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Tupac Shakur, also known by his stage name 2Pac, was an influential American rapper and one of the best-selling hip hop artists of all time.

Tupac was born in East Harlem, New York on 16^th June 1971 to parents who were active members of the Black Panther Party. His upbringing was difficult and many people around him were involved in violent crime – themes that would later appear in much of his work.

He appeared in several amateur plays while at school and won a number of junior rap competitions, but it wasn’t until his family moved to California that Shakur was given the opportunity to show his talents on a larger stage. In 1990, he was hired as a roadie and back up dancer for the alternative rap group Digital Underground.

Before long, Tupac was contributing vocals to Digital Underground songs and within eighteen months he was signed to Interscope Records to release his debut solo album 2Pacalypse Now. Although the album was a commercial flop, Tupac swiftly released a second, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., in 1993. This album was notably more successful, producing Top 20 hit I Get Around and the unusually conscientious Keep Ya Head Up.

In 1994, Tupac recorded an album with his side project Thug Life which went gold. Then, just two months later, he was shot five times and robbed – but not killed – while entering Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. He later blamed the attack on associates of Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.)

In March 1995, while serving an eleven month prison sentence for sexual assault, Tupac released the multi-platinum album Me Against The World. This made him the only artist ever to have an album at number one (where it stayed for five weeks) while incarcerated.

Upon his release from prison in 1996, Shakur recorded and released his fourth album All Eyez on Me, which sold over nine million copies, along with hundreds of other tracks that were not released at the time. As a B-Side to single How Do U Want It he recorded the diss song Hit ‘Em Up, which aimed vicious insults at Biggie and his associates.

In September 1996, Tupac was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. There was speculation that Biggie and other East Coast rappers were involved in the shooting, but this has been vehemently denied.

Since Tupac’s death, five new albums of songs recorded after his stint in prison have been released, with three of them – R U Still Down? (Remember Me), Until the End of Time and Better Dayz – going multi-platinum. A sixth album is due for release in 2010.