At the request of Steinberg, Digital Underground co-founder Jimi "Chopmaster J" Dright worked with Shakur, Ray Luv and Dize, a DJ, on their earliest studio recordings.

[72][73] Shakur's early days with Digital Underground made him acquainted with Randy "Stretch" Walker, who along with his brother, dubbed Majesty, and a friend debuted with an EP as a rap group and production team, Live Squad, in Queens, New York.

The song "Last Wordz" features Ice Cube, co-writer of N.W.A's "Fuck tha Police", who in his own solo albums had newly gone militantly political, and gangsta rapper Ice-T, who in June 1992 had sparked controversy with his band Body Count's track "Cop Killer".

[187] Shakur was unable to post the $3 million bond to keep himself free until sentencing so he surrendered himself to authorities at the Bellevue Hospital Jail Ward in New York City on December 23, 1994.

[201] Music manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond reportedly offered Shakur $7,000 to stop by Quad Studios, in Times Square, that night to record a verse for his client Little Shawn.

[216] According to Shakur, officers Alex Boyovic and Kevin Rogers asked him for his ID and pressed him about his name before choking him, throwing him to the ground and slamming his head on the concrete.

[219][155] On April 5, 1993, charged with felonious assault, Shakur allegedly threw a microphone and swung a baseball bat at rapper Chauncey Wynn, of the group M.A.D., at a concert at Michigan State University.

[220] Nonetheless, on September 14, 1994, Shakur pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, twenty of them suspended on condition that he complete 35 hours of community service.

[225] On April 4, 1996, Shakur was sentenced to 120 days in jail for violating his release terms and failing to appear for a road cleanup job,[226] but was allowed to remain free awaiting appeal.

[228][229] Civil rights activist and fierce rap critic C. Delores Tucker sued Shakur's estate in federal court, claiming that lyrics in "How Do U Want It" and "Wonda Why They Call U Bitch" inflicted emotional distress, were slanderous, and invaded her privacy.

[231] On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was in Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight at the MGM Grand.

Afterward in the lobby one of Knight's associates spotted Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a Southside Compton Crip, and told Shakur he had tried to rob them earlier that year.

Shakur soon stopped by his hotel room and then headed with Knight to his Death Row nightclub, Club 662, in a black BMW 750iL sedan, part of a larger convoy.

Members of the Outlawz, recalling a line in his song "Black Jesus", (although uncertain of the artist's attempt at a literal meaning chose to interpret the request seriously) smoked some of his body's ashes after mixing them with marijuana.

[237][238] In 2002, investigative journalist Chuck Philips,[239][240] after a year of work, reported in the Los Angeles Times that Anderson, a Southside Compton Crip, having been attacked by Suge and Shakur's entourage at the MGM Hotel after the boxing match, had fired the fatal gunshots, but that Las Vegas police had interviewed him only once, briefly, before his death in an unrelated shooting.

Notably, he honed his theatrical skills as a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he delved into the psychological complexities inherent in inter-gang warfare and inter-cultural conflicts, reflecting themes explored in Shakespearean dramas.

Through powerful tracks like "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped", and "Part Time Mutha", Shakur addressed social injustice, poverty, and police brutality.

In doing so, he contributed to the ongoing success of rap groups such as Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, X-Clan, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, while establishing himself as one of the pioneering socially conscious rappers from the West Coast.

[15] The release of All Eyez on Me in 1996 further solidified his reputation, with tracks like "Ambitionz az a Ridah", "I Ain't Mad at Cha", "California Love", "Life Goes On", and "Picture Me Rollin'" being hailed as classics by critics.

This approach, demonstrated notably on tracks like "Dear Mama" from his 1995 album Me Against the World, involves overlaying multiple vocal lines to highlight rhythms and emphasize words and phrases.

Despite its difficulty, Shakur's background in jazz, poetry, and theater endowed him with exceptional rhythm control, enabling him to layer vocals seamlessly while preserving cohesion and flow.

[263] According to British writer Rob Marriott, he deemed the act of tying a bandana into rabbit ears as one of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable style choices in the world of hip-hop.

[266]According to music journalist Chuck Philips, Shakur "had helped elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon.

"[267] Philips writes, "The slaying silenced one of modern music's most eloquent voices—a ghetto poet whose tales of urban alienation captivated young people of all races and backgrounds.

[3] Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar, leader and a founding member of DAM, became passionate about hip-hop by listening to Tupac, saying, "The imagery in Shakur's videos was similar to our reality in Lod.

Later renamed the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, or TASF, it launched with a stated mission to "provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents.

References to him and his message appear all over the world, from Barack Obama's slogan about "changes", to Palestinians and Israelis longing for peace in the Middle East, to the people of Groruddalen who want their experiences to be taken on board serious.

In August 2006, Tupac Shakur Legacy, an "interactive biography" by Jamal Joseph, arrived with previously unpublished family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 detachable copies of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other papers.

The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality donated a five-acre plot of undeveloped land in the Zola area of Soweto to build a memorial honoring Shakur.

A portion of the land was designated to be transformed into a park for the benefit of local children as well as aimed at promoting environmental education, pathways, orphanages, bridges, skateboard ramps and a golf range while plans also included the construction of an amphitheater and a museum showcasing South African music and arts.