2Pac is set to have an Oakland street named after him, The Oaklandside reports. On Tuesday (May 16), the Oakland City Council voted to rename the MacArthur Boulevard section nestled between Van Buren Avenue and Grand Avenue as “Tupac Shakur Way.”
The renaming is part of an Oakland initiative to commemorate legendary figures from the Bay Area. So far, the city has renamed streets in honor of the likes of Huey P. Newton, Dorothy King, Too Short, and Peter Van Kleef.
City Council member Carroll Fife brought forth the proposal and spoke about the decision to honor the late West Coast icon.
“Tupac Shakur’s legacy will continue through his contributions in art and social outreach, through his family and fans, touching countless lives of children and elders over the years while alive and after his death, taken too young by gun violence,” Fife asserted in the resolution.
While 2Pac, né Tupac Shakur, was born in East Harlem, NY, in 1971, he relocated to California in 1988. Reborn as a West Coast native, Shakur would live in the area for the rest of his young life.
In other 2Pac news, Entertainment Tonight recently unearthed a 1996 interview where he revealed his plans to step away from music. The video also shows Pac sharing insights about his future in Hip-Hop, explaining that he wanted to double down on his acting career.
“To have change in my image, really, number one,” he said when speaking about auditioning for Gridlock’d. “This movie is really about friendship and what unconditional friendship means. I did it basically because it was funny, and I’ve never really got to be funny.
“We got a lot of good things happening. If I say it right now, the way my luck has been going, it’ll all fall through. Just give me a month so I can lock it down before I tell everybody. I just want to push the envelope and work, work, work. I want to move further away from the music and start wading myself into the acting more.”
Unfortunately, the “I Get Around” emcee wouldn’t live long enough to realize his vision entirely. Month after the interview, Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by in Las Vegas after the historic Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight.
He died six days later, on Sept. 13, 1996, at the age of 25.