
After spending 27 years in prison, his conviction was overturned due to the prosecution's having concealed evidence that proved his innocence. Shakur's godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery. Mutulu Shakur was apprehended in 1986 and subsequently convicted for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which police officers and a guard were killed. Other family members who were involved in the Black Panthers' Black Liberation Army were convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned, including Shakur's stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, who spent four years among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. A month before Shakur's birth, his mother was tried in New York City as part of the Panther 21 criminal trial. Shakur's parents, Afeni Shakur-born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina-and his biological father, Billy Garland, had been active Black Panther Party members in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Shakur had an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, two years his junior. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood." Shakur's mother explained, "I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, the descendant of the last Incan ruler, who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his failed revolt against Spanish rule. While born Lesane Parish Crooks, at age one he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur. Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City.

Shakur was born in New York City to parents who were both political activists and Black Panther Party members. Much of Shakur's music has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of activism against inequality.


Shakur is among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Tupac Amaru Shakur ( / ˈ t uː p ɑː k ʃ ə ˈ k ʊər/ TOO-pahk shə- KOOR born Lesane Parish Crooks, J– September 13, 1996), better known by his stage name 2Pac and later by his alias Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor.
