Tupac Shakur

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A Thug Life

What is it that determines and creates an abnormality in the mental state of a young man growing up in east Harlem the violence, gangs, drug abuse, or perhaps overall condition of poverty they’re brought up in? A young black kid that no one on the street expects to go anywhere or do anything with his life that is if he even gets past the age of eighteen, destined for doom before he’s even brought into the world.

Tupac Amaru Shakur, or makaveli which ever you decide to call him grew up in exactly these conditions if not worse. His mother a strong leader in the Black Panthers during his birth and had over one hundred and fifty accusations of conspiracy against the government. To start off Tupac had already accumulated enemies being born. From an early age Tupac was exposed to prison and the effects it has on people including him. His father was on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list and was arrested in a crime involving the robbery of a bank and death or three people. His grandmother was in prison for shooting a state trooper to death, and his aunt was also in prison serving a term.

Although plagued with all of these problems around him he participated in many plays at school. After his second year of high school his family moved to Baltimore and he enrolled at the Baltimore school of arts. Rapping came from an early age and at high school he would have “rap battles” with his friend Dana as his beat box. Aside from rapping he was big into Shake Spear and his acting in plays. Later on in life he would also write poems which were set apart from his lyrics/music. During 1988 the family had another move to California. Tupacs mother had a horrible crack addiction that was growing out of control and his father was still in prison. He soon after decided to leave home and live with a friend. He read many books and at the age of twenty was said to have the same intelligence as a student after his first year at and Ivy League school.

He started to participate in rap concerts which caught the attention of Atron Gregory who signed him as a backup dancer and voice for the rap group Digital Underground. Later on he proved his rapping skills and came out with a single which Interscope Records distributed and marketed for him.

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