Tupac: Lord of Bringing Drama You Touch Me I’m At You!!!

Tupac is the most misoverstood artist in music history because most people do not get why he grew to be so combative and controversial. He is probably one of the most betrayed people in history by those who he once called friends. It was mostly out of their petty jealousy. Tupac was once attacked and nearly killed by a group that he formed and grew up with in Baltimore. But before all of that he moved to the west coast to Oakland as a teenager in a crack infested community where he dropped out of high school, sold drugs, but continued to develop his craft. He ended up getting his shot to become a member of the group of legendary old school hip-hop group “The Digital Underground.” There are many layers the genius of Tupac and there’s not enough words to do him justice but the meat of why he became the only true outlaw of hip-hop will be demonstrated in this illustration.

As many know Tupac was raised in a household of black revolutionaries but people hardly if ever talk about the psychological effects of growing up in such an environment. Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur was a “Black Panther” and so was Tupac’s stepfather Mutulu Shakur. Tupac had good relationship with his stepfather and all of that was snatched from him at the age of 9 or 10 years when Mutulu allegedly robbed a Brinks Truck for 1.6 million dollars three guards were killed and he went on a robbing spree for years until he was caught in 1986 and he hasn’t been free since. He recently was denied parole after 30+ years in prison. Tupac’s mother, he, and his younger sister fled New York after Mutulu went on the lamb in 1981. Tupac had to be devastated to lose somebody that he knew loved and respected him while he was so young and he couldn’t understand why things had to be the way they were. He was forced to be a man before he was even 12 years old and that naturally built a fire inside him that made him come off as hateful and angry. That’s just a psychological effect of the drastic change that he had to make so young. But Tupac was always sharp as his mother and stepfather were because they all read and were trained to be revolutionary minded. They were all about Fighting the oppressors and that was ingrained in him since his mother was unjustly imprisoned while she was still pregnant with Tupac. When they left New York they moved to Baltimore where his mother got turned out on crack cocaine probably out of depression for having to be away from her true love Mutulu but who really knows the exact reason. All of this planted seeds of fury inside the of the mind of young Tupac.

Tupac was extraordinarily gifted in arts in high school. He took on acting and creative writing. That’s where he met his friend “Jada Pickett” now a Hollywood icon and wife of fellow icon Will Smith “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Tupac liked William Shakespeare the Shakespearean literature gave his vocabulary depth, increased his lyrical ability, and improved the delivery of his rhymes. Tupac had been rapping since it became popular and he fell in love with rhyming early. Though he was just a young man in the early 80s he often would be frustrated with his living circumstances. There are psychological effects to coming home to poverty hardly have any food and a mother that you love and respect but is strung out on drugs. But even then she made strides to be the best mother that she could be due to the circumstances. This likely caused Tupac to develop a “It’s Just Me Against The World” attitude that led him to be a vengeful individual as those circumstances would have caused anybody to be. Even with all his personal problems he continued to pursue his passions at his school of arts. He got better and better he was ready to explode on the entertainment scene and that would soon pop off for him much sooner than he probably thought. But he would have go with the demons of frustration that he endured all his life. Then one day out of the blue for whatever reason Tupac’s mother suddenly wanted to move to Oakland after years of living in Baltimore to be with her crew of Black Panthers pals from years ago. Tupac was not happy about the move he loved his friends and school in Baltimore but the departure was a blessing in disguise.

Upon Tupac’s arrival to Oakland it’s too ambiguous to say when he exactly dropped out of high school and his mother put him out forcing him to embrace the streets. But living the hard knock on the grind happened to him abruptly. He sold drugs to get by and he into fights just as anyone that was his position adding to the rage that would ultimately consume his life. The blessing of this situation is that his living conditions set the stage for him to gain world class one-of-one rapping ability and he continued to master his craft ripping up shows and parties wherever he went. He did this so much that he ended up getting attention of a woman that could get him a shot of linking up with “The Digital Underground.” When the group heard Tupac they immediately put him down as a member and just like that he was on and popping. Tupac never forgot his roots and neither did his group and Pac would only continue to become more and more ferociously ambitious and eager to have more creative freedom as well as dominion within the click which is what led him to go solo.

Tupac’s first album is an undisputed classic it had the most unique single of any mainstream artists at the time it wasn’t commercial at all. “Brenda’s Got a Baby” played on the box music videos back-to-back daily and that was the first song to spark my consciousness because Brenda is my mother’s name. Tupac had the gift of taking such a tragic story and getting people to respect the ones society throws away because they fall short of the glory of being perfect. His genius is undeniable Tupac was a rebel from the beginning. Only Tupac had his type of energy it can never be matched. It was straight up raw power it gave him the ability to gain a following stronger that any rapper has ever had or ever will. That genuine energy put him on rap’s Mt. Rushmore before any rapper made it their he is the first and only of his kind. No one could control Tupac he followed whatever that was in his heart rather he was right or wrong. In the same year made his first movie appearance earlier in that year in 1991.

Tupac made appearance an in Chevy Chase’s 1991 film called “Nothing But Trouble” he was also with “The Digital Underground” in the movie and he would need up going solo a few months later. But that wasn’t a really impactful role. They had about 15 minutes in the film and that was it. Following that Tupac in his brilliance would go on to take Hollywood by storm in a leading role that was sure to shake hip-hop culture to it’s core forever!

