Top 10 Facts You Probably Did Not Know About Tupac Shakur

Here are some cool and interesting facts you probably don't know about Tupac Shakur.

The Top Ten

  1. He was friends with Biggie at first

    Tupac was friends with Biggie Smalls until the November 1994 shooting at Quad Recording Studios that Tupac survived. He was in prison for most of 1995 and heard "Who Shot Ya?", which Tupac thought was a diss track targeted at him.

    Tupac and Biggie became huge rivals in the East Coast and West Coast hip hop beef. Tupac died in September 1996, and Biggie died in March of the following year.

  2. He renamed his publishing company Joshua's Dream after a dying boy

    Tupac received a letter from the parents of a dying boy named Joshua Torres whose dying wish was to meet Tupac. He flew to Maryland to meet Joshua and took him to a basketball game, which hugely inspired Tupac.

    After Joshua's death, Tupac renamed his publishing company from Ghetto Gospel to Joshua's Dream.

  3. He was born on the East Coast

    He was born in Harlem, New York, to a family infamous for being involved in the Black Panther Party. He moved to California in 1988.

    I knew this one. It's kind of bizarre to think about, though, because of how emblematic he was of West Coast hip hop.

  4. He criticized Donald Trump in an MTV interview

    Tupac said in an interview, "Everybody's taught that. You wanna be successful? You wanna be like Trump? Gimme, gimme, gimme. Push, push, push, push. Step, step, step. Crush, crush, crush. That's how it all is."

    25 years later, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the US and has been a racist and misogynistic stale Cheeto ever since.

  5. He was hugely inspired by William Shakespeare

    Tupac credited Shakespeare as one of his biggest inspirations, as he studied his works while at a Baltimore vocational high school.

  6. He starred in six movies

    After a cameo appearance in Nothing but Trouble with Digital Underground, Tupac starred with three other actors in Juice (1992), with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993), and had a role as a drug dealer in Above the Rim (1994). The latter three were posthumous, with him starring in Bullet (1996), with Tim Roth in Gridlock'd (1997), and with Jim Belushi in Gang Related (1997). But sadly, all of these films have a very limited chance of being available for streaming.

    UPDATE: Gang Related is on HBO Max, and a pirated version of Above the Rim is on YouTube.

  7. He was in Digital Underground before becoming famous as a solo artist

    He had his first national appearance in "Same Song," which was from the movie Nothing but Trouble, where the group also appeared.

  8. He introduced the band KISS at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards

    In 1996, rapper Tupac introduced the rock band KISS in full makeup and full costume for the first time in fifteen years at the Grammys.

  9. He was named Tupac Amaru Shakur, which means "shining serpent" (Tupac Amaru) and "thankful to God"

  10. He was in Thug Life before Outlawz

    Tupac formed the rap group Thug Life in 1993, which released only one album, Thug Life: Volume 1. Stretch died just two years after the formation of the group.

    11. The Contenders

  11. He had a close friendship with Jada Pinkett Smith

    Before Jada Pinkett married Will Smith in 1997, she was close friends with Tupac until his death in 1996.

  12. He began performing under the name MC New York

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