Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971 in East Harlem, New York. Also known by his stage name 2Pac, he is an American Rapper and is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time and is a Hip Hop Legend. He is also one of the best selling artist in the world.Tupac was destined to be a great African American figure. Tupac was the son of Black Panther Activist, and was raised In New York for most of his youth by his mother Afeni Shakur. Billy Garland, Tupac's father had no contact with him until he was an adult. Tupac was originally named Lesane Parish Crooks, but was soon changed to Tupac Amaru Shakur which means "shining serpent." Tupac had a difficult childhood. He moved around frequently through the boroughs of Brooklyn and Bronx, he also saw the struggles from his mother as she battled her addiction with drugs which really affected him seeing these things at a young age. Tupac became interested in acting during his youth, as he joined the 127th Street Ensemble which is a Harlem based theatre company. Tupac soon grew into his teens and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts where he began to have new experiences as every teen does. He decided to take acting and dance classes, he even gave ballet a shot. This had a huge impact on his life as he soon discovered his interest in rap while residing in Baltimore and took the name of MC New York. As the late 1980s approached, Tupac and his family moved to the West Coast. He joined the hip-hop based group digital underground, which was based in Oakland, California. Digital Underground had just released one of their biggest hits "The Humpty Dance" right before Tupac was to join the group. Tupac appeared on two of the group's recordings while he was with them.
In 1991, Shakur debuted his album 2Pacalypse Now and emerged as a solo artist using the name 2Pac. The album was very popular as "Brenda's Got a Baby" reached number 3 on the Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart.