was considered somewhat archaic by 1995 recording standards, as much of the recording industry had transitioned to digital recording. (However, it should be noted that Dr. Dre, who produced two songs for the album still uses analog tape to record his music, as of late 2006). The song "To Live and Die in LA", was called by Shakur (who recorded the song under the name "Makaveli", for the "Seven Day Theory" album) "California Love, part 2-- without gay-ass Dre." It is unknown if "gay-ass Dre" is serious slur against Dr. Dre, who left Shakur's label Death Row records shortly after producing two tracks for "All Eyez On Me". Shakur considered singer Don McClean (best known as the singer/songwriter of the 1972 hit "American Pie") and Kate Bush as two influences in his life. Shakur also saw McClean's hit "Vincent" (a tale of painter Vincent Van Gogh) as one particular inspiration. In addition, Shakur cited African-American poet Maya Angelou and William Shakespeare as being equally important to him. Gang member Orlando Anderson, often cited as Tupac's killer, was later murdered himself during an altercation at a LA car wash, on May 29th 1998. It should be noted that Anderson was never charged in the slaying. He completed the 27 song "All Eyez On Me", considered by many to be his magnum opus, in only two weeks. Often cited as rap's first double album, "All Eyez" sessions began just hours after Shakur was released from jail. Released on February 13th 1996, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. His career triumphs--a number one album and pop single-- both happened on the 13th: Rap's first double album, "All Eyez on Me" (certified by the RIAA as of December 2006 at 9 million copies sold) hit store shelves on February 13th 1996. His only number one pop single "How Do U Want It?", reached the apex of the Hot 100 on July 13th 1996. Sadly, it was on September 13th (a Friday) that Shakur succumbed to injuries sustained in a Las Vegas shooting. "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" was recorded and mixed in a mere 7 days in August 1996. It was released November 5, 1996 and debuted at number one on both the pop album and R&B/Hip-Hop album charts, with 663,000 albums sold in its first week. It is certified at 7 million albums sold in the US and 28 million albums worldwide, making it both Tupac's best-selling album and the best-selling rap album of all time. His first album, "2Pacalypse Now" was released November 12, 1991 and was certified gold. It contains 13 songs and reached number 13 on the R&B/Hip-Hop albums. Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 at approximately 11:15pm, at the corner of Flamingo and Koval streets. Shakur renamed his publishing company to "Joshua's Dream" in honor of a young, terminally ill child whose dying wish was to meet him. His number one single, "California Love" was certified at sales of 2 million copies in 1998. Tupac used the Roland D70 synthesizer for his album "All Eyez On Me" (as seen in an interview with MTV in 1996). Recorded close to 150 songs during the final year of his life, and often completed three songs per day in the same period. Shakur also wrote lyrics in the studio and often performed his verses in one take. He felt that rappers who could not perform their verses properly on the first take weren't ready to be rappers. R&B music, on the other hand, was worthy of multiple takes for the vocal tracks, he felt. His 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend" (from the rapper's posthumously released "Don Killuminati" album) chronicles Shakur's relationship with his pistol, which he frequently carried for protection. The "finger fucking" Shakur refers to in the song is actually a euphemism for pulling the trigger. The song was covered in 2003 by Beyonce and Jay-Z with a slightly altered chorus; it reached the top ten of the American pop charts. Moved out of his mother's house when he was 17. Along with friends, he founded the "Junior Black Panthers" in his youth. His favorite singer was Prince. Mentioned in the rap-rock song "Mope" by Bloodhound Gang, along with personalities like Luciano Pavarotti, The Notorious B.I.G., Falco, Tori Spelling, Bo Jackson and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Ranked #3 on VH1's 50 Greatest Hip Hop Artists. Tupac died with less than $100,000 in the bank. Is portrayed by Anthony Mackie in Notorious (2009). His godfather was Geronimo Ji Jaga, a member of Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a radical group advocating violence in obtaining civil rights for African-Americans. Shakur's parents, Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, were also members of the group. Was planning to record with the Wutang near the end of his life, as he revealed his admiration for their sound and lyrics. Personal Quotes Everybody's at war with different things...I'm at war with my own heart sometimes". In Vibe interview 2/96 Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real. The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams. The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else. I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. I swear, if they hadn't tried to ruin me, I never would have ended up being a rapper. I probably would have been a preacher or something. If you walked by a street and you was walking on the concrete and you saw a rose growing from the concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So why is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstance and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how I am leaning crooked to the side, you can't even see that I've come up from out of that But I know for a fact that had I had a father, I'd have some discipline. I'd have more confidence. Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can. Your mother can't reassure you the way a man can. My mother couldn't show me where my manhood was. You need a man to teach you how to be a man. Where Are They Now (December 2004) "Loyal To The Game" was released on Dec. 14. It is the 9th album of his to be released after his death. (2005) Has another posthumous album tentatively tiled "Ready 2 Die". It's also his 14th album. (November 2006) New album 'Pac's Life' (originally titled 'Ready 2 Die') is released.
