This legendary rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996, but not before having multi-platinum releases and a promising acting career. A prime example of the line rappers walk between street credibility and their art, Tupac pushed the East-West rap feud both as a real fight and as a tool to influence media coverage of his career. Tupacs raps were part traditional social protest and part gritty descriptions of street life in urban neighborhoods. This book includes details of his life, career, and like the other Essential Lives Cut Short books, covers the controversies surrounding his life and death. Lives Cut Short is a series in Essential Library, an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.