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is tupac dead? by Matt Webster (mza@disinfo.net) - August 01, 2001 |
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| Over the last few years, persistent assertions that Tupac Shakur, a world-famous Hip Hop artist and film actor, faked his death have thrived and multiplied on the Internet. Chuck D., Public Enemy's rebel without a pause, is the best-known spokesman for this mercurial network of suspicion and critical inquiry. Tupac Shakur was reportedly murdered in Las Vegas on September 13th, 1996, while riding in a car driven by Death Row Records kingpin (and since convicted racketeer) 'Suge' Knight, and the case has never been solved. Although it would be easy to dismiss conspiracy proposals as conventional celebrity death fetishism, or a reversal of the classic Paul is Dead theories, there are some questionable circumstances to consider. For example, there is a posthumous Tupac album released under the artist name 'Makaveli', a typically creatively-spelled homage to the Italian political theorist and author of The Prince, an influential Renaissance study on leadership and power, and the lesser-read study The Discourses, who advocated the faking of one's own death to gain leverage over enemies. In the widely circulated autopsy photo, none of Tupac's famous tattoos are visible on the rapper's shirtless torso. And while it is not surprising, considering the facts of the life he led (Tupac was incarcerated on a rape conviction,and later shot five times in an incident he implicitly blamed on elements within 'Puffy' Combs' 'Bad Boy Records'), that Tupac repeatedly foresaw his own death in lyrics and even portrayed himself in one video as a dead spirit watching over a still-living friend, his adherents have found a HUGE amount of clues in his work that could support the conspiratorial viewpoint. Probably more interesting than the question of whether Shakur is dead or not, or if he is, even, then of who may have killed him and why, is the question of what aspect of his character or image attracts this kind of attention in the first place. To a lot of people he seemed like an egocentric poseur, but no one who has seen the movies Juice (1992) and Gridlock'd (1997) can deny his talent. A charismatic performer who lived and breathed his clear, earnest lyrics, Shakur was starting to show leadership qualities. Towards the reported end of his life, Tupac had begun to express activist sentiments befitting of a young man named after Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru, and whose parents were involved in the Black Panther movement. A message recently surfaced on the Disinfo forums speculating that, once the statute of limitations is up for the crime of falsifying his death, Tupac will reappear as the leader of a new political party, an ambition he described in interviews. Shakur's fierce dedication to his street culture (or 'thug life') muse brought star power of such magnitude that it resonated with fans of all ages and backgrounds, most poignantly with the disenfranchised inner-city young people whose frustration, hopes, and defiance he shared. His loss was another episode of the banal, everyday hopelessness incurred by repeatedly seeing promising black youths killed in a stream of brutality. It is easy to speculate that his murder was simply a self-fulfilling prophecy: after his death, Jesse Jackson commented that it was an example of how success and fame were not enough to quell the lure of the street that is endemic in Hip Hop. But is Tupac alive? |
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The Unofficial Tupac Homepage HenDogg's Tupac Shakur Homepage The Conscious Rasta on the Infinity Factory Is Tupac Tha Realest? Is Tupac Dead??? 2Pacalypse Now Top 20 Reasons Why 2Pac Is Alive The Tupac Is Alive Theory Makaveli Alive? Robby Robb'$ Reasons Tupac Is Alive Tupac: Alive Or A Theory? 'Suge' Knight Eyed In Slaying |
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