50 Fun Facts About Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur was named after Túpac Amaru II, who led a revolt against Spanish rule in which country?

Peru was where Túpac Amaru II, a descendant of the last Inca ruler, was executed in 1781. Afeni Shakur wanted her son to carry the name of revolutionary, indigenous people.

Which British star's song Indian Sunset is sampled on Tupac Shakur's UK chart-topper Ghetto Gospel?

Elton John co-wrote Indian Sunset with lyricist Bernie Taupin, so both share a writing credit with Tupac. The 2005 single topped the UK chart for three weeks.

Which pop superstar played the poet Justice opposite Tupac Shakur in the 1993 film Poetic Justice?

Janet Jackson was the only actress director John Singleton wanted for the part, though many auditioned. Her song Again, written for the film, earned an Oscar nomination.

In which city was Tupac Shakur fatally shot in 1996 after leaving a heavyweight title fight?

Las Vegas was where a white Cadillac drew up beside his car at a red light on the night of September 7. He died in hospital six days later.

Which Brooklyn rapper went from Tupac Shakur's friend to his bitter rival in the coastal rap feud?

Biggie Smalls, who recorded as the Notorious B.I.G., was killed in a Los Angeles drive-by six months after Tupac. The pair had become friends in 1993.

Which 1995 Tupac Shakur single about his childhood was added to the US National Recording Registry?

Dear Mama is his tribute to Afeni Shakur, who raised him through poverty and her own addiction. The Library of Congress praised it as a homage to every mother struggling to hold a family together.

At which festival did a projection of Tupac Shakur perform on stage beside Dr. Dre in 2012?

Coachella watched the so-called hologram rap Hail Mary more than fifteen years after his death. It was really a projection created with a stage system called the Musion Eyeliner.

Which Set It Off actress befriended Tupac Shakur when both were students at a performing arts school?

Jada Pinkett met him as a teenage classmate, and in 2006 she gave $1 million to their old school and named its new theater after him.

Tupac Shakur's mother Afeni stood trial, a month before his birth, as a member of which organization?

The Black Panther Party counted both his parents as members, and Afeni represented herself in court while pregnant. She was acquitted of more than 150 charges.

Which Tupac Shakur single, his first for Death Row, has a desert video inspired by a Mad Max film?

California Love pairs him with Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman's talk box chorus. Released weeks after he left prison in 1995, it went on to top the Billboard Hot 100.

In which city did the teenage Tupac Shakur study acting, jazz and ballet at a School for the Arts?

Baltimore School for the Arts took him in tenth grade, and there he acted in Shakespeare plays and won contests as the school's best rapper.

Which role did the teenage Tupac Shakur dance in a school staging of the ballet The Nutcracker?

The Mouse King is the villain who battles the toy soldiers, and the future face of gangsta rap danced the part while training as a performing arts student.

Tupac Shakur started out as a roadie and backup dancer for which hip-hop group behind The Humpty Dance?

Digital Underground gave him his debut on record with the 1991 single Same Song, and he played an African king in its video.

Which US vice president said Tupac Shakur's debut album 2Pacalypse Now should never have been released?

Dan Quayle attacked the record after a lawyer claimed it had influenced a man who shot a Texas state trooper. The album still went Gold.

Tupac Shakur wrote Brenda's Got a Baby while filming which 1992 crime drama, his first starring role?

Juice cast him as its antagonist, Bishop, and he only auditioned because he had come along with a friend who was reading for a part.

Which 1993 Tupac Shakur anthem for women takes its chorus from The Five Stairsteps' O-o-h Child?

Keep Ya Head Up opens its video with a dedication to Latasha Harlins, whose 1991 shooting by a shopkeeper inflamed tensions before the Los Angeles riots.

In which 1994 basketball drama did Tupac Shakur play Birdie, a drug dealer recruiting a high school star?

Above the Rim was the last of his films released in his lifetime. Its twist is that Birdie's rival, a school security guard, is his own older brother.

Which album made Tupac Shakur the first artist to top the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence?

Me Against the World held number one for four weeks, and from his cell he took pride in outselling Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits.

Which Death Row boss was driving the BMW in which Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in 1996?

Suge Knight was hit in the head by bullet fragments but survived. In 1995 he had posted $1.4 million bail to free Tupac from prison and sign him.

Which fellow Death Row star trades verses with Tupac Shakur on the 1996 duet 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted?

Snoop Dogg performed the duet again in 2012 beside a projection of his late friend, and with Dr. Dre on tour in 2000 as a tribute.

Tupac Shakur's 1996 Death Row debut All Eyez on Me was hip-hop's first solo studio release in which format?

Double album status meant it counted as two of the three records he owed Death Row under his new contract. It was later certified Diamond.

Which 1996 Tupac Shakur diss track was released as the B-side of his chart-topping single How Do U Want It?

Hit 'Em Up took aim at an entire rival label, and its video used impersonators to mock his targets.

Which R&B duo, then lead singers of Jodeci, feature on Tupac Shakur's single How Do U Want It?

K-Ci & JoJo helped deliver the only Hot 100 number one in Death Row's history, and they turn up in the video's concert scenes.

Tupac Shakur's fiercest rivals in the coastal rap feud recorded for which label founded by Sean Combs?

Bad Boy Records was launched in 1993 after Combs was fired from Uptown Records, and three years later its artists were the named targets of a Tupac diss track.

Which Italian Renaissance writer, read by Tupac Shakur in prison, inspired his new stage name in 1996?

Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince, which Tupac studied behind bars alongside Sun Tzu's The Art of War. He then recorded The Don Killuminati as Makaveli.

Tupac Shakur was shot hours after watching which heavyweight boxer win by first-round knockout?

Mike Tyson stopped Bruce Seldon to take the WBA title that night. Tupac, a friend of the champion, left the arena and was shot within hours.

Which legendary record producer's daughter Kidada was dating Tupac Shakur when he was killed in 1996?

Quincy Jones had been criticized by Tupac in a magazine interview, and the rapper apologized to Kidada before the two became a couple.

Which pop superstar, a supporter during his prison term, later revealed she had dated Tupac Shakur in 1994?

Madonna was on the short list of friends he named in a 1995 Vibe interview as having stood by him in prison, along with actor Mickey Rourke.

Which Hollywood comedian exchanged letters with Tupac Shakur while the rapper was in prison?

Jim Carrey was one of several famous pen pals during the sentence; the sitcom actor Tony Danza also wrote to him.

Tupac Shakur survived being shot five times in 1994 in the lobby of what kind of Manhattan building?

A recording studio near Times Square, Quad Studios, was the scene. He checked out of hospital hours after surgery and came to court the next day in a wheelchair.

Which rapper wrote to Afeni Shakur asking to produce Tupac's posthumous album Loyal to the Game?

Eminem said he was so moved by Tupac's life and work that he sent the letter, and Afeni agreed to let him produce the album.

Which posthumous Tupac Shakur hit is built on a sample of The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range?

Changes was recorded in 1992 but only released in 1998, on a hits compilation. The Vatican later added it to its online playlist.

Which British actor played Tupac Shakur's bandmate and fellow addict in the 1997 film Gridlock'd?

Tim Roth and Tupac play Detroit musicians who battle red tape while trying to get into rehab. The film opened four months after the rapper's death.

Tupac Shakur was dropped from which 1993 Hughes brothers film after a fight with director Allen Hughes?

Menace II Society lost him over a script dispute that turned physical, and he later served 15 days in jail for the assault.

Tupac Shakur made a 1993 guest appearance as a character called Piccolo on which NBC sitcom?

A Different World gave him the guest spot after a friend from his school days, by then in the regular cast, put in a word for him.

In the 1993 road movie Poetic Justice, what job does Tupac Shakur's character Lucky do?

Postal worker Lucky meets Justice on a visit to her hair salon and later takes her along on a mail run. Maya Angelou wrote the verse that Justice recites in the film.

Which future Marvel star played Tupac Shakur in a 2009 biopic about the rapper's East Coast rival?

Anthony Mackie had already played him once, in a 2001 stage play while studying at Juilliard. He later became Marvel's Falcon and Captain America.

Which 2003 documentary about the rapper 2Pac, narrated in his own voice, earned an Academy Award nomination?

Tupac: Resurrection is narrated by the rapper himself, years after his death. It lost the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature to Born into Brothels.

Which two-word motto, famous as a Tupac Shakur tattoo, also named the group he formed with Big Syke?

Thug Life the group made one album, in 1994. Tupac and his stepfather also wrote a 26-point code under that name, meant to curb street violence.

Tupac Shakur's godmother Assata Shakur escaped a US prison in 1979 and was later granted asylum in which country?

Cuba granted Assata Shakur asylum in 1984, and she stayed there for the rest of her life despite US efforts to have her extradited.

Although Tupac Shakur became the face of West Coast rap, in which neighborhood was he actually born?

East Harlem was his first home, and he did not move to the West Coast until 1988, when he settled near San Francisco.

Which music institution inducted Tupac Shakur in 2017, the first year he became eligible for the honor?

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame only considers artists 25 years after their first record, and Tupac was voted in at the first attempt.

What kind of writing by Tupac Shakur fills the 1999 book The Rose That Grew from Concrete?

Handwritten poems make up the collection, which opens with a preface by his mother and a foreword by the poet Nikki Giovanni.

Which Bay Area city voted in 2023 to rename a stretch of MacArthur Boulevard Tupac Shakur Way?

Oakland's city council approved the change in May 2023, a few weeks before he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Which hip-hop collective did Tupac Shakur found in 1995 with his godbrother Yaki Kadafi?

Outlawz members rapped under names such as Napoleon, Kastro, Hussein Fatal and Mussolini, and the group kept recording for decades after his death.

Which Tupac Shakur single, released two days after his death, has a video in which he enters heaven?

I Ain't Mad at Cha fills its heaven with lookalikes of late stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye, who play in the band.

Which label, co-founded by Jimmy Iovine in 1990, released Tupac Shakur's debut album 2Pacalypse Now?

Interscope Records was still a new label when it put out the album in November 1991, having begun as a joint venture with Atlantic Records.

In Gang Related, Tupac Shakur's final film, his character Jake Rodriguez holds which job?

Police detective Jake Rodriguez and his partner, played by James Belushi, kill a man in a bogus drug deal and then look for someone to frame.

Which newcomer, whose father had worked with the rapper, played Tupac Shakur in the biopic All Eyez on Me?

Demetrius Shipp Jr. was cast in December 2015, and the film opened on what would have been Tupac's 46th birthday.

Which rapper closed a 2015 album with a simulated interview built from a Tupac Shakur radio recording?

Kendrick Lamar spliced his own questions into a 1994 Swedish radio interview for the track Mortal Man, with the approval of Tupac's mother.