DAMNN BADGIRL
PERFECT
"Few rap stars filled their music or their lives with as much violence" as Tupac Shakur, proclaimed Time in its obituary for the performer, adding, "his murder forced a culture that glamorized hate to consider the consequences." While Shakur's 1996 death by multiple gunshot wounds certainly inspired reflection in the rap world and beyond, Time's reduction of his life and work to violent content was not the only point of view. Other observers saw Shakur as a much more complex figure, one who struggled with issues of violence, political power and personal commitment in his music and approached greatness in his film work. "He glowed," journalist dream hampton declared in a Request magazine roundtable following Shakur's death. "He was a star, and that's such a rare thing." Shakur's notoriety among mainstream audiences had much to do with his outlaw image, which was derived in large part from his frequent and high-profile scrapes with the law. Given his upbringing, however, this was perhaps to be expected. He was in prison, he often reminded interviewers, before he was born. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was a member of the militant Black Panther movement; in 1969 she and 20 others in the organization were arrested in connection with an alleged conspiracy to blow up several buildings in New York City. By 1971 she was pregnant and living in the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village. Though she was acquitted, she soon found herself raising her newborn son, Tupac Amaru Shakur--named for an Inca prince--by herself. "My mother was hella real with me," Tupac noted to Vibe interviewer Kevin Powell. "She just told me, 'I don't know who your daddy is.' It wasn't like she was a slut or nothin'. It was just some rough times." Afeni and Tupac struggled to get by during those rough times, living in the Bronx and Harlem, at times sleeping in homeless shelters. They moved repeatedly, the rapper recalled, and each time "I had to reinvent myself. People think just because you born in the ghetto you gonna fit in. A little twist in your life and you don't fit in no matter what." He admitted to feeling "like my life could be destroyed at any moment." He took refuge in writing poetry; his mother tried to bolster his creative side by enrolling him in Harlem's 127th Street Ensemble, which was the site of Tupac's acting debut, as Travis in the play A Raisin in the Sun. It was here that the acting "bug" bit him. "I remember thinking, 'This is the best shit in the world!'" he remembered. fter he and Afeni moved to Baltimore, Tupac attended that city's School for the Arts, studying acting and dance. He also wrote his first rap there and felt himself beginning to "fit in," at long last. But by his junior year he was packing up again, moving this time to Marin City, a desolate stretch of northern California known locally as "The Jungle." Moving out of his mother's home, he began selling drugs and establishing himself on the streets of his adopted town. "It was like a 'hood and I wanted to be a part of it," he explained to Powell. "If I could just fit in here, I'm cool. And I thought I did." At the same time, he began to entertain thoughts of a music career. In 1990 he auditioned for the Bay Area rap group Digital Underground, and was hired as a dancer and roadie. He joined the ensemble's "Sex Packets" tour of the U.S. and Japan, and made his recorded debut on their 1991 This Is an EP Release. His newfound success , however, was tainted by some unwelcome news: "I was on the road with D.U. and called my homies just to say whassup, and they told me my moms was buying dope from somebody," he related to Vibe. "It f---ed me up. I started blocking her out of my mind." Afeni's battle with crack addiction would try their relationship sorely. By the end of the year he had released his solo debut, 2Pacalypse Now, on the Interscope label. He paved the way for his solo career while touring with D.U. "Everybody knew me even though my album wasn't out yet," he told Vibe. "I never went to bed. I was working it like a job. That was my number-one thing when I first got in the business. Everybody's gonna know me." Soon everyone would, though perhaps not as he might have hoped; his album's tough stance--in the increasingly popular "gansta" mode--created his first major controversy. In April, 1992, a Texas state trooper was shot to death by a young man who later claimed to have been listening to