Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York and passed away on September 13, 1996. Two decades after his death Tupac endures as one of hip-hop’s most iconic figures and its most powerful African American influence. What he brought to hip hop was a level of rawness and a poetic drive in the way he delivered his words. He had a level of self-empowerment that made people want to listen to what he had to say. Even today, you could fly anywhere and surely there’d be someone who knows of Tupac. He also studied theatre as a teenager at the Baltimore School of Performing Arts, and was inspired by Shakespeare.

Tupac’s ability to communicate what was going on around him was without a doubt a gift. It wasn’t necessarily about telling a story in the most intricate and detailed of ways, it was about making you feel like you were there seeing what he was seeing. He also told stories of what life was like in the ghetto as a young black male, and also told stories that hadn’t been heard, and speaking out for the black community who don’t have a voice. Songs like “Brenda’s Got A Baby” is a great example on how he’s separated from the rest of the rappers during his time. This song tells the story of a 12-year-old girl from the ghetto who has a baby and ends up slipping into drugs and prostitution and is eventually killed. In terms of his approach to production, he wasn’t focused on the musicality of the songs. Instead he had a real urgency to make music and that’s what made him one of the greatest rappers up to date.