Tupac Childhood



Tupac Shakur grew up around nothing but self-delusion. His mother, Alice Faye Williams, thought she was a "revolutionary ." She called herself "Afeni Shakur" and associated with members of the ill-fated Black Panther Party, a movement that wanted to feed school kids breakfast and earn civil rights for African Americans.

During her youth she dropped out of high school, partied with North Carolina gang members, then moved to Brooklyn: After an affair with one of Malcolm X's bodyguards, she became political. When the mostly white United Federation of Teachers went on strike in 1968, she crossed the picket line and taught the children herself. After this she joined a New York chapter of the Black Panther Party and fell in with an organizer named Lumumba. She took to ranting about killing "the pigs" and overthrowing the government, which eventually led to her arrest and that of twenty comrades for conspiring to set off a race war. Pregnant, she made bail and told her husband, Lummuba, it wasn't his child. Behind his back she had been carrying on with Legs (a small-time associate of Harlem drug baron Nicky Barnes) and Billy Garland (a member of the Party). Lumumba immediately divorced fer.

Things went downhill for Afeni: Bail revoked, she was imprisoned in the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village. In her cell she patted her belly and said, "This is my prince. He is going to save the black nation."

By the time Tupac was born on June 16, 1971, Afeni had already defended herself in court and been acquitted on 156 counts. Living in the Bronx, she found steady work as a paralegal and tried to raise her son to respect the value of an education.

From childhood, everyone called him the "Black Prince." For misbehaving, he had to read an entire edition of The New York Times. But she had no answer when he asked about his daddy. "She just told me, 'I don't know who your daddy is.' It wasn't like she was a slut or nothin'. It was just some rough times."When he was two, his sister, Sekyiwa, was born. This child's father, Mutulu, was a Black Panther who, a few months before her birth, had been sentenced to sixty years for a fatal armored car robbery.

With Mutulu away, the family experienced hard times. No matter where they moved-the Bronx, Harlem, homeless shelters-Tupac was distressed. "I remember crying all the time. My major thing growing up was I couldn't fit in. Because I was from everywhere. I didn't have no buddies that I grew up with."

As time passed, the issue of his father tormented him. He felt "unmanly," he said. Then his cousins started saying he had an effeminate face. "I don't know. I just didn't feel hard. I could do all the things my mother could give me, but she couldn't give me nothing else."

The loneliness began to wear on him. He retreated into writing love songs and poetry. "I remember I had a book like a diary. And in that book I said I was going to be famous." He wanted to be an actor. Acting was an escape from his dismal life. He was good at it, eager to leave his crummy family behind. "The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothin' to get out of who I am and go into somebody else."

His mother enrolled him in the 127th Street Ensemble, a theater group in the impoverished Harlem section of Manhattan, where he landed his first role at age twelve, that of Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. "I lay on a couch and played sleep for the first scene. Then I woke up and I was the only person onstage. I can remeber thinking, "This is the best shit in the world!" That got me real high. I was gettin' a secret: This is what my cousins can't do."

In Baltimore, at age fifteen, he fell into rap; he started writing lyrics, walking with a swagger, and milking his background in New York for all it was worth. People in small towns feared the Big Apple's reputation; he called himself MC New York and made people think he was a tough guy.

He enrolled in the illustrious Balitomore School for the Arts, where he studied acting and ballet with white kids and finally felt "in touch" with himself. "Them white kids had things we never seen," he said. "That was the first time I saw there was white people who you could get along with. Before that, I just believed what everyone else said: They was devils. But I loved it. I loved going to school. It taught me a lot. I was starting to feel like I really wanted to be an artist.

Tupac's given name was Lesane Crooks. His first name means " shining serpent " and his last name is Arabic, which stands for " thankful to god. " As a poor child, Tupac had dreams of becoming a Shakespearean actor.

source: AllEyezonme.com



Tupac Shakur Family



Afeni Shakur (Mother) Mother of Tupac, A strong woman and a revolutionary. Afeni was a black panther and was put in jail for supposedly wanting to bomb a building in New York but a month and a half before Tupac was born she was acquitted and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. In 1990 Tupac found out Afeni was taking drugs while he was on tour with digital underground. Later Afeni won the rights to all the unreleased Tupac songs. She's released many albums and keeps us going with Tupac?s music. But as well as being Tupac?s moth Afeni was also Tupac?s friend during his life. Tupac's song dear mama was dedicated to Tupac and it speaks of how good of a mother she was and how she cared for him during his childhood. Tupac and Afeni had a very special bond and she continues to preserve the legacy of her only son through his art.

