Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Is Tupac Really Dead? by Joshua Touchstone



            What if you were told one of the greatest and most influential rapper in history may still be alive today? Tupac Amaru Shakur was pronounced dead on September 13, 1996 as was a target of a drive-by shooting after watching a Mike Tyson-Benson fight, or so we thought. Since then many theories with reasonable evidence have surfaced trying to prove that Tupac is alive and in good health. The most popular theories are, Suge Knight (Tupac's Manager) helped fake his death to avoid a prison sentence, or did Tupac put subliminal messages using the number "7" in every thing to let his fans know what was going on 
My character is Tupac Amaru Shakur is known as one of the best rappers of all time. Tupac had a unique style of rapping to were he would use theatrics and serious drama in his raps while still making it sound amazing. He puts raw emotion into every song he writes and paring that with the skill he has the mic just makes his song more impactful. As for his personality, the media portrayed him as a thug with a huge ego but, his close friends knew him as fun guy to be around with a magnetic personality, he was also very smart, he even studied Shakespeare to better his career. But he was still gangster and was known to act out becauses of this. 
While on the outside Tupac looked like a gangster who didn’t let anything bother him, but, on the inside Tupac had many things that struggled him. Whether it was his hard childhood without a dad and a mom who was addicted to crack or even the constant decisions he had to make while living the gangster life style. Tupac had a difficult childhood, his family was in a constant struggle for money and this caused them to move all the time. Tupac even raps about his troubled past in his song "Dear momma" he says "Ya just working with the scraps you was given, And mama made miracles every Thanksgiving" which showed how much of a struggle it was just for them to get something to eat that day. He also says "And even as a crack fiend, mama, You always was a black queen, mama" this highlights the issues Tupac's mom had with substance abuse, but he still loved her. They finally stayed in a house in the Bronx and Tupac got to go to school, until they had to move again. This caused Tupac to turn to the streets and join a gang in California. Tupac continued this new thug lifestyle throughout the rest of his life, because he believed that the streets raised him better then his mom could.   
Tupac had many more issues to deal with in the outside world the  issues he faced internally. Tupac started the east coast west coast beef that lasted from 1991-1997. Its origin can be traced back to when a rapper named Tim dog released a diss-track amazingly titled "Fuck Compton". This caused many California rappers to retaliate with there own diss-tracks such as snoop dogs "Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')". After this a Brookline based rapper named Biggie Smalls would soon make his way into the rapping scene.but the east coast west coast rivalry escalated when Tupac accused Biggie of being the mastermind behind the armed robbery of Tupac in 1994, where he was shot. Biggie would then release a song titled "who shot ya" which was obviously directed at Tupac. This caused Tupac to become angry at Biggie because Tupac say this song as a diss-track. So, Tupac released his famous album "hit em up" which basically fires many shots at Biggie. During this time Tupac also struggled with the media portraying him as a no good Thug. Tupac even has a famous quote addressing this which was, “I Got Shot Five Times and I Got Crucified to the Media” Tupac Amaru Shakur, which basically means even when he was attacked and robbed the media still saw him as a Bad guy and portrayed him so. It seemed everyone was out to get him he even was even sentenced to jail for sexual assault charge, which he says he was set up for. This conflicts would eventual lead to his death oSeptember 13, 1996, when he was supposedly shot 4 times in a drive by shooting. But many people have made many conspiracy theories about. 
One of the most popular of the conspiracy's surrounding Tupac's supposed death was that Tupac's manager, Suge Knight, helped Tupac fake his death. Suge knight is known to be in a lot conspiracy theories ,such as the death of easy e, so it wouldn’t be stretch if he actually played a role in faking Tupac's death. For example, some people have found it weird that 14 shots were fired into the car Tupac and Suge Knight were in, and four shots actually hit Tupac and Suge Knight left the car unharmed. Suge is a rather large man ,at 6'4, 2650 pounds, it just seems like at least on bullet should of hit him. It has also been reported that the msn who cremated Tupac was payed 3 million dollars by Suge and soon after retired and was never heard from again. And in even more recent news, In 2015, David Myers, A retired police officer made claims that Tupac paid him off to help fake his own death. Myers claims he was paid $1.5 million. He had also went on the record stating that Suge knight was heavily involved in the execution of the plan, as well as 30 unnamed people assisted, including police, medics and various witnesses. Even if you still don’t believe this theory yetSuge Knight himself admitted that it is very possible that Tupac is alive but, he said "aint no snitch". He even gave us a reason to believe why Tupac would fake his death, by stating that he believed Tupac decided to fake his own death in order to avoid a prison sentence. So, what this is all trying to say is, based on the evidence given in this theory Tupac never died in the drive by he is actually very much living.  
