Happy Birthday Tupac. Today is his 38th birthday and we should all have a 2Pac filled day. Crank his music loud.

For those of you who don’t know Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan, New York City. He was named after Túpac Amaru II who was a famous Peruvian revolutionary who led an ill fated indigenous uprising against their Spanish overlords.
R.I.P. Tupac
Image: Amazon

It was over twenty years since the trajic death of Tupac Shakur. But that didn’t stop him from releasing a collaborative album called “2 Pac: Pac’s Life.”

Artists like Ashanti, T.I., Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Papoose, Keyshia Cole, Chamillionaire, Lil’ Scrappy, Big L, Big Punisher, Joell Ortiz, Canibus, The Notorious B.I.G, Redman, Raekwon, Busta Rhymes, Outlawz, Big Syke, Young Buck and more.all came together for this Tuesday, November 21, 2006 release.
The album has nearly a million copies worldwide and has been a true inspiration to the life of Tupac Shakur.

Image: Amazon

With the Chris Brown/Rihanna ordeal looming over the hip-hop world it may not be a good idea to title something hit ‘em up. But this 1996 music video by Tupac Shakur was perfectly lyrical for his time. It was just two years after he fell out with Biggie Smalls and Diddy for the attempted assassination, and it is safe to say that Tupac was still very upset. “Hit ‘Em Up” was a great diss video as it tore through Biggie, Diddy, Lil’ Kim, Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Lil’ Cease.

Image: Wikipedia

This week for Tupac Tuesday I’m featuring Tupac’s – “Brenda’s Got a Baby” This great, true story music video, shows the life of Brenda a twelve-year old girl who got pregnant in the projects.

Tupac lives forever through his music.

Tupac & Scarface – Smile

Despite the majority of the song being sung by Tupac Shakur, Scarface takes the credit for this song with features from Tupac and Johnny P. In the music video it looks like Tupac is being crucified on power lines in a pergatory world. However, when you read the end notes… "There are times I’ve suffered shipwreck in my journeys: In perils of robbers; In perils of false brethren; In perils of my own design. Yet, from these perils comes knowledge: Only from within may we truly shine." you realize that he most likely thinks of himself …read more

This song, which was released posthumously, is one of my favorite’s from Tupac but I won’t lie – the video gave me the creeps when I first saw it.  The claymation/cartoon is just weird and serves as a reminder that he’s no longer alive/around to make videos.  Oh well.  I will just listen to it and not look at it – ha ha!

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California Love was the song that made even mainstream music lovers notice Tupac.  In this collaboration with Dr. Dre, Pac helped create one of the biggest, most popular rap songs of that time.  I really didn’t know too many people who didn’t like it (even those people who hate rap and hip hop music).
The video is made in the style of Mad Max and features Chris Tucker who I really didn’t know too much about at that time. 

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Here is the MTV segment that aired on the day that Tupac died.  It showed his rise to fame (including clips from Juice and a video with Digital Underground among other things).  It was really interesting to look back on his life and be reminded of so many things that I used to know about him but have since forgotten.  It also helped me hate Suge Knight all over again…

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Remember this track from Tupac’s double album All Eyes on Me?  There is so much going on in the song – you’ve got the synthesized vocals, his rapping, the beat, some middle eastern sounding effects and sometimes even a heart monitor.  This song is crazy!
Make sure you spot his former Digital Underground band members!

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This is one of my favorite Tupac songs even though it kind of gives me the creeps to think of how prophetic the video is (that is, of course, if you believe Tupac is dead). 
What I love best is how smooth the song is and how well it works with Pac’s rhymes and Danny Boy’s vocals.  This is an example of why there has not been anyone else like him in this industry – he redefined Hip Hop for me.  What about you?

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