More than that according to John Potash in The FBI War on Tupac Shakur.
Should be required reading / listening (there’s an audiobook version, very well narrated) for anyone interested in Hip Hop and Rap (it makes it clear why the genre went downhill (IMO)).
IIRC Tupac was the youngest leader of the Black Panthers at one time, but he withdrew from that to pursue music and acting. He planned to and then used his fame and money to push for revolution. But once he became famous, given his messages, he was targeted by the FBI and police (an example of him talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbXwBsHMlbA).
Tupac was murdered for (very nearly) uniting the crips and bloods under a class-conscious political organisation. He moved towards gangster rap to build his street cred, but his intentions were always political.
There’s loads of shady shit with Death Row, too. Essentially, Tupac’s record label(s) at first allowed him to rap what he wanted, but they were bought out so the new owners could control him. He didn’t want anything to do with Death Row…
nsfw spoiler
While in prison the guards would put their fingers into his open gun wound (in his genitals) and perform cavity searches before and during his visits with his lawyer. Basically, he was subjected to counter-insurgency practices repeatedly for months. Eventually, he broke.
…he ended up signed to Death Row. His more revolutionary music was suppressed.
Records show that while he was in prison, a narrative about hip-hop beef was pushed through all the relevant media, spread by people wanting to cause a rift between Tupac and other musicians and revolutionaries, and to keep Tupac focussed on this beef rather than revolution.
The story about ‘a real life snitch named Haitian Jack’ is allegedly about an FBI agent who gained his trust and turned his life upside down.
And then there’s his Outlawz: Yaki Kaddafi, E.D.I Mean, Kastro, Hussein Fatal, Napoleon, Mopreme “Komani” Shakur (some info on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlawz). (No idea what they were thinking with ‘Tyruss Gerald “Mussolini“ Himes’; that’s unfortunate.)
Tupac was the youngest leader of the Black Panthers at one time
nope definetly not, possibly won some kind of election in a very small local chapter right before he left them entirely
Tupac was murdered for (very nearly) uniting the crips and bloods under a class-conscious political organisation.
No, Tupac was not even a member of either group. Anyone who would say something like this doesn’t even understand how the crips and bloods are organized. Tupac did briefly sell drugs, but claimed he quit when a customer attempted to purchase crack with her wedding ring. He was very outspoken against gangs in general and threatened to murder the entire Black Disciples gang publicly on stage after they murdered one of their own 11 year old hitmen.
The bloods were never on the same level as the crips this wasn’t a red vs blue team kind of thing as it was often portrayed in the media. The crips were a very loosely based group of gangs, that often fought eachother, they were called the cribs then Tookie Williams united all the rival cribs and formed the crips. Which was already a very left wing revolutionary organization. Crip literally means Community. Revolution. In. Progress. The bloods or Blood. Love. Over. Our. Depression. formed after the Crips took over 80-90% of the black LA gangs to fight against them. So the Crips were never all that united, and the Bloods were nowhere near as large as them. The crips and bloods fight eachohter, but the crips also fight other crips, and bloods fight other bloods, and often 2 blood and crip sets unite to fight another blood and/or crip gang. So the idea that anyone could unite the bloods and crips at all is silly, that it would be a non-member musician is sillier, that it would form some kind of communist political group after that is even sillier.
Tupacs story about the Latin kings is completely different as the kings are, again a completely different organization, not “team yellow” many of their members are not criminals, they are church going sober upstanding citizens. It’s closer to a fraternity or hispanic version of the freemasons than a street gang. So 2pac was saying the latin kings were being unfairly targeted because they were political and that if they were just selling drugs to the hispanic community not only would the cops ignore them but the CIA would show up to help them out.
The story about ‘a real life snitch named Haitian Jack’ is allegedly about an FBI agent who gained his trust and turned his life upside down.
Haitian Jack was a ruthless murderous druglord affiliated with Nicky Barnes who turned informant later in life.
More than that according to John Potash in The FBI War on Tupac Shakur.