Another popular theory about Tupac's death is that he faked his own death and moved to Cuba to escape gang violence and a prison sentence. This might actually be the most popular a believed theories surrounding the mystery of Tupac's death. A supposed photo of Rhianna partying with Tupac in Cuba has surfaced at the beginning of this year. While the photo may seem real at first glance a few sources have reached out in dissecting the picture to find out if it was just photoshopped. But this isn't the only photo of Tupac who is alive and in good health, actually quite a few of these photo have emerged. Most of them are taken in Cuba, where Tupac is said to of escaped to. According to a article, "Tupac's aunt is Assata Shakur, the political activist and former Black Liberation Army member who escaped prison and fled to Cuba after she was convicted for the 1977 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. She has been living in Cuba since 1984, where she was granted political asylum."      this article shows Tupac already has connections to Cuba so why not find sanction there. All of this leads me to believeTupac moved to Cuba because he couldn’t handle all the fame and he wanted to be "happy" again. And I believe he chose Cuba because the media of America cant reach him there and he doesn't have to be apart of all the beef between rappers during the 90's.  
The final of the three most popular theory's surrounding Tupac's death is known as the 7 theory. The 7 theory came to be when some conspirers looked deeper into what happened in the time around Tupac's death. The conspirers started to notice a constant that was apparent in a lot of the things involving Tupac, And that constant was the number seven. For example, the last album released before his death, All eyes on me, was released on February 13 1996, and Tupac's death just happened to be exactly seven months later on September 13th 1996. It doesn't stop  there, he was shot on September 7th and lived exactly 7 days at the hospital before being reported "dead". Also his time of death was at approximately 4:03, and if you add the numbers (4+0+3=7) it will give you the number 7. There is also a album made by Tupac himself under his other name "makaveli" , this album is actually called " the don killuminati, the 7day theory". And on this particular album in the first three seconds of the intro the words "Suge shot me" are spoken very softly, it is then followed by 7 gunshots. If you have ever seen the cross tattoo on Tupac's back you will notice the bible verse Exodus 16;31 is written next to it. If you actually read this particular bible verse it states "so the people rested on the 7th day". Even with all this information, many people believe this is all just a major coincidence that some people have stringed together because they cant get over the death of  one of the greatest rappers of all time. But, many people believe that the 7s are a way of Tupac communicating to his fans that he is still alive and that he faked his death.  
In conclusion, Tupac's death in the drive by shooting on September 13, 1996 did not go without controversy. This leaves us with some questions that may never be answer such as Did Suge Knight aid Tupac in faking his death?, Did Tupac flee to Cuba in search of freedom?, or Is Tupac really trying to tell us something with the Sevens or is it just a coincidence? Even though many people believe Tupac died that day there is still plenty of evidence that could potential prove one of these theories to by true. The case of Tupac's Death will just have to remain unsolved, for now.  









Citation page 
Parham, Jason. "Tupac Is Alive (and Probably Living in Cuba): A Conspiracy, Explained ." Gawker. Black Bag, 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016 

Editors. "Tupac Shakur." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 16 May 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. 

Staff, Entertain This! "5 Enduring Conspiracy Theories about Tupac." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 13 Sept. 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016 

Roa, Shoba. "Tupac Fans' Death Conspiracy Theories." NewsComAu. News Corp Australian Network, 13 Sept. 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. 

"TUPAC 7 Day Theroy." TUPAC 7 Day Theroy. TRIPOD, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. 

Banks, Alec. "Digging Deeper | Suge Knight’s Potential Involvement in the Death of Tupac Shakur." HighsnobietyHighsnobiety, 22 Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. 

No comments:

Post a Comment