In the movie “Juice” Tupac put forth the most powerful movie performance I’ve ever seen from a rapper in their first leading role. Tupac absolutely took over the scene as if he was actually his character “Bishop” in real life. The dark role did not make people hate Tupac the man was a genius at work and we all loved it. Tupac soared into the upper echelon of superstardom after the success of his movie “Juice.” The next year he dropped his second album “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.” and his second leading role in the iconic urban romance directed by the late John Singleton called “Poetic Justice” starring along side Megastar Janet Jackson. The movie and his second album transformed him into a fullblown legend and no one saw it coming it was all happening so fast. It was like Tupac wasn’t human how easily people were drawn to him. Tupac didn’t discriminate when it was time to put somebody in their place like I’ve seen before. The fury that lived inside of him had grown to become absurdly strong and though Tupac only weighed 165 he was a wrecking ball on two legs. And he would continue to grow even stronger but not everyone was happy about his massive success.

Tupac was a giantic star after Poetic Justice he was a bonifide A-lister. Women worshipped him and he was praised like pharaoh in households around the country by he never met like me. Riding high on the fruits of his labor he went back to his old neighborhood in Baltimore and formed a group called “ThugLife” with his childhood friends. They dropped a classic album named “Thug Life: Volume One.” But this is when the darkside of Tupac would be awakened and he would be put on full alert for the rest of his life.

In this documentary “Thug Immortal” rare footage of Tupac is shown primarily on his life and relationships with friends in Baltimore. The members of the group Thug Life were not the most trustworthy people and they betrayed Tupac over something that was out of Tupac’s control. He was their leader now it the other way around and they resented Tupac for that. They said Tupac fired off a shot around their kids and the people that he made known to the world used that as a disingenuous reason to brutality attack Tupac nearly killing him. They were straight up the Judas type street guys and they had backing in their neighborhood they weren’t weak. So after that Tupac severed all ties with those guys and they never made another album again though their first album is a classic. They were never heard from in the mainstream ever again they blackballed themselves it was their fault. That incident broke Tupac’s heart he grew up with the guys who tried to take his life and all he did was try to help them make it out of the streets. Tupac became even more ferocious after that and for good reason. The psychological effect of people that you thought were your bestfriends trying to kill you over jealousy and you put money in their pocket is enough to make anyone embrace the darkside more than light I’m speaking from experience.

Tupac did not let what those player haters put out his flame. He ended up being featuring in his third movie as a leading character called “Above The Rim.” The movie features Marlon Wayans, Duane Martin, Leon, and Wood Harris. The movie was a smash hit and so was the soundtrack. The soundtrack was on deathrow records and that’s how he met Suge Knight and the rest of his crew. With all the success he was receiving trouble followed Tupac and he couldn’t shake it. He ended being framed for sexual assault with no evidence physical evidence, film, or in writing. A woman claimed to be raped and she had nothing on Tupac yet he found himself in jail for a crime that he did not commit. And on top of that radio personalities started rumors that had no truth to them at all. Tupac had so much on his plate it was bad enough that he’d been almost murdered in a robbery that no really knows the truth of what happened but the people that were there. Tupac’s angry brewed like it never had before. He was on a mission to destroy the people he thought tried to take his life rather he had real proof or not. He had enough of being betrayed the Baltimore incident was the last time he ever chose a peaceful exit. Tupac dropped his last album for Interscope records called “Me against the world” in the midst of all the drama.

Me against the world was a multi-platinum success but he was still in Rikers Island. He was winning awards from a jail cell and people were giving him shoutouts but he took it as if they were passively dismissing him to take his place because no one that was claiming to be a friend was trying to do anything to get him out of jail by putting the million dollar bond he was in jail on. None of the big dogs at Interscope came to get him out so that’s when Suge Knight stepped up and paid his bond. After that Tupac was on to mission to destroy Bad Boy records without solid proof that they set him to be robbed. Many rumors swirl about the robbery and Tupac had it in them bad rather he was right or wrong the feeling of betrayal may have clouded his judgement but no one can really say for sure and it will always because mystery as to what really happened when he got robbed and nearly killed he was shot five times at the scene. The bullet wounds healed but the psychological effect of being betrayed again harden his heart toward Bad Boy for as live as he lived.

When Tupac signed to Deathrow records he showed the world an infallible demonstration of superior rap skills that only true masters will ever reach. Some of the songs were about fun, some had substance, but the ones that stood out most were the diss songs. For entertainment people love to feed the fire of negativity especially when black men are the only ones in harms way. I hate that he put out “Hit Em Up” after a diss like that there’s no going back. I myself focused on my favorite track “I ain’t mad at cha” because I loved both of the parties involved in the beef and Tupac was the first rapper I listened to seriously. It was a nightmare for me and that’s just how it ended. Tupac did three more movies: Bullet, Gang Related, and Gridlocked. His last album Makaveli dropped in October but he never lived to see it. Tupac was killed in Las Vegas after the Mike Tyson Vs. Bruce Seldon championship fight because Tupac and members of his entourage jumped a SouthSide Crip that was heavily involved in the drug trade for snatching his chain. That was the one thing that no one could fix the Crip who got jumped had an uncle that was connected to a Colombian drug cartel there was nothing even Suge Knight could do. Tupac died September 13, 1996 and his legend still lives on almost 30 years later.

Tupac developed a “you touch me I’m at you” attitude as a form of survival and as a means to get justice for all the times he had been deeply betrayed by those that he loved the most. He may of have been wrong but we weren’t there and we didn’t have to live with being framed for rape, beaten by police, have a mother on drugs, lose the only real father figure he had at nine or 10 years old, be almost killed by those he feed, and feeling like he was being dismissed by his rich friends who could have easily gotten him out of jail for million dollars. Bad Boy records were not the only friends he had that could have gotten him out of jail he knew billionaire record executives they did nothing. So “the touch me I’m at you” philosophy is overstood by the streets but it’s proven to be flawed and it often leads to overreaction. Tupac was a Gem and he still is so the best thing you should get out of this story is that every action has a reaction and beware of those that you call your friends. Because you’re not the only one with a gun and a “you touch me I’m at you” doctrine stay woke!