Perhaps no other rapper has been dissected and discussed more than Tupac Shakur. Though he was only 25 years old when he died in September 1996 after being struck amid a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, he has lived on through posthumous albums, documentaries, and even college classes dedicated to his legacy. He also lives on through the memories of those who knew him.
Former Pitchfork contributor Sheldon Pearce captures many of those memories in his new oral history, Changes. The book covers Tupac’s entire life, from his days growing up as a child of the Black Panthers to his early acting experiences as a student at Baltimore School for the Arts through to his transformation into a chart-topping, gangsta-rap force and his tragic end. It features an eclectic array of voices, including close friends, journalists, scholars, studio engineers, detectives, and even a juror in the 1993 trial in which Tupac was found guilty of first-degree sexual abuse. Collectively, Pearce and his cast offer a portrait that shades in the traditional Tupac myth with context and complexity.
This month’s Pitchfork Book Club features an excerpt from Changes, where interviewees contemplate the question: What would Tupac have done if he had lived?
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Nahshon Anderson [former intern at Tupac’s film company Look Hear Creations]: The fact that he was able to articulate the experience of so many young Black males who are victims of violence, victims of police brutality, racism, all of the social ills that we’re forced to deal with… He seemed really, really sincere. I think about what’s going on now, and listening to some of the stuff he was talking about 20 years ago and is still so relevant now, I can’t imagine what he wouldn’t have been doing.
Gobi Rahimi [videographer, Look Hear Creations cofounder]: I think he was the cocoon that was working on becoming a butterfly. I think he was maturing; I think he would have eclipsed the P. Diddys and Jay-Zs, not only in abundance, but in the body of work that he would have created. I also think that he would have probably dabbled in politics or social issues, because that was important to him. I think he knew that he had a responsibility, and I think he would have been a lot more useful to not only his own people, but to all disenfranchised people of the future. In his last days, I saw more calm and respect out of him for the people around him.
Khalil Kain [actor, “Raheem” in Juice]: I feel like Pac had a very vivid understanding of what he had to offer. I feel like the world was catching up to him. He wasn’t coming into his own. He already owned it. He just needed the right vehicle. And if his schedule permitted, he was more than willing to go and do that movie, or do that TV show, or to do that play. I would have loved to see Pac onstage. And I’m sure that would have been something he would have done in time with maturity and availability and just the freedom to kind of explore.
Kendrick Wells [friend and personal assistant]: I think he was going more toward the movies.
Gobi Rahimi: For the “Made Niggaz” video, there was a DP by the name of Matty Libatique, who went on to do Darren Aronofsky’s films, the first two Iron Man films, A Star Is Born. He’s become a huge DP.
