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Salem Press

The 1990s in America

Tupac Shakur

by Yasue Kuwahara

Identification Rap artist and actor

Continuing the tradition of socially conscious rap, Shakur wrote songs about the oppression of African Americans in American society. His music paved the way for the rise and notoriety of gangsta rap in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Shakur was a son of a Black Panther Party member, Afeni Shakur, who remained a strong influence on his life. He grew up in an impoverished community, and this experience later became the basis of many of his songs. Shakur began his career in the entertainment business when he was hired as a backup dancer and roadie for the rap group Digital Underground in 1990. His first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now, was released in 1991 and followed by four albums, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993), Thug Life (1994), Me Against the World (1995), and All Eyez on Me (1996). He also starred in three movies, Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), and Above the Rim (1994). Shakur was known for his voracious reading, which influenced his songwriting. His encounter with the work of Renaissance writer Niccolò Machiavelli resulted in his pseudonym Makaveli and the album The Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory (1996), his last work.

Tupac Shakur in 1992.

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At the age of twenty-five, Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Some say his murder was related to the rivalry between Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, Shakur’s label, and New York-based Bad Boy Records, which had signed the commercially successful Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, who became Shakur’s rap rival. Wallace was murdered six months after Shakur. Both homicides remain unsolved.

Impact

Shakur’s music reflected an American culture that idealizes freedom and equality on one hand yet oppresses racial minorities on the other. He inherited the tradition of socially conscious rap pioneered by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in the early 1980’s and developed by such artists as Public Enemy and KRS-One in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. His lyrics, while focusing on the pain and suffering of the oppressed in contemporary America, were criticized for their graphic, violent, and misogynistic language. He idealized the thug life and toward the end of his life was involved in sexual abuse charges, gang violence, and shootings. His work paved the way for the rise and notoriety of gangsta rap in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Shakur left an enormous impact on rap music as well as on American culture. After his death, the number of his devotees continued to grow as six albums, a film, and two documentaries were released. He has been the topic of popular and academic books, an academic conference at Harvard University, and several college courses. His mother established the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation in 1997 to support youth in the arts.

Further Reading

1 

Dyson, Michael Eric. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2006.

2 

Vibe Magazine. Tupac Shakur. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Kuwahara, Yasue. "Tupac Shakur." The 1990s in America, edited by Milton Berman, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1990_1500.
APA 7th
Kuwahara, Y. (2009). Tupac Shakur. In M. Berman (Ed.), The 1990s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Kuwahara, Yasue. "Tupac Shakur." Edited by Milton Berman. The 1990s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.