Tupac Shakur: Thankful To God

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971 in Brooklyn NY. He was named after an Inca chief, Tupac Amaru meaning “Shining Serpent” which refers to wisdom and courage and Shakur meaning “Thankful to God”. Shakur was a very talented and gifted child, and growing up his biggest inspiration came from his mother Afeni Shakur. Afeni Shakur was one of the most dominant members of the black panthers and the civil rights movement. Growing up in poverty Afeni Shakur did not want her son to be subjective to the struggles surrounding him. In doing so at the age of twelve his mother enrolled him into a theater school in Harlem. Unfortunately his training for acting had come to an ending when he and his family had to move. Dealing with the emotional effects of living in poverty, moving away, and his drug addicted mother Tupac turned to writing poetry. This was

While attending the Baltimore school of performing arts Tupac studied acting and ballet. The teachers at his school were very intrigued and ecstatic at his level of performance, dedication, potential, and passion. Just at the peak of his upcoming success in acting Tupac learned that he will be moving away again. At the age of sixteen Tupac and his family had moved to Oakland California. During this time he had joined a rap group known as Digital Underground. Tupac joined Digital underground to learn the basic aspects of hip-hop so he became the dancer of the group. A year later Tupac finally recorded a song with the group it was called “same song”. It wasn’t long before the group had received an award winning success Tupac had come out with his own album called “2pacolypse now”. His first album “2pacolypse now” was a major success and it also was the spinoff of his career. The number hit single from “2pacolypse now” was “Brenda’s got a Baby” which went gold and sold over 500,000