Posthumous popularity: Did premature death bless hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur with pop-culture immortality?
economictimes.indiatimes.comShakur has been dead for longer than the 25 years he lived. During his lifetime, he rose to levels of stardom matched by few other rappers, rocketing quickly from a Digital Underground backup dancer to a chart-topper and movie star, all while courting controversy with law enforcement and presidential administrations.
In the decades since his 1996 killing in Las Vegas, he has endured as one of the genre's defining figures, in no small part because of the mystery surrounding his death.
The Friday arrest of Duane Keith Davis in connection with Shakur's killing — he was indicted on a murder charge — is a step in solving one of hip-hop's greatest tragedies and longest mysteries. Nearly two years before his death, Shakur had been ambushed and shot in New York.
The assault instigated a visceral feud between Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., a New York rapper who was slain nearly six months after Shakur, forever linking the rivals and the coastal feud that hung over '90s hip-hop.
Shakur's breadth as a rapper included enduring anthems like 'Dear Mama,' 'Keep Ya Head Up' and 'California Love,' while also featuring songs laced with misogyny and vengeance. He poignantly rapped about social activism and the oppression of Black Americans, which helps his music resonate just as strong today as it did in the '90s.
«His death caused people to really magnify what he was doing musically and when they saw it, they were like, 'Oh, my Lord,'» said Greg Mack, a radio programmer who helped bring hip-hop music into the mainstream on the West Coast.