the album and cited the track "Soulja's Story" as the impetus for his violent act. The song narrates a fugitive with "cops on my tail"; pulled over, he decides to "blast [the officer's] punk ass/ Now I got a murder case." This incident, along with other descriptions of cop-murdering, led a number of politicians, including then Vice-President Dan Quayle, to call for the record's removal from stores. "He changed the direction of hip-hop ~ hijacked it, some would say ~ and ceremonialized its status as the art politicians love to hate," declared RJ Smith in Spin. Of course, such controversy ended up boosting sales of 2Pacalypse. Tupac himself, meanwhile, had filed suit against the Oakland police department, alleging brutality in a jaywalking arrest. Even as his rap career was heating up, Tupac broke out as a film star in Ernest Dickerson's 1992 film Juice, portraying Bishop, a kid who becomes addicted to the high of violence. Though reviews of the film were mixed, his performance received uniform raves. Soon, however, his name was making headlines attached to another tragedy, an armed confrontation in Marin City; a six-year-old boy was killed in the crossfire between Tupac's posse and their antagonists. Spin reported that many in the rapper-actor's adopted hometown began to refer to him as "Tu-faced." But controversy sells records, and Tupac's 1993 effort Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... went gold in a matter of months, thanks in part to the hit track "I Get Around". Ironically, given later developments, one of the album's other hit singles was the upbeat "Keep Ya Head Up," a paean to the strength and survival of black women. Meanwhile, his other "rap" sheet--listing his run-ins with the law--continued to pile up: he was arrested after allegedly beating a limo driver, served ten days in jail after attacking another rapper with a baseball bat, and was busted for allegedly shooting two off-duty police officers shortly after relocating to Atlanta. He was acquitted of the latter charge. He co-starred with pop singer Janet Jackson in John Singleton's 1993 film Poetic Justice, once again receiving accolades even though the film was poorly received at the box office. In November of that year, a young woman with whom Tupac had been involved claimed that he and three of his friends had sodomized and sexually abused her. His troubles continued into 1994; in March he spent 15 days in jail for hitting filmmaker Allen Hughes. But he scored again with critics in the movie Above the Rim; Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called Tupac perhaps "the most dynamic young actor since Sean Penn," adding that he "gives each of his characters a unique spiritual temper." With his group Thug Life, Tupac also contributed to the film's soundtrack, which sold 2 million copies. Thug Life--the words were tattooed on the rapper's stomach--then released its own album, Volume One, which Entertainment Weekly described as "a 10-song meditation about life under the gun. Where [Tupac's] solo releases have often dragged, One crackles with kinetic energy." Yet the Thug Life that he advocated--"Thuggin' against society. Thuggin' against the system that made me," as he put it to Rolling Stone--was taking its toll. Out on bail on the previous sexual abuse and sodomy charges, he was shot several times on the ground floor of a building that housed an acquaintance's recording studio. He was ambushed as he prepared to rap on another rapper's record, shot and robbed. Although he sustained multiple injuries, he survived. Over the strenuous objections of his doctors, Tupac appeared in court shortly before sentence was passed. Despite whatever mitigating effect the sight of the wheelchair-bound Tupac could have had on the jury, he was found guilty of sexual abuse. Although this was the lesser charge against him, he was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in prison. Though he'd previously said that jail would destroy his spirit, he told Vibe's Powell that he now saw his incarceration as "a gift--straight up. This is God's will." Adding that getting clean after years of incessant marijuana smoking had cleared his head, he claimed a new perspective on his work. "If we really are saying rap is an art form," he declared, "then we got to be true to it and be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you saying, it don't matter that you didn't make them die, it just matters that you didn't save