Tupac Amaru Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971 to Afeni (Alice Faye) Williams and Billy Garland. His stepfather's name is Matulu Shakur (Jerel Wayne Williams). Tupac's name was later changed to Tupac Amaru meaning Shining Serpent. His family also changed their last name to Shakur meaning Thankful To God in Arabic. Matulu was later sent to jail for an armored car robbery a few years prior. Then Afeni was left to raise Tupac on her own.

 They often moved from Harlem to Baltimore, where Pac enrolled in the Baltimore School for the performing arts. There he met Jada Pinkett, now one of his longtime friends. When Tupac was 17, he was forced to leave the school and move to California. There he met people who put a bad influence on him and he started selling drugs. At age 19 Tupac became a dancer/singer for Digital Underground and a year later released his first solo album "2Pacalypse Now". A year later he made his acting debut in Earnest Dickerson's "Juice". His acting career followed him to 1993 when he starred with Janet Jackson in "Poetic Justice". In 1994 his second solo album, "Thug Life" was released. He was also starring in "Above The Rim". In November of that year, he was shot outside a music studio in an attempted robbery. It is believed that Puffy and Biggie Smalls set that up. In 1995 "Me Against The World" was released with the smash hit "Dear Mama". In 1996 he released the first ever double CD in the Rap industry, "All Eyez on Me". He also released "Makaveli- The Don Killuminati, The Seven Day Theory" that year. On September 7th he was shot 5 times in a drive by shooting. He was put into surgery immediatley and his right lung was removed from gun shots. Then, on Friday September 13, 1996 at 4:03 PM, Tupac Amaru Shakur was pronounced dead from gunshots. On September 22 a funeral was held in New York where he was born...he came full circle.