Prison sentence and bail

Shakur had begun serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterward, he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World. Shakur became the first artist to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. Me Against the World made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for four weeks. The album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time.^[116] While serving his sentence, he married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, on April 4, 1995; the couple divorced in 1996. Shakur stated he married her "for the wrong reasons".

While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy.

The works inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur wrote and recorded all the lyrics in only three days and the production took another four days, combining for a total of seven days to complete the album (hence the name).

Death

On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson–Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the match, one of Knight's associates spotted Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, an alleged Crips gang member from Compton, California, in the MGM Grand lobby. Earlier that year, Anderson and a group of Crips had robbed a member of Death Row's entourage in a Foot Locker store. Knight's associate told Shakur, who attacked Anderson. Shakur's entourage, as well as Knight and his followers, assisted in assaulting Anderson. The fight was captured on the hotel's video surveillance. After the brawl, Shakur went with Knight to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). He rode in Knight's 1996 black BMW 750iL sedan as part of a larger convoy, including many in Shakur's entourage.^[119]

At around 11:00–11:05 pm, they were halted on Las Vegas Boulevard by Metro bicycle police for playing the car stereo too loudly and not having license plates. The plates were found in the trunk of Knight's car; the party was released without being fined a few minutes later.^[120] At about 11:10 pm, while they were stopped at a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their left side. Shakur, who was standing up through the sunroof, exchanged words with the two women, and invited them to go to Club 662.^[120] At approximately 11:15 pm, a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac with an unknown number of occupants pulled up to the sedan's right side, rolled down a window, and rapidly fired gunshots at Shakur. He was hit in the chest, pelvis, and his right hand and thigh.^[9][120] One of the rounds went into Shakur's right lung.^[121] Knight was hit in the head by fragmentation, though it is thought^{[by whom?]} that a bullet grazed him.^[122] The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive the car of Shakur's fiancée Kidada Jones instead, in case they needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. The bodyguard reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that shortly after the assault, one of the convoy's cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard from the occupants.^[123]

After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Knight and a wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. According to an interview with the music video director Gobi, while at the hospital, he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and threatened Shakur.^[124] Gobi told the Las Vegas police, but said they claimed to be understaffed.^[124] No attackers came.^[124] At the hospital, Shakur was heavily sedated, was placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed.^[9] While in the critical care unit, on the afternoon of Friday, September 13, 1996, Shakur died of internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not stop the hemorrhaging.^[9] His mother, Afeni, made the decision to tell the doctors to stop.^[121] He was pronounced dead at 4:03 pm (PDT).^[9] The official cause of death was noted as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds.^[9] Shakur's body was cremated the next day and some of his ashes were later mixed with marijuana and smoked by members of the Outlawz.^[125] His fifth album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was released two months later.

Aftermath

In 2002, the LA Times published a two-part story by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Chuck Philips, titled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?," ^[126][127] based on a yearlong investigation that reconstructed the crime and the events leading up to it. Evidence gathered by the paper indicated that: "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier. Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once, briefly. He was later killed in an unrelated gang shooting." Philips's article also reported the involvement of East Coast rapper Biggie, Tupac's rival at the time, and several New York criminals.

Before they died, The Notorious B.I.G. and Anderson denied their role in the murder. In support of their claims, Biggie's family produced computerized invoices suggesting that Biggie was working in a New York recording studio the night of the drive-by shooting. His manager Wayne Barrow and fellow rapper James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Biggie's role in the crime and claimed further that they were both with him in the recording studio during the night of the event.^[128] The New York Times called the evidence "inconclusive", noting:

The pages purport to be three computer printouts from Daddy's House, indicating that Wallace was in the studio recording a song called Nasty Boy on the afternoon Shakur was shot. They indicate that Wallace wrote half the session, was In and out/sat around and laid down a ref, shorthand for a reference vocal, the equivalent of a first take. But nothing indicates when the documents were created. And Louis Alfred, the recording engineer listed on the sheets, said in an interview that he remembered recording the song with Wallace in a late-night session, not during the day. He could not recall the date of the session but said it was likely not the night Shakur was shot. We would have heard about it, Mr. Alfred said."^[129]

In addition, Philips' article was based on police affidavits and court documents as well as interviews with investigators, witnesses to the crime and members of the Southside Crips who had never before discussed the killing outside the gang. The Assistant Managing Editor of the LA Times Mark Duvoisin wrote: "Philips' story has withstood all challenges to its accuracy, ...[and] remains the definitive account of the Shakur slaying."^[130]

Legacy

At a Mobb Deep concert following the death of Shakur and the release of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Cormega recalled in an interview that the fans were all shouting "Makaveli,"^[132] and emphasized the influence of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory and of Shakur himself even in New York at the height of the media-dubbed 'intercoastal rivalry'.^[133] Tupac Shakur was also one of the few rappers that were paid a tribute during the Up in Smoke Tour that featured many west coast hip-hop artists.

Shakur is held in high esteem by other MCs – in the book How to Rap, Bishop Lamont notes that Shakur "mastered every element, every aspect” of rapping^[134] and Fredro Starr of Onyx says Shakur, "was a master of the flow."^[135] "Every rapper who grew up in the Nineties owes something to Tupac," wrote 50 Cent. "He didn't sound like anyone who came before him."^[3] About.com for their part named Shakur the most influential rapper ever.^[136]

Statue of Tupac by Paolo Chiasera (de) at MARTa in Herford, Germany.

