Designer: Grant Ruof
In recent years, 90s culture has made a resurgence. Trends like bell bottom jeans and Nirvana sweatshirts have reappeared. Teens can be seen wearing lots of t-shirts featuring celebrities, like basketball player Dennis Rodman or singer Aaliyah. However, there has been one rapper from the 90s who has continued to be relevant over multiple decades: Tupac Shakur.
Recently, a trial surrounding the murder of Shakur, which took place in 1996, has attracted even more attention toward the rapper, and this trial and conviction reopened the 30-year-old cold case.
Shakur was born in 1971 in Harlem, New York, and in 1988, his family moved to Oakland, California, and soon enough, his rap career would begin to explode.
“Tupac’s canon has to be divided into before prison, after prison and posthumously. ‘2Pacalypse Now’, ‘Strictly 4 My N.I.*.*.A.Z’ and ‘Me Against the World’ were recorded prior to Tupac’s incarceration. These albums were thought-provoking and socially conscious,” Scott Nicola, a dedicated fan of the artist, said.
According to the New York Times, in 1995, Shakur was convicted of sexual abuse, and he was released later in the year.
“We knew that Tupac was not known to be a formally initiated gang member before moving to Death Row Records. However, after his release from prison in 1995 and signing with Death Row, he became clearly associated with individuals connected to the Mob Piru Bloods, a Compton-based Blood set strongly linked to Surge Knight and Death Row Records,” Professor Dominic P. Lombardo said, who is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana Tech, and who is a former LAPD police officer who specialized in gang enforcement.
In Los Angeles, gangs were very prevalent. This led to a lot of violence and “gang wars”. The most notable gangs of this time period were the Crips and the Bloods.
“Gangs have been prevalent in Los Angeles for many years. For example, both the Crips and the Bloods emerged in LA during the late 1960s and early 1970s amid social upheaval, declining unemployment opportunities and the absence of many community organizations that had previously provided structure for youth,” Lombardo said.
Shakur’s involvement with the Bloods would lead to his untimely death. An altercation with a Southside Compton Crips Member would seem to be the main cause of his murder.
“On September 7, 1996, Tupac attended the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon boxing match in Las Vegas with Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight. After the fight, surveillance video captured Tupac and members of his entourage assaulting Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, a member of the South Side Compton Crips, in the MGM Grand casino. A few hours later, while riding in a BMW driven by Suge Knight, Tupac was shot. Really, no one knows with absolute certainty why Tupac was murdered; however, we speculated that the one underlying reason is that the killing was a gang-related retaliation connected to a fight involving members of the South Side Compton Crips on the night he was shot,” Lombardo said.
After Tupac’s murder, the public had a strong reaction. Many young adults in the 90s listened to Tupac’s music, and this death had a huge impact on them.
“‘All Eyes on Me’ dropped in the Winter/Spring of that year, and that album was playing on everybody’s car stereo during that summer of ‘96. Tupac was a little more visible than a lot of rappers at the time because he had been in a couple of fairly successful movies (most notably ‘Juice’ and ‘Poetic Justice’). The internet/social media weren’t a thing (at least not for most people), so news travelled and was received differently.,” Nicola said.
But, what is the relevance of this story today? The first and only person to be convicted in relation to this murder is Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was a “shot caller” for the Southside Compton Crips, and he played a role in orchestrating the murder, according to CNN. He didn’t fire the shot that killed Tupac, but he ordered a member to do it. This conviction marks an end to this murder being known as a cold case and will possibly lead to new discoveries. But Shakur’s murder also serves as a wake-up call for others.
“While Tupac’s death could have been a warning sign or cautionary tale to many in the recording industry and beyond, clearly this has not been the case. How many more have fallen victim to gun violence and gang warfare in the last 30 years?” Nicola said.
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