From Rolling Stone · Mosi Reeves · · 3m
Thirty Years On, Tupac Finally Gets Read Right
The press mocked Tupac when he died in 1996. The Keffe D conviction shows how far the reading of him has moved.
In brief
The press mocked Tupac when he died in 1996. The Keffe D conviction shows how far the reading of him has moved. Tupac's stature grew because people stopped picking between the tender songs and the violent ones and started hearing both as the same artist. Originally reported by Rolling Stone.
Shot in Las Vegas
On Sept. 7, 1996, assailants shot Tupac Shakur as he rode beside Death Row CEO Suge Knight. He died six days later, at 25.
The headlines were cruel
Time ran "What goes 'round..." Newsweek chose "Blood on the Record Biz." The American Spectator called him a "Bozo in the Hood."
“Live by the Gun, Die by the Gun”
Dead longer than alive
Three decades on, he has been gone longer than he lived. He still holds attention the way few living artists do.
A trial reopened everything
The conviction of Duane "Keffe D" Davis for orchestrating the murder restarted the global conversation about what Tupac meant.
The tone has changed
He is now a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, class of 2017, and the coverage of the trial carried none of the old sneering.
The livestream broke the myth
Photos of his body shown in court ended the old fantasy that he was alive in Cuba. What remained was one more Black body cut down.
From bozo to symbol
The New York Times called him culturally peaking when he was killed. Even Time, at the 20th anniversary, called him a "symbol of possibility."
“symbol of possibility”
The paradox is the point
P. Frank Williams, who covered the hospital vigil in 1996, says the revision came when people accepted the layers instead of choosing one.
“The guy who could write 'Dear Mama' and 'Keep Your Head Up' could also write 'Wonda Why They Call U Bytch.'”
No clean split in the catalog
The "conscious" versus gangsta divide falls apart fast. All Eyez on Me carries "Only God Can Judge Me," and 2Pacalypse Now has its own bloodshed.
Every mode at full volume
Nurturing on "Dear Mama," militant on "Holler If You Hear Me," paranoid on "Hail Mary." "Hit 'Em Up" may be the most vicious diss ever cut.
He refused to preach
Afeni Shakur raised him on Black Panther politics, but biographer Santi Elijah Holley says Tupac knew lecturing would lose the street.
“You're not going to reach the people on the street if you can't speak their language.”
Feeling over technique
Jeff Weiss grants Biggie the sharper pen. Tupac went for emotional impact instead, and moved rap's center away from New York.
“In a way, Biggie was the perfection of that East Coast lyrical sound... [Tupac] anticipated the future.”
Absorbed into rap's DNA
Master P, DMX, and Ja Rule all chased his sound. Kendrick Lamar conjured his voice on To Pimp a Butterfly, and Nipsey Hussle kept naming him.
He rewrote the word thug
T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E., "the hate you give little infants fucks everybody," turned a slur into a badge of survival and seeded The Hate U Give.
A protest voice worldwide
"Changes" became a Black Lives Matter anthem in 2020. Rebels advancing on Gaddafi reportedly had "Me Against the World" playing.
“They got money for wars but can't feed the poor.”
Now everyone claims him
He sells T-shirts at Walmart and got a bad biopic. Marco Rubio named him a favorite rapper, which biographer Jeff Pearlman calls misguided.
“There's no way I can imagine he'd be kicking back as ICE grabs brown people off the streets of L.A.”
Myths that don't survive
Pearlman interviewed 652 people and found the 1994 Quad Studios shooting was three shots, not five, and that Tupac wanted out of his Death Row deal.
Not a martyr, a waste
He didn't die for a cause. A 1994 sexual-abuse conviction he denied still shadows him, and people who knew him mostly grieve the squandered gift.
“He died [because of] a stupid hotel lobby fight.”
What it means
Tupac's stature grew because people stopped picking between the tender songs and the violent ones and started hearing both as the same artist.
