September 13, 2006 @ 6:25 pm

Remembering Tupac Shakur, Ten Years Later

by: Mariel Concepcion, and Hashim Warren

"I Want to Spark the Mind of the Person That Will Change the World." - Tupac Amaru Shakur Ten years ago today Tupac Amaru Shakur was pronounced dead in a Las Vegas hospital after suffering for six days from gunshot wounds. Though his life was cut short at age 25, his legend has since grown, and his influence can still be felt throughout popular music today. "Since Pac passed, five albums have been released under his name and three movies have premiered with him starring in them, including a documentary, Tupac: Resurrection. Today Vibe honors hip hop's fallen soldier and remembers his life. right "Tupac was a child of mine. He was actually my son. I bore him. Tupac came with his mom's baggage. And, that's probably a fair way to put it. It's a lot nicer to look at it gloriously, but let's look at it realistically. Tupac came with his mom's Panther baggage. He carried it. It was this baggage that caused a swat team to arrest him for sexual assault at that hotel. They closed off the entire block and the building. Bulletproof vest and strap jackets. That was his mom's baggage that made that happen, and I'm sorry for that.
These things that other people look at romantically are my day-to-day life, but they are a pain, you see. It is pain that had me carry that child in the jail cell. I had to get a court order to get a glass of milk and one boiled egg a day. So, if that's what made him who he is, then that's what he is. But, let's call it "the baggage," let's not call it a glorious thing.
Tupac weighed 165 pounds. That little body was too small for that spirit, for all that person. It wore down. It's easy for me to understand how that shell could not really contain a spirit like that longer than he did I think it's true of people who really have great amounts of energy, of talent, of passion. I think the lights wear out early." - Afeni Shakur, Vibe.com (February 2004)

"Tupac Shakur was a man of contradictions, and he served up his many sides unapologetically. A decade after his death, on September 3, 1996, all eyes are still on 'Pac." - Vibe, Sept. 2006

"Tupac Shakur lives on in posthumous record releases, mysterious sightings, and in the faith of his followers. The Tragic murder of one of this generation's great artistic voices has sunk into the gunky pop-culture realm of amateur criminologists, overamped conspiracy theorists, and hip hop's version of Elvis-lives looneyism." - David Wielenga, Vibe (May 2005) "His messages were really strong and heartfelt, and he was a real person. He could go from saying 'Keep your head' up to using the word b---- in the next song. There was no box that he was put in, and he lived and died by what he said." - Kanye West, Associated Press "He stood for something and he really talked about life - it wasn't just street life. He was an intelligent guy." - OutKast's Big Boi, Associated Press “I have argued that you can learn just as much about language and literature from reading Tupac as you can from Shakespeare. The themes and conflicts present in Shakespeare are all present in hip hop.” - David Kirkland, NYU Professor, Vibe.com (September 2006) "We like to take what the Tupac legacy is all about -- integrity, respect, believing in yourself and making a positive difference in your world and community. It was his dream, and now it's become a reality." - Celina Nixon, Director of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation Summer Camp for Kids "Nothing that I can answer is really going to get at it, or it's going to sound emotional and corny, but the fact of the matter is he was just a very special human being. He was the kind of heroic figure - very flawed, very passionate, very handsome, very outspoken, very talented - who comes along once in a lifetime. He was one of a kind and I think whenever you want to ask yourself who Tupac is, as much as I'm a journalist and I live by headlines, don't go to the headlines to find out who Tupac was, go to the music. You will not be disappointed." - Danyel Smith, Vibe Editor-in-Chief Read more vibe.com online exclusives.

Article tags: Afeni Shakur, Big Boi, Danyel Smith, Kanye West, Outkast, Tupac 

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