I reminisce on all the stress I caused…

Hard to believe that today it’s been 14 years since Tupac Shakur died.   Every generation has their “own” icons…Tupac must have been my generations Marvin Gaye.

It’s amazing to think that he has sold over 75 million records world wide (enough for every person in the state of California to own two albums)

Shot in Las Vegas traffic Sept. 7th, 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson fight, he died in the hospital 6 days later from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds.  Sadly no one was ever arrested for the murder and it is still classified as a “cold case”

Born in East Harlem Manhattan June 16th, 1971 he was named after Tupac Amaru–the Peruvian revolutionary fighter.  2pac’s mother and father were active members of the Black Panther Party during the late 1960-70’s.  While pregnant with 2Pac, his mother Afeni defended herself in a court of law for charges of “Conspiracy against the United States Government”–displaying her own intelligence she successfully presented her evidence and was acquitted on more than 150 charges.

…to this day…anytime a Tupac song plays at the club—I gotta get up and boogie.   He was more then a “gangster rapper”–more then an “actor”—Tupac was able to evoke emotions from his listener and  move their mind to a world that very few people can portray in simple words.

“Dear Mama” is one of the 25 songs that will be added to the National Recording Registry in 2010.  The Library of Congress called “Dear Momma” a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper’s own mother and all other moms struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty, and other societal indifference.  Tupac would have been 39 years old this year…but sadly died living in the gang life he portrayed in his music at the young age of 25.