them." Meanwhile, his new album, Me Against the World, began moving up the charts. The first single, "Dear Mama," praised his mother for her strength. Tupac couldn't appear in the video, obviously, but Afeni is featured in the clip, watching clips of her son on television. Having recovered from her addiction, the rapper's mother had been working for Tupac's production company. Though some may have found the sentimental single an attempt to drum up sympathy for its jailed author, Interscope executive Tom Whalley said otherwise. "It wasn't like, 'Well, Tupac's in jail, let's find the most sympathetic song on the record and put it out so that the audience will be sympathetic to him," he asserted to Jerry Crowe of the Los Angeles Times. "I just thought it was a great song, an emotional song." Me Against the World climbed to the top of the Billboard magazine sales chart, selling half a million copies within weeks. "Dear Mama" also reached the top ten singles chart. Actress Jada Pinkett- -a steadfast friend and supporter who'd allegedly helped, along with superstar singer-actress Madonna and actor Mickey Rourke, to pay Tupac's bail--was slated to direct the video for the album's subsequent single, "Can U Get Away." Shakur had just completed filming with Rourke on the film Bullet. Writing in the Village Voice, critic and pop-culture analyst Toure limned what she called " massive distance between Tupac's fame and the quality of his work so far." While she praised his acting talent, Toure disliked most of the films Tupac appeared in, and argued that though he remains "along with Snoop [Doggy Dogg] one of the two most famous rappers in the world, he is merely an average vocalist and lyricist, and has yet to record one aesthetically important song." Yet, Toure insisted, Tupac's experiences on the public stage have been remarkable "performances" in their own right, and have lent an air of importance to his otherwise unimpressive records. The Source, however, praised Me Against the World as the rapper's "best so far," while Jon Pareles of the New York Times admired its "fatalistic calm, in a commercial mold." From prison, Shakur alleged that he had changed his ways, "The addict in Tupac is dead," he vowed to Vibe. "The excuse maker in Tupac is dead. The vengeful Tupac is dead. The Tupac that would stand by and let dishonorable things happen is dead. God let me live for me to do something extraordinary, and that's what I have to do. Even if they give me the maximum sentence, that's still my job." Yet after his release from prison, the rapper-actor showed little sign of change. He threw himself into the East Coast vs. West Coast feud in which his new boss, Death Row Records chief Suge Knight, was embroiled. In typically contradictory fashion, Shakur publicly taunted Knight's rivals, including Bad Boy Records head Sean "Puffy" Combs. This conflict may or may not have led to Shakur's shooting in September, 1996, as he and Knight drove through Las Vegas after a boxing match. Shakur died of his wounds a week later. An aura of mystery surrounded the shooting; no suspects were ever caught, one alleged witness was apparently murdered a few days after the shooting, and Knight ~ who was barely wounded by the hail of bullets ~ refused to tell the press anything substantive about the incident. He did, however, release Shakur's first posthumous album. Appearing in stores under the name Makaveli ~ suggesting a reference to Niccolo Macchiavelli, a Renaissance Italian who is largely considered the father of political maneuvering ~ The Don Killuminati: Seven Day Theory debuted at the number one on the charts and was immediately a huge success. This commercial success in the immediate wake of Shakur's demise led some to speculate that he had faked his own death to boost his and Knight's careers. The 7 days between his shooting and his death, his many predictions of his own death, and his use of "Makaveli" only added credence to such theories. In the meantime, the handful of unreleased recordings and films that remained in the vaults suggested that even if Shakur's life had really ended, his career had not. Yet the possibility remained that it was his death that would leave the strongest mark on pop culture; his murder sparked considerable debate about the end of the "Gangsta" era and the futility of the "Thug Life.
Happy 42nd BIRTHDAY legend
LIFE IS A WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND IT'S MY TURN TO SPIN IT . TUPAC
FUCK POLICE