Tupac Shakur was a very influential person in 20th century USA. He was born on June 16, 1971 in Brooklyn New York, and died on September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas Nevada. But his family moved around a lot while he was a kid. He eventually ended up in the Bay Area California alone and spent his first two years there homeless. He grew up with only his mom and loved her very much. He even wrote a song called Dear Mama to his mom and thanked her for how she tried her best at raising him. His public career started when he joined the seminal Bay Area rap ensemble. He started as a tour dancer but then started rapping live. From there he released a couple albums and then was offered to be in some movies. He became friends with a couple of popular rap artists like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre (Placid n.p.). He made some songs and music videos with them that made it big on the Billboard charts. This really helped his image. He released a double CD with the songs on it and a lot of his own songs and sold millions of copies More people were influenced to buy his CD. People listened to the music and did what he said he did. Tupac was rich and famous now. He was showing off his own style now and didn't need his popular friends. This is the time that many people saw the real Tupac and loved him. He was now very influential to fans. They wanted to be just like him. He starred in more movies and could be who he really was. He did a lot of interviews that showed his beliefs. He said self esteem and self respect was very important and said "I feel as though I am a shining prince just like Malcolm and feel that all of us are shining princes, and if we live like shining princes, then whatever we want can be ours. Anything." He also said he doesn't care if someone is white or black. And no one can be judged by their skin. "So just because it's Black don't mean it's cool, and just because it's White don't mean it's evi...
