2Pac Essentials

2Pac’s closest analogue may not be his late rival The Notorious B.I.G., but rather dorm-room wall icons of the mythologised past: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and James Dean. Even if 2Pac’s legend has become a tall tale, his music remains an indelible testament to the multitudes he contained. He was born Lesane Parish Crooks in 1971, but his mother, a Black Panther leader, swiftly changed his name to Tupac Amaru Shakur in honour of the last Incan emperor to die while resisting Spanish rule. For much of his career, 2Pac embodied that revolutionary, fight-the-power ethos on songs like “Trapped” and “Keep Ya Head Up”, befitting the Afrocentric, conscious-minded milieu of the early ’90s. But there was also the funkadelic player (“I Get Around”), the sensitive poet (“Brenda’s Got a Baby”, "Dear Mama"), the savage warlord (“Hit ’Em Up”) and the state cheerleader (“California Love”). And as Death Row Records’ strain of rap defined the middle years of the decade, 2Pac became the label’s avatar while also broadening its scope—a streetwise MC who could toggle between gangsta tracks (“2 of Americaz Most Wanted”) and more sensitive fare (“Dear Mama”, “Changes”).