Tupac Amaru Shakur: 1971-1996

by Alan Light

Book Overview

Tupac Shakur was one of music's most successful, controversial, and enigmatic artists. His untimely passing, however, left many questions unanswered about his life; the line between the image and the reality of his "thug" lifestyle remains blurred at best to this day. Yet, the mark that Shakur left on hip-hop culture is indelible, and the popularity among his fans is unquestionable. From the editors of VIBE magazine comes Tupac Shakura compelling...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609600729
• ISBN13: 9780609600726
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Crown Publishers
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.5" x 0.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

very informative

I my self am not a very big fan of rap music however i was intrigued to read this book after looking into some of the lyrics of 2pacs singles they seemed very in depth. After reading the lyrics i felt that his words had a lot of depth and soul attached to them which intrigued me to find out more about the rap star. I myself have a genuine interest in politics, philisophy and poetry similarly to 2pac and i felt that i could relate to some of the lyrics he wrote. This book on tupac gives a deeper insight to the rap artist not only his music and talent but to his life it shed light on many differant topics from differant aspects and i found it very inspirational. What i particularly liked about this book was the way it presented both sides of the story (with the rape case) and i felt this ruled out any bias. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love for reading regardless of whether they have a genuine interest in rap this book not only looks at his career but looks at his inspiration, ambition, life and above all recognised him as more than a rap artist but as a human being and who he actually was!!!

Tupac at his best!!

Someone once said that "Vibe magazine is one some love s###." No, I disagree. Tupac has graced the cover of Vibe no less that 4? times before his untimely death. No one in the rap game (then or now) affected us the way Tupac did. The mystery that still surrounds his death still haunts most of his fans. Tupac became larger than life in death. He released more albums in death than in life. He has easily become the Black Elvis. The book gives you a timeline from the beginning to his tragic end. The questions still linger on. Who? What? When? Where? Most of these questions will never be answered. One man who was going to come forward with information was killed, execution-style. Suge (at the time) was in prison. Other people are either too scared to talk, are in prison, dead or cannot be located. There are lots of theories that Tupac is still alive as he may have insinuated in his music: post-humous album Makaveli: The 7 Day Theory. We even get to hear Tupac's side of the story for the woman who accused him of rape. {He was never convicted of rape, but of sexual abuse.}as well as the story of the first attempt on his life. This is an excellent book!

An excellent biography

"There is nothing more tragic than a life cut short-one that has not been allowed to bloom to its fullest potential. The tragedy of Tupac is thats his untimely passing is respresentative of too many young black men in this country. Two and a half decades, 25 years of age...that is how old Tupac was when we lost him. Who knows what he could have gone on to? If we had lost Oprah Winfrey at 25, we would have lost a relatively unknown, local market TV anchorwoman. If we had lost Malcom X at 25, we would have lost a hustler nicknamed Detroit Red. And if I had left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpet player and aspiring composer-just a sliver of my eventual life potential." - From the Foreword of Quincy Jonesthese 160 pages revealing the life and death of the late rapper/actor tupac amaru shakur changed my view completely about the man. "live by the gun, die by the gun" was exactly what he did. whether he was rapping about his mama or making xxx music videos, you had to love him. there was something about his booming personality, large brown eyes, distinct voice, and smooth yet anxious flow that made you want to search for the real him. this book, loaded with information and photos, reveals the tupac that you are searching for. a DEFINITE get for true 'pac fans."I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven." - TupacRIP nigga 1971-1996

This book has it all: pictures & words...

First and foremost, this is an excellent book. In pictures and in words, the life of the (arguably) late Tupac Shakur gets documented and commemorated in 157 glossy pages. The best part about all of this, is that VIBE magazine was (and still is) a major player in the hip-hop music industry - the reader's letters and articles on these pages are as real as it gets. Read on: "This is my last interview. If I get killed, I want people to get every drop. I want them to get the real story." - (VIBE, "Ready To Live" - April 1995)Writer Kevin Powell really gets to the heart of things in this interview with 'Pac from Rikers Island. "When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character. You used to see rappers talking all that hard [stuff], and then you see them in suits and [stuff] at the American Music Awards. I don't want to be that type of [person]. I wanted to keep it real, and that's what I thought I was doing. But now that [stuff] is dead. That Thug Life [stuff]...I did it, I put in my work, I laid it down. But now that [stuff] is dead."I can't help but wonder...would Tupac still be alive had he stuck to this quote back in 1995? Would the Notorious B.I.G still be alive? Would they be friends?There were so many facets to Tupac. He was hard...perhaps the 'realest' rapper to ever live. To say that Tupac Shakur was charismatic is an understatement - his sheer presence had the power to electrify a room. His lyrics were insightful, and his visual package had his female fans in a trance. He was truly a legend.I (like many others) practically grew up on Tupac. I remember when he landed the role of "Bishop" in 'Juice' (he was still a relative unknown that fall of 1991); how he got to star opposite Janet Jackson (lucky dude!) in 'Poetic Justice'. In music, "I Get Around", was the joint in the summer and fall of 1993 - and it is now a classic.Then in 1994, the trouble really started. He got shot up; sent to Rikers Island on a sexual assault charge, yet released a new album anyway. Tons of stars turned out for him to shoot the "Temptations" video (dang, Pac had a lot of friends, huh?). Then the infamous Source Awards of 1995 happened - the real powder keg of the Bad Boy/Death Row feud. The letters back and forth - the finger pointing...(I'll leave that at that).That whole East Coast/West Coast rivalry proved once and for all that hip-hop (as DMX says) is not a game. On that note, all the shadiness, all the unsettling moments, and the unsettling quotes are documented on these pages as well. Read it, and draw your own conclusions - I just hope we never return to that state of affairs. It was most likely a very tenseand scary time to be a music journalist in hip-hop...from the outside looking in.That being said, I'd say that this is a great place to start finding out more about Tupac. He seemed to be an extremely lovable guy. He was engaged to Quincy Jones' daughter - and he was friends with classy ladies like Jasmine Guy and Jad

a very talented rapper w/ an i dont give a fu*k attitde

This probably had to be the best autobiography I have read in a long time. (This could also be because I love reading or hearing about Tupac.) This book just made me want to read more and more until I fell asleep. I give this book a 5 all the way. This autobiography on Tupac Amaru Shakur gives so much detail aabout his life. It was great.It got me to look at Tupac at many different perspectiv es. It also gave me a lot of information that I was looking for about him. Tupac quotes on the last page of the book, along with a somewhat submissive picture of him, that says, "I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven." This quote is basically saying that he knows what he is doing is bad, but at the same time, he feels it's right, so therefore he is still going to heaven. This shows how hard-headed he could be but yet still optimistic. The words optimistice andhard-headed usually don't go in the same sentence, but if you are talking about Tupac, they sure can. Tupac definitely without a doubt got the most out of life until he died. Yet another waste of a great rap artist, and a great mind. Who knows what he would have accomplished in the future? Tupac was one of the greatest expressers of feelings. When he rapped, he was real. He would foreshadow his fate and almost be able to tell the future, his future. It is so hard to sum up a review of Tupac's life in a thousand words, or less. He is worth many more words than that. Even though I still listen to Tupac's old albums, the thing I miss about him most is what new albums he would have made. R.I.P. wherever you are, Tupac.