The Life and Legacy of Tupac Shakur By Ericka Foster *click photos for photo credit
On June 16th, Tupac would have been 49 years old. You can’t help but to wonder what he would say as people around the world protest police brutality and racism. Tupac had his own run-ins with the law – including serving a few months in jail for sexual assault. However, he was complex and multi-faceted. To characterize him as just one thing – thug, rapper, and actor – would be unreasonable and unrealistic. The truth is, no one is all one thing. Tupac was one of those rare individuals who was able to be many different things to many different people while being authentic. In an interview with MTV last year, singer Jhene Aiko explained, "He was so contradictory to people, but to me, he was just human and not afraid to express himself. I could relate to that a lot... How dancing turned into music, turned into acting, turned into all of the things that he did. And he still had this passion and this purpose about him. That spoke to me so much."
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