"Did [you] hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?" (Shakur, Tupac 3). These are words from Tupac, an American actor, dancer, poet, and rap icon. From the second he was born on June 16, 1971, he was destined for failure. Tupac was the rose. Born and raised in East Harlem, Tupac had many struggles. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was an active member of the Black Panther movement, she was pregnant with Tupac while she was imprisoned for participating in riots ( Edwards " From Poetry to Rap: The Lyrics of Tupac Shakur"). His family had little to no money and his dad was not in his life, but in the end Tupac triumphed. Despite his rough background and struggles with fame he grew to become the most successful rapper in the 1990's. .
Tupac had humble beginnings in the projects of East Harlem his mom, Afeni Shakur.
Tupac, however, made it out of the hood and made his musical debut in 1991. He rapped under the name "2Pac" and released his first album 2Pacalypse Now. This album rendered Tupac his first hit single with "Brenda's Got a Baby" which reached No. 3 on Billboard Charts (Riaa.com "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - Platinum Singles".)Tupac featured a lot of violence in his music, which was understandable due to the fact that the crime rate in New York was very high. In the time Tupac would have been a teen New York racked up 1,814 homicides (Sterbenz "New York City Used to be A Scary Place"). He also told stories of the struggles he underwent as a child traveling throughout the slums of New York. The honesty and vividness of the stories he told made him relatable to young people in the same position he was in. As a result of his relatability to the public Tupac became a huge success among inner city African Americans. .
Tupac often featured very controversial themes in his music. Some examples of these being: fighting, gang banging, and sex.