Billy Garland (Father) Tupac never knew for sure who his father was, he first time met Billy when he was five, but never had a good relationship to him. Tupac mentioned William Garland once: "I thought my father was dead all my life. After I got shot, I looked up there was this nigga that looked just like me. And he was my father; that's when I found out. We still didn't take no blood test but the nigga looked just like me and the other nigga's dead so now I feel that I'm past the father stage. "After 2Pacs death, Afeni and Billy sent 2Pacs blood to Long Beach Genetics, who did the DNA testing to find the probability of Afeni and Billy 99.97%.

Mutulu Shakur (Step Father) Mutulu Shakur's brother Lumumba was married to Afeni. When Lumumba died he got together with Afeni and they got married. Tupac claims that he's his father, they spent much time together until Mutulu was send to jail. Mutulu was the only father figure Tupac ever had love for. Mutulu was convicted for his involvement in a 1981 armored car robbery. It left two policemen and a brinks guard dead. He is now serving time in prison in Florence, Colorado.

Legs (Father Figure) Legs had a relationship with Afeni and was present during most of Tupac's childhood. Legs was deep into drugs and got Afeni introduced to crack. Some say he was once affiliated with the legendary New York drug kingpin, Nicky Barnes. Legs was sent to prison in the mid 1980s for credit card fraud. When Afeni moved her family to Baltimore she learned that Legs died of a heart attack induced by crack. Tupac was affected by the death of Legs. He said that it really fucked him up. Tupac called legs his daddy and he lost him. Tupac later said that the "Thug Life" in Tupac came from Legs.

Assata Shakur (Aunt) Tupac's aunt Assata Shakur, dubbed the "soul" of the Black Liberation Army, is arguably the most famous member of the Shakur Family. In 1973 she and Zayd Shakur were stopped by an NJ trooper. In a shootout Zayd and the NJ trooper were killed. Assata was sent to prison. In 1979 she escaped from prison after learning of a plan to kill her. She fled to Cuba, where she is under Asylum granted by Fidel Castro.

Geronimo Pratt (God Father) Geronimo Pratt is a convicted member of the Black Panther Party. He was recently released from prison after serving 27 years of a 25 years-life sentence. He was imprisoned for allegedly murdering a school Teacher in L.A. He was released because their was evidence brought to surface suggesting that he had no involvement in the murder.

Sekyiwa Shakur (Step Sister) She is a sister of Tupac. She appeared on Killa Tay's album Snake Eyez on the track Coast Trippin. Her father is Tupac's step father, Mutulu Shakur. She is currently living with 2 children, Malik and Nzingha. Both of these children's fathers are EDI from The Outlawz.

Keisha Morris-Shakur (Ex Wife) Keisha first met Tupac in June 1994 and she married him when he was in prison. Tupac asked her to marry him three months after they had started dating. Tupac said he wanted to move to Arizona and name a daughter Star or a son Michelangelo. They separated after Tupac got released from prison. Tupac broke things off even though he didn?t want to he felt like he couldn?t give her the love and care she deserved because he was constantly working

Katari Cox (Cousin) Katari Cox is son of Afeni's sister Glo. He grew up in New York. Katari is a member of The Outlawz were he goes by the name Kastro. He first appeared on a Tupac track in 1995 when he was a member of Dramacydal. He appeared on the track Outlawz. Katari visited Tupac all of the time when Tupac was in prison and was recruited as one of the original members of The Outlawz.

Maurice Harding aka Mopreme Shakur (Step Brother) Step Brother of Tupac. He was a member of the group Thug Life as Mopreme and also featured in some songs a member of The Outlawz, his alias was Komeni. In 1992 he was arrested when a 6 year old was shot dead in the middle of a shoot out with a rival gang, but Harding was released due to a lack of evidence, Tupac was also involved in this incident.

Yafeu Fula (Step Brother/God Brother) Not much people knew that Yafeu Fula was Tupac's half brother when they were alive. The Outlawz revealed it when Tupac and Yafeu died. It is believed that Tupac and Yafeu had the same father (William Garland). They were very close from childhood. Tupac was also Yafeu's god brother. Yafeu Fula is also known as Kadafi. He was a member of The Outlawz. Yafeu was killed 2 months after Tupac in an accident at a house party. He was only 19

Lamumba Abdul Shakur (Step Father) Lamumba Abdul Shakur was Afeni's first husband. He was a Black Panther member and the lead defendant in the Panther 21 case where he and 20 others, including Afeni, were convicted for allegedly plotting to blow up banks and department stores. He was found dead in Louisiana several days before Mutulu was arrested. Mutulu suspected that Lumumba was murdered by someone (perhaps a police informant) who learned of Mutulu's whereabouts and decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Zayd Shakur (Uncle) In 1973, brother of Mutulu Shakur, Tupac's uncle Zayd Shakur, and Aunt Assata Shakur, were traveling on a New Jersey turnpike when they were stopped by a trooper. He and trooper Werner Foerster were both killed in a shoot-out that followed.


source: Strictlyballin.net