CLEVELAND- Tupac Shakur was gunned down 12 years ago today in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, setting the stage for his shocking and untimely death six days later from those same wounds.
God bless him and his family.
Shakur, 25 at the time had become, along with East coast rival Christopher Wallace (The Notorious B.I.G.), the pre-eminent rap [stars] on the planet. In the years since, he has attained a mythical status in pop culture and music history. The conflicted genius turned martyr also has become an unlikely inspiration to many people.
I was not a real fan of rap music at the time of 2Pac's shooting, but at age 19, I was very familiar with his endless stream of run-ins with the law as well as his controversial (yet beloved) music. When he was shot, it began a downfall within the hip-hop industry that took years to recover.
Hard to believe how much has changed in the past dozen years since that awful night in Sin City. My only hope is for our nation of young black men to have learned valuable lessons from this senseless (and still unsolved) tragedy.
God help us all.
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