Should be required reading / listening (there’s an audiobook version, very well narrated) for anyone interested in Hip Hop and Rap (it makes it clear why the genre went downhill (IMO)).
IIRC Tupac was the youngest leader of the Black Panthers at one time, but he withdrew from that to pursue music and acting. He planned to and then used his fame and money to push for revolution. But once he became famous, given his messages, he was targeted by the FBI and police (an example of him talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbXwBsHMlbA).
Tupac was murdered for (very nearly) uniting the crips and bloods under a class-conscious political organisation. He moved towards gangster rap to build his street cred, but his intentions were always political.
There’s loads of shady shit with Death Row, too. Essentially, Tupac’s record label(s) at first allowed him to rap what he wanted, but they were bought out so the new owners could control him. He didn’t want anything to do with Death Row…
nsfw spoiler
While in prison the guards would put their fingers into his open gun wound (in his genitals) and perform cavity searches before and during his visits with his lawyer. Basically, he was subjected to counter-insurgency practices repeatedly for months. Eventually, he broke.
…he ended up signed to Death Row. His more revolutionary music was suppressed.
Records show that while he was in prison, a narrative about hip-hop beef was pushed through all the relevant media, spread by people wanting to cause a rift between Tupac and other musicians and revolutionaries, and to keep Tupac focussed on this beef rather than revolution.
The story about ‘a real life snitch named Haitian Jack’ is allegedly about an FBI agent who gained his trust and turned his life upside down.
And then there’s his Outlawz: Yaki Kaddafi, E.D.I Mean, Kastro, Hussein Fatal, Napoleon, Mopreme “Komani” Shakur (some info on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlawz). (No idea what they were thinking with ‘Tyruss Gerald “Mussolini“ Himes’; that’s unfortunate.)
EDIT: I forgot. He also liked ‘that Russian Guy… Stalin’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxCicAVUxJ4 (EDIT 3: @LVL@lemmygrad.ml beat me to it.)
EDIT 2: The world wasn’t ready for theory-reading rappers.
I’ve been intending to read that book since the author was on the probably cancelled pod.
It’s worth it. I haven’t heard that Potash interview. I’ll give it a listen.
nope definetly not, possibly won some kind of election in a very small local chapter right before he left them entirely
No, Tupac was not even a member of either group. Anyone who would say something like this doesn’t even understand how the crips and bloods are organized. Tupac did briefly sell drugs, but claimed he quit when a customer attempted to purchase crack with her wedding ring. He was very outspoken against gangs in general and threatened to murder the entire Black Disciples gang publicly on stage after they murdered one of their own 11 year old hitmen.
The bloods were never on the same level as the crips this wasn’t a red vs blue team kind of thing as it was often portrayed in the media. The crips were a very loosely based group of gangs, that often fought eachother, they were called the cribs then Tookie Williams united all the rival cribs and formed the crips. Which was already a very left wing revolutionary organization. Crip literally means Community. Revolution. In. Progress. The bloods or Blood. Love. Over. Our. Depression. formed after the Crips took over 80-90% of the black LA gangs to fight against them. So the Crips were never all that united, and the Bloods were nowhere near as large as them. The crips and bloods fight eachohter, but the crips also fight other crips, and bloods fight other bloods, and often 2 blood and crip sets unite to fight another blood and/or crip gang. So the idea that anyone could unite the bloods and crips at all is silly, that it would be a non-member musician is sillier, that it would form some kind of communist political group after that is even sillier.
Tupacs story about the Latin kings is completely different as the kings are, again a completely different organization, not “team yellow” many of their members are not criminals, they are church going sober upstanding citizens. It’s closer to a fraternity or hispanic version of the freemasons than a street gang. So 2pac was saying the latin kings were being unfairly targeted because they were political and that if they were just selling drugs to the hispanic community not only would the cops ignore them but the CIA would show up to help them out.
Haitian Jack was a ruthless murderous druglord affiliated with Nicky Barnes who turned informant later in life.
Okay.
You’ll have to read the book. I’m just summarising it here, and poorly by the sounds of it.