Tupac Shakur

Born in New York City on June 16, 1971, Tupac joined Oakland's Digital Underground in 1990 as a roadie and backup dancer, and got his first turn on the mic on their January 1991 single "Same Song." His solo debut, 2Pacalypse Now, arrived that November, taking on the social issues of the day with an urgency most rap radio wouldn't touch. Hits like "I Get Around," "Keep Ya Head Up," and "Dear Mama" showed both sides of him — the party star and the son writing love letters to his mother — while roles in Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), and Above the Rim (1994) made him a movie star in parallel.

In October 1995, Death Row Records boss Suge Knight posted Tupac's $1.4 million bond, and Tupac signed to the label. All Eyez on Me landed on February 13, 1996 — rap's first double album, eventually certified Diamond — and sent "California Love" and "How Do U Want It" to number one on the Hot 100.

By then he was also the center of hip-hop's ugliest storyline. After Tupac was shot at New York's Quad Studios in 1994, his relationship with The Notorious B.I.G. curdled into the East Coast–West Coast feud, escalating through the scorched-earth diss track "Hit 'Em Up." On September 7, 1996, he was shot four times in a drive-by at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas; he died six days later, on September 13, at 25.

The posthumous The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, released under his Makaveli alias, went straight to number one, and he has since sold more than 75 million records worldwide, with Rolling Stone ranking him among the 100 greatest artists of all time. His murder went unsolved for 27 years, until a Las Vegas grand jury finally returned an indictment in 2023.