Episode #69 | 1.26.21
Tupac Shakur (Part One): Sixties Radicalism Gives Way to Socially Conscious Rap, a Charismatic Screen Star and Deadly Violence
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In this episode
Tupac Shakur was many things. He was a supremely talented MC and was wildly charismatic behind the camera. He was also violent, angry and completely unable to keep himself out of trouble. Part one of his story traces his rise through the radical influence of his Black Panther lineage, the deadly violence that seemed to follow him wherever he went and the inevitably of both prison and superstardom.
Sources
To Die Like a Gangsta, by Robert Sam Anson
Quail Calls For Pulling Rap Album Tied to Murder Case, by John Broder
Suge Knight takes gangsta rap literally and founds Death Row Records, by Gareth Grundy
Tupac interview with Kevin Powell for VIBE Magazine 1/15/1995
Rap Artist Tupac Shakur Shot in Robbery, by New York Times
The Reason Why Tupac Shot 2 Police Officers and Wasn’t Charged, by Matt Agorist
Unfortunate Son: the roots of Tupac Shakur’s rebellion, by Travis Kitchens
Tupac Shoots Two Cops in Atlanta, E.D.I. Retells the Story, He Was There, by Vegas
Read a 17-year old Rashida Jones’ Fiery Letter to Tupac in 1993, by Greg Whitt
Marin City Haunted by Boy’s Shooting, by Torri Minton
Shakur has to take the rap for not stepping up, by Craig Marine
This is Why Spike Lee Would Never Make a Tupac Bio-Pic!! SMH, by Gab N Sam
L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later - Keeping Tupac from the Riots, by A&E
Tupac Talks on LA Riots RARE, by World News
Madonna’s Relationship with Tupac: Rosie Perez Dishes, by The View
Snoop Dogg on Tupac Dating Madonna, by The Howard Stern Show
Tupac Broke Up With Madonna Over Race, by TMZLive
2Pac & Madonna - I’d Rather Be Your Lover (Unreleased), by Unreleased Muuzik
Flashback: Mopreme Shakur Details Tupac’s Secret Relationship with Madonna, by djvlad
Complex: How the 1995 Source Awards Changed Rap Forever
Washington Post: Gangsta Life And Death
Chicago Tribune: A Made-By-Media Hip-Hop Rivalry
Complex: The Real Story Behind 'VIBE''s East Coast West Coast Cover
VIBE: Tupac Shakur Jailhouse Interview
VIBE: Biggie And Puff Break Their Silence
XXL: Tupac's Quad Studios Shooting
VIBE: Somehow Hip-Hop Always Finds A Way
Washington Post: Rapper Tupac Shakur Robbed, Shot in N.Y.
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Music
Score by Jake Brennan.
Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak