People_USA_June_26_2017

A BOLD TALENT
1. Shakur (in an undated photo)
spent his earliest years in New
York City. 2. After her son’s
murder, Afeni (with Shakur) “was
angry that it happened, but she
was more angry, I think, that it
was trivialized,” says her former
attorney. 3. A talented actor,
Shakur costarred with Janet
Jackson in 1993’s Poetic Justice.
4. With fellow rapper Flavor Flav
in 1989. 5. Jada Pinkett and Shakur
(in 1994) met while they attended
the Baltimore School of the Arts.
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the still-unsolved murder is reigniting with the
June 16 release of All Eyez on Me, a biopic starring
newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr. that details the
Grammy-winning rapper’s tough early years, his
rise to global fame and his shocking end. “That day
was very emotional,” music industry veteran and
Eyez producer L.T. Hutton says of first hearing the
news of his friend’s death. But the film, he adds, is
also focused on “what fueled his journey.”
It’s a journey that led Shakur from the streets to
the world stage. Born Lesane Parish Crooks in New
York City’s East Harlem on June 16, 1971, Shakur
was steeped in turbulence from birth: His mother,
Afeni, was a member of the Black Panthers and his
stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, was a black nationalist
on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. He was rechristened
a year after his birth, named after a martyred Peruvian
warrior. After moving to Baltimore—where he
befriended budding actress Jada Pinkett before she
found fame—Shakur later settled in Northern California
as a teen. He developed an interest in poetry
that formed the foundation of his rap verses, and
he once wrote of his lyrics, “They are about what
happens in the real world.”
Initially part of the hip-hop collective Digital Underground,
he signed a solo deal in 1991, releasing
2
MEET
DEMETRIUS
SHIPP
Newcomer
Shipp, 28, landed his
debut role in All
Eyez on Me when a
friend suggested he
audition back in
2011, given his resemblance
to Tupac.
“I never aspired to
act,” says the star,
“so this is going to
be a whole new world
I’ve entered and
something totally
unexpected.”
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his debut, 2Pacalypse Now. The songs, detailing police
brutality and drug dealing, touched off a political
furor that led then-Vice President Dan Quayle
to denounce Shakur’s music, saying, “It has no
place in our society.” Despite the controversy, the
album went gold, paving the way for future smashes
including Me Against the World—which featured
the touching tribute to his mother, “Dear Mama.”
But Shakur’s success was derailed in 1994 when
he was convicted of sexually abusing a 19-yearold
fan in a hotel room and sentenced to up to
4 1 ⁄2 years in prison. (Shakur always maintained
his innocence.) The day before the verdict, Shakur
was shot five times in the lobby of a New York City
recording studio. He believed the attack had been
orchestrated by rival rapper and friend-turned-foe
Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious
B.I.G. (Smalls always denied involvement.)
While he was incarcerated, Marion “Suge”
Knight, founder of Death Row Records, offered
to pay for an appeal if Shakur signed to his label.
Knight was a known affiliate of the L.A. street gang
the Mob Piru, then locked in a deadly rivalry with
the Compton Crips. An LAPD source tells People,
“Mob Piru was built off of Death Row. Suge put
them on the map.” When Knight paid his $1.4 mil-
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June 26, 2017 PEOPLE