To preserve Shakur's legacy, his mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation (later renamed the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation or TASF) in 1997. The TASF's stated mission is to "provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents." The TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a performing arts day camp for teenagers and undergraduate scholarships. The Foundation officially opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts (TASCA) in Stone Mountain, Georgia, on June 11, 2005. On November 14, 2003, a documentary about Shakur entitled Tupac: Resurrection was released under the supervision of his mother and narrated entirely in his voice. It was nominated for Best Documentary in the 2005 Academy Awards. Proceeds will go to a charity set up by Shakur's mother Afeni. On April 17, 2003, Harvard University co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero." The speakers discussed a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur's impact on everything from entertainment to sociology.^[137]

Many of the speakers discussed Shakur's status and public persona, including State University of New York at Buffalo English professor Mark Anthony Neal who gave the talk "Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian" in which he argued that Shakur was an example of the "organic intellectual" expressing the concerns of a larger group.^[138] Professor Neal has also indicated in his writings that the death of Shakur has left a "leadership void amongst hip-hop artists."^[139] Neal further describes him as a "walking contradiction", a status that allowed him to "make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people."^[140]

Professor of Communications Murray Forman, of Northeastern University, spoke of the mythical status about Shakur's life and death. He addressed the symbolism and mythology surrounding Shakur's death in his talk entitled "Tupac Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)". Among his findings were that Shakur's fans have "succeeded in resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force."^[141] In "From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero", Professor of Music at Northeastern University, Emmett Price, compared Shakur's public image to that of the trickster-figures of African-American folklore which gave rise to the urban "bad-man" persona of the post-slavery period. He ultimately described Shakur as a "prolific artist" who was "driven by a terrible sense of urgency" in a quest to "unify mind, body, and spirit".^[142]

In Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, Michael Eric Dyson indicated that Shakur "spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform. He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his identity."^[143] At one Harvard Conference the theme was Shakur's impact on entertainment, race relations, politics and the "hero/martyr".^[144] In late 1997, the University of California, Berkeley offered a student-led course entitled "History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur."^[145]

Graffiti of Tupac

East Harlem, New York City

Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In late 2003, the Makaveli Branded Clothing line was launched by Afeni. In 2005, Death Row released Tupac: Live at the House of Blues. The DVD was the final recorded performance of Shakur's career, which took place on July 4, 1996, and features a plethora of Death Row artists. In August 2006, Tupac Shakur Legacy was released. The interactive biography was written by Jamal Joseph. It features unseen family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 removable reproductions of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other personal papers. Shakur's sixth posthumous studio album, Pac's Life, was released on November 21, 2006. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of Shakur's death. He is still considered one of the most popular artists in the music industry as of 2006.^[146]

According to Forbes, in 2008 Shakur's estate made $15 million.^[147] In 2002, they recognized him as a Top Earning Dead celebrity coming in on number ten on their list.^[148]

On April 15, 2012, a "hologram" of Shakur (technically a 2-D video projection)^[149] performed his songs "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" with Snoop Dogg at the Coachella Music Festival.^[150] The effect was created using an optical illusion called Pepper's ghost.^[151] The video footage was created by visual effects company Digital Domain.^[149] The Wall Street Journal reported Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were in talks of a possible tour involving the two rappers and the hologram version of Shakur,^[152] which was later turned down by Dr. Dre.^[153]

Morgan Creek Productions and Emmett/Furla Films announced that they will begin in 2014 filming a biopic of the rapper called Tupac.^[154]

Accolades and honors

Shakur's hit song "Dear Mama" is one of 25 songs that were added to the National Recording Registry in 2010. The Library of Congress has called "Dear Mama" "a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper's own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference." The honor came seven days after what would have been Shakur's 39th birthday. Shakur is the third rapper to enter the library, outside of the copyright office, behind Grandmaster Flash and Public Enemy.^[155]

In a 2005 Rolling Stone magazine vote, Shakur was named No.86 of the "100 Immortal Artists Of All Time" behind Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and John Lennon. MTV ranked him at No. 2 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time.^[156] Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2002.^[157]

In 2003, MTV's "22 Greatest MCs" countdown listed Shakur as the "Number 1 MC", as voted by the viewers.^[158] In 2004, at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Shakur was honored along with DJ Hollywood, Kool DJ Herc, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Rock Steady Crew, and Sugarhill Gang.^[159] A Vibe magazine poll in 2004 rated Shakur "the greatest rapper of all time" as voted by fans.^[160] At the First Annual Turks & Caicos International Film Festival held on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Shakur was honored for his undeniable voice and talent and as a performer who crossed racial, ethnic, cultural and medium lines; his mother accepted the award on his behalf.^[161] In 2008, The National Association Of Recording Merchandisers in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized him as a very influential artist and has added him in their Definitive 200 list.^[162] On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, Shakur was inducted to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.^[163] The seat of the Catholic Church released a list of 12 songs onto the social networking Web site's streaming music service. Among the artists included are Mozart, Muse and Dame Shirley Bassey; the list also includes Shakur's song "Changes", which was released two years after his shooting death on a greatest hits album in 1998.^[164] His double album, All Eyez on Me, is one of the highest-selling rap albums of all time, with over 5 million copies of the album sold in the United States alone by April 1996; it was eventually certified 9x platinum in June 1998 by the RIAA.^[165]

Discography