Late night September 7th, 1996, Tupac Amaru Shakur was shot in Las Vegas, Nevada; a drive-by shooting that left him dead at 25. The assassin was never found. Arguably the greatest rapper to ever touch a microphone, he was more than an emcee. He was a visionary.
The first police officer at the scene of Tupac Shakur's 1996 drive-by murder has revealed the last words he spoke. "He looked at me, and he took a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth," says Chris Carroll, a retired sergeant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, "And then the words came out: 'F**k you.'"
Although he was known for explicit quotes and controversial lyrics, he influenced more positivity than negativity. Tupac’s lyrics showcase growing up around violence, living in the ghetto, racism, and other hardships he faced in his lifetime.
He grew up around radicals and activists such as the Black Panthers, who despised cops and other government officials. He joined a Communist organization when he was young and had always stuck to his far left views into adulthood. He didn’t have a particularly religious upbringing but has lyrics that point towards a Christian belief system.
“When I was alone and had nothing. I asked for a friend to help me bear the pain. No one came, except God. When I needed a breath to rise from my sleep. No one could help me except God.”
If Tupac were elected president today, we imagine what his views and stances on political issues would be. When it came to wealth redistribution, we know he stuck to his communist roots. “No one should be hitting the lotto for 36 million when we got people starving on the streets,” he said during a radio interview. He had strong feelings on poverty as well. “Why can’t [the President] take some of those people off the street and put them in his White House? Then he’ll have people from the street to help him with his ideas. They haven’t been homeless forever; they’ve done things for society.” We also wonder if women’s rights, women’s issues, and gender equality would even be an issue with a leader of the views of Tupac.
“Since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman, and our game from a woman. I wonder why we take from women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it’s time we killed for our women, be real to our women, try to heal our women, cause if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, who make the babies. And since a man can’t make one he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one.”
Tupac had a passion for world peace. He spoke fervently against police brutality, poverty, and government corruption. Tupac also condemned the educational system. He said, “There should be a class on drugs. There should be a class on sex education, a real sex education class, not just pictures and diagrams and illogical terms. There should be a class on scams. There should be a class on religious cults. There should be a class on police brutality. There should be a class on apartheid. There should be a class on racism in America. There should be a class on why people are hungry.”
Tupac frequently fought against the structures of society that were in place when he was alive, encouraging the black youth to break the shackles of tyranny. The youth looked up to him as a role model. He was inspiring to all who heard what he had to say. He was frustrated with the world, which no one was working together to fix the problems of racism.
“I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself is life worth living should I blast myself? We gotta start makin' changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers. I see no changes all I see is racist faces, misplaced hate makes disgrace to races.”
Tupac for pres.
