Impact Shakur’s music reflected an American cul-
ture that idealizes freedom and equality on one
hand yet oppresses racial minorities on the other.
He inherited the tradition of socially conscious rap
pioneered by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious
Five in the early 1980’s and developed by such artists
as Public Enemy and KRS-One in the late 1980’s and
early 1990’s. His lyrics, while focusing on the pain
and suffering of the oppressed in contemporary
America, were criticized for their graphic, violent,
and misogynistic language. He idealized the thug
life and toward the end of his life was involved in sex-
ual abuse charges, gang violence, and shootings. His
work paved the way for the rise and notoriety of
gangsta rap in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Shakur left an enormous impact on rap music as
well as on American culture. After his death, the
number of his devotees continued to grow as six al-
bums, a film, and two documentaries were released.
He has been the topic of popular and academic
books, an academic conference at Harvard Univer-
sity, and several college courses. His mother estab-
lished the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation in 1997
to support youth in the arts.
Further Reading
Dyson, Michael Eric.Holler If You Hear Me: Searching
for Tupac Shakur.New York: Basic Civitas Books,
2006.
VibeMagazine.Tupac Shakur. New York: Three Rivers
Press, 1998.
Yasue KuwaharaSee also African Americans; Death Row Records;
Drive-by shootings; Hip-hop and rap music; Music;
Race relations. Sharpton, Al
Identification American Baptist minister and civil
rights activist
Born October 3, 1954; Brooklyn, New York
Sharpton was a prominent spokesman for racial justice
throughout the 1990’s.
After making himself a national figure with head-
line-grabbing advocacy for African Americans in no-
torious racially charged incidents in the 1980’s, the
Reverend Alfred Charles Sharpton, Jr., attempted to
enlarge his constituency and establish himself as a
political player during the 1990’s. Despite a new
sense of introspection in his analysis of American
racism and his role in confronting it, he remained
controversial among both white and black citizens.
Many blamed him for inciting violence in various in-
cidents, but Sharpton maintained that inherent rac-
ism gave rise to the violence.
The first major incident for Sharpton in the
1990’s was a carryover from an ugly racial confronta-
tion in 1989 in Bensonhurst, New York, in which a
black youth by the name of Yusuf K. Hawkins was
slain by a white mob. Sharpton led several protest
marches through the neighborhood after unsatis-
factory court verdicts, raising tensions. As Sharpton
organized marchers for a new round of protest in
January, 1991, an intoxicated resident stabbed him.
Aides seized the man and turned him over to police;
Sharpton’s wound was nearly fatal. He later sued the766 Sharpton, Al The Nineties in America
Tupac Shakur in 1992.(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)