Tupac Shakur

Tupac Amaru Shakur — born in East Harlem to a Black Panther activist mother, raised in Oakland and Baltimore — came to hip-hop through acting (his Juice (1992) performance announced him as a film talent) and rap (his debut 2Pacalypse Now, 1991, was cited in a Texas court case when a man killed a state trooper claiming Tupac inspired him — Vice President Quayle called for it to be pulled). He was capable of the gentlest ballad (“Dear Mama”) and the most explicit aggression, often within the same album.

His years on Death Row Records with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight produced his greatest commercial work: “California Love” (1995), the George Clinton- sampled West Coast anthem, and the double album All Eyez on Me (1996) — four discs, released months after he was released from prison where he had served time for sexual assault. The album sold five million copies in its first week; Tupac recorded material at a pace that suggested he felt his time was short.

He was shot four times on a Las Vegas street in September 1996 and died six days later, aged 25, in what remains an officially unsolved murder. The posthumous releases of his recordings extended his commercial presence for two decades; his mythological status in hip-hop culture has never diminished.