Tupac Shakur spent much of his brief 25 years living in tough inner-city neighborhoods in New York, Maryland, and California. A pensive, artistic youth, Tupac burst onto the hip-hop scene in the early 1990s with the Oakland-based group Digital Underground and became one of rap music's most popular and volatile figures thanks to his highly charged lyrics and seemingly endless legal troubles. To his critics, Tupac symbolized the evils of "gangsta rap" and its glorification of violence. His fans, however, saw him as a thought-provoking hip-hop intellectual who unflinchingly articulated the plight of millions of disaffected inner-city youths. His on-going feud with East Coast rapper Notorious B.I.G. made headlines, and his alliance with Suge Knight, the head of Death Row Records, is still considered one of the biggest controversies in the rap world. Tupac was shot to death in 1996 under still-unsolved circumstances; his career lasted a scant half-decade, but his iconic stature continues to grow with each passing year. Brimming with full-color photographs, revealing text, and insightful sidebars and other features, Tupac Shakur provides a powerful examination of the life, legacy, and impact of the best-selling rapper of all time.