Shakur's Friday the 13th Death Was Worst Than a Scary Movie

CLEVELAND - Rap music legend Tupac Shakur died on this date 12 years ago from wounds he suffered in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting six days earlier.

Hip-hop hasn't been the same since.

Shakur, 25 at the time of his stunning death had enjoyed a bittersweet meteoric rise to fame, rising to national prominence in 1991 with the release of the urban drama, Juice followed by his musical debut 2Pacalypse Now. By the summer of 1996, 'Pac (as he was famously called) had become the most controversial and insightful artist in all of hip-hop. On the heels of a nine-month prison stint, a deal with Death Row Records, film projects and the release of the epic double LP, All Eyez On Me, he was on the fast track to becoming an industry himself.

Then, he was gunned down on the Vegas strip after a Mike Tyson prizefight.

The hip-hop nation prayed for his speedy recovery and held vigils all over the U.S. By September 11, it seemed as if he were getting better. When the stunning news came down of his passing, it hit like a ton of bricks. I personally, even though I had not yet become a rap music fan, felt the enormity of the situation. In the days that followed, every person I knew (and some that I didn't know) paid tribute to the fallen star with clips of his music on their pager voice mails.

What made the entire saga horrific was the fact that no one was willing to come forward with any information they knew that could lead to solving the crime. There was also a sense that the Las Vegas authorities went about the investigation with very little motivation, urgency or desire for the truth. Shakur was seen as a militant and hot-headed troublemaker and his murder might have been a relief for law enforcement.

That's messed up.

Now here we sit, a dozen years hence and the crime is still unsolved. Forget 2Pac's celebrity and his money. This was a human being that lost his life at the hands of possibly another black man. I can only hope that the harsh reality of his life is never lost on ensuing generations of us black males.

Let us all get a clue and prove our manhood with our minds, not weapons.