Tupac Shakur, in death was a celebrity and in life a revolutionary. Or at least Armond White's biography of his life seems to lead me to believe this. Tupac lived an amazing life according to this book, and I will try to use as many examples from this text as possible to summarize his life. His life is a tale of one mans struggle between political activism and the lavish lifestyle of a Hollywood celebrity. I will begin by categorizing his life's events by positive experiences, and negative experiences.
             Tupac was raised by his mother, Afeni Shakur, who was a politically active woman as a Black Panther. With the help of Reverend Daughtry, Tupac learned to 'mean what you say' (1-2). Mutulu Shakur, Afeni's boyfriend at the time instilled many life lessons into Tupac. Mutulu Shakur was a "model of radicalism for the family to emulate" (46). Mutulu also gave Tupac many "good lessons" and described his relationship with Tupac as "father, friend and comrade". These lessons included "histories, examples, and important things about loyalty, fighting and about beliefs" (47).
             Tupac, after middle school, was enrolled in the Baltimore School of Arts, and here Tupac learned to develop his talent as a performer (6). This school was an escape for Tupac from life at home (9). Soul was incredibly important to Tupac, in the '80's Tupac appreciated L.L.Cool J.'s latest song "I'm Bad" which was a song with soul (13). His view on music was forever sculpted by the blues and early rap. Rap represented the truth for Tupac, or "the real" with revelation to life on the darker side of reality (14). At age 17 Tupac's mother moved the family to Marin City, on the West Coast. Tupac later reflects on this moment saying "I see that as the point where I got off the track..." (35). At this point he was distracted by his moms crac...