?Tupac Shakur? Essay, Research Paper

The name ?Tupac Shakur? is familiar with everyone. He was most remembered for his tremendous impact on the rap music industry. Tupac died on September 13, 1996 over a so-called ?West Coast, East Coast Rivalry.? Not only did Tupac Shakur speak his

mind in his songs, but also in his interviews and public appearances. He was not the type of rap artist that started recording in the studio for the fame, but rather for the chance to educate the world. Still today, he is one of the most popular recording artists. If you were to visit a record store, his albums would be rare to find. What is even more rare than his released songs are his unheard and unreleased ones. These songs are most craved by any Tupac Shakur fan or rare collector. More importantly, I would like to talk about the exploitation of Tupac Shakur?s death. His death was used to springboard record sales, books, videos, and other media hype.

The number one grosser was record sales. The album that attracted a lot of attention from the media was ?Makaveli The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory.? This album was released a few days later after Shakur?s death. From this album, theories were invented that Shakur could still be alive. First of all, Nicolo Machiavelli was a philosopher who faked his death to deceive his enemies.

People thought Shakur was doing this in order come back and wreak havoc on his enemies. Anyway from this newly released album came bootlegs of Shakur?s unreleased creations. Long before anyone knew, Makaveli volumes were being created. They came one after the other?Makaveli 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. Also new albums that were legally created were put out. This included a double CD entitled ?R U Still Down?? After that, came another double CD entitled ?Tupac?s Greatest Hits.? Within two years, two double CD?s were released. That is roughly eighty songs. How could a dead rap artist possibly have roughly eighty songs, in addition with the other unreleased songs, recorded before his death? Not only that, music videos were created from songs that were on the after death released albums. Imagine, within two years time, music videos were created for Tupac. How could the media simply manipulate Tupac?s death in order to make money. In order to test this theory, I did a little net searching on Tupac. Long and behold, I saw so much bootleg material including his unreleased Makaveli CD?s and bootleg covers. I did a search on Ebay, a local electronic auction, on Tupac. I received a lot of information from the query. I even saw a person who was selling the entire set of unreleased Makaveli CD?s for $100.00. Not only does this exploit Tupac Shakur?s death, it takes away from Shakur?s mother. When Shakur?s mother found about Tupac?s unreleased material, she took the battle to court and won. Now, she has all the rights for the songs. I don?t think this does her any good, since they are bootlegged anyway. Not only does Tupac?s death springboard the sales of his music, but also videos and books. I searched for Tupac under books and videos. Again, the search engine returned a numerous amount of results. First, there were the books. Here are just some of the results: Got Your Back : My Life in Tupac?s Last Year by Frank Alexander. The Killing of Tupac Shakur by Cathy Scott. Rebel for the Hell of It : The Life of Tupac Shakur by Armond White. Tupac Amaru Shakur 1971-1996 by Quincy Jones.

These were just some of the many results I received. About 90% of the book results I received were published within two years of Tupac?s death. I bet that the majority of the books were about the same thing. They were probably another insight on how Tupac?s lifestyle was the cause for his short lived career. Now, here come the videos. I did not get so many results this time. However, I did get the videos in which Tupac already acted in since he was an actor/rap artist. The three videos which were made after Tupac?s death were Thug Immortal, New Look, and Make It Or Break It Videos. Still, these videos were made in order to capitalize on one?s misfortune.

I?m sure there were many other recording artists that had their deaths? exploited by the media (i.e. Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Notorious B.I.G., etc.). I do not think anyone can really avoid this craze. When someone famous dies, it seems as if their products become wanted for some reason. Maybe it?s just the fact that the products may become very valuable and rare in the future. On the other hand, I still see this practice as inhumane and absolutely insensitive.