Tupac Shakur

by Alan Light

"The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing is representative of too many young black men in this country....If we had lost Oprah Winfrey at 25, we would have lost a relatively unknown, local market TV anchorwoman. If we had lost Malcolm X at 25, we would have lost a hustler nicknamed Detroit Red. And if I had left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpet player and aspiring composer--just a sliver of my eventual life potential."        
                From the Foreword by Quincy Jones

The real story of Tupac's murder may not ever emerge.  This may be the only lasting testament to the many faces of Tupac Shakur--of a life lived fast and hard, of a man cloaked in contradictions.  A young man who was just starting to come into his own.

"I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven."
        Tupac Shakur, June 1996

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

A veteran music journalist, Alan Light is the author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" and Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain. Light was previously the editor-in-chief of Vibe and Spin and a senior writer for Rolling Stone. He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times.

Reviews

[Michael McKinney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about my favorite rapper TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR.This book sheds light on him and they don't demonize his image and make him out to be this drug addicted,money getting scary ladies man that we may see in most of his videos.But we get to see the kind hearted family man who wanted to see a better world and did what he thought would help him do just that.This book gives you him in full effect with poetry and commentary on him from different celebs and producers among family and friends.It starts from our view on him now as he is deceased and then goes to his early days and shows you a little bit of who he is and how later on in life he would change.Though he was a good person in general he had a t.h.u.g.mentality that would make him your worst enemy and after selling millions of records every album and making friends and bonds between people that he would never lose and becoming a millionaire his life would soon be taken from him and he know it the whole time............its a very good book and it gives you as the reader a chance to learn about someone you may have heard of but not met and once you finish it you will have wondered why you didn't study up on him years ago

[Dontre Wilbon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very very good! I learned more facts and secrets about my favorite artist like things I knew about 2pac and things I didn't know about him. For example, his favorite actor is Jim Carrey, he was married to a Keisha Morris, and he had a son named Dontre Wilbon that no one knows about. But overall this was an excellent read, I recommend to all my friends.

[leynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting insight into the life of Tupac Shakur. The newspaper articles and interviews were really interesting, the photographs were high quality, diverse and beautiful. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know a little more about Mr. Shakur and to examine him from different angles (also critical ones).

[Rich Guins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful mind gone to soon.

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

It feels much being in my bed than being at the club. 🙏🎁❤️🙏📕🧸🌹❄️🏔🏡 🛌🎼🔌💻⁉️💋🎒💸💌

[neem weem · Rating 4 out of 5]

no thoughts, just tupac.

[Heena · Rating 5 out of 5]

read in high school to do a research project for english class on tupac. very detailed. lots of interviews. tupac was just such an honest person. its refreshing to read anything he said because you know its not filtered and its not what his publicist told him to say. love him*

[Book Reviews by Tara aka Queen of Memoirs]

(NO RATING) I read this book so long ago, I do not remember if I liked it or not

[Winter Sophia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative & Inspiring!

[Moises Teixeira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I' m currently reading this book, and it's basically about Tupac's life and how he became famous, what he went trough in his past.

[Dimitry Torchillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is very interesting its very good.

[hector morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think this book is a good bioagrophy of tupac shakur

[Liban Warfa]

i like this book because it talks about someones life.