Although everyone relates him to West Coast rap TuPac was actually born in East Harlem and all of him immediate family members were dedicated to activism as members of the Black Panther movement, Tupac found his own passion in art and performance. When he was 13 he was an actor in the play ‘Raisin in the Sun’ at the Apollo Theater. He also played the role of The Mouse King in the Nutcracker and attended Baltimore School for the Arts, where he took ballet classes.
He first started rapping in Baltimore, going under the name MC New York and later Makaveli as well as working as a backup dancer for digital underground.
After he became a world wide success know as Tupac Shakur or simply 2pac selling over 75 million albums worldwide he almost got back into acting, having auditioned for the role of Bubba in Forest Gump and Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels prior to hit untimely departure on September 13th 1996 at the age of only 25.