2Pac — Tupac Shakur, born in East Harlem in 1971 and gone by 1996 — packed five studio albums into a solo career that defined West Coast hip hop. All Eyez on Me (1996) is the commercial giant, but Me Against the World (1995) is widely considered his strongest; start with either. Explore 2Pac vinyl, CDs, reissues, and box sets at Wax Trax Records.
Tupac Amaru Shakur, performing as 2Pac and later under the alias Makaveli, was born in East Harlem, New York on June 16, 1971 and raised in New York, Baltimore, and the Bay Area. He began his music career in 1989, initially as a roadie and backup performer with the Bay Area group Digital Underground, before signing with Interscope Records and releasing his debut solo album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991. After incarceration in 1995, he signed with Death Row Records, where he released All Eyez on Me in 1996. He was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 and died six days later.
2Pac's work spans West Coast hip-hop, gangsta rap, and political hip-hop. His lyrics combined narratives of inner-city violence and police brutality with personal vulnerability, political commentary inherited from his Black Panther family lineage, and confrontational diss tracks during the East Coast-West Coast rivalry of the mid-1990s. Production frequently featured Johnny J, Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, and other West Coast and Bay Area producers.
Original Death Row pressings of All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory remain among the most sought-after of his releases. Numerous anniversary reissues, picture discs, and box sets have been issued over the decades, including expanded editions of All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World.
Listeners new to 2Pac often start with All Eyez on Me (1996), the most commercially successful release in his catalog. Me Against the World (1995) is widely regarded as his strongest work and is a common second entry point.
