Why did the US vice president want Tupac’s debut album pulled from shops? What did Tupac see in a newspaper that made him write ‘Brenda’s Got a Baby’? And, what happened when the persona he built began to take over?
In Part 2 of the Tupac Shakur series, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch trace his rise from young rapper to film star and a target in America’s culture wars.
After a Texas state trooper is killed, the defence points to a cassette of Tupac’s debut album. Vice President Dan Quayle calls for the record to be withdrawn. As the backlash grows, Tupac is making films with Janet Jackson and writing songs about Black women whose stories rarely make the headlines. Peter and Afua ask what his Thug Life tattoo was meant to say, and how much of the character he created he could leave behind.
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00:00 The cassette at the centre of a murder case
01:29 How Tupac’s debut became a national controversy
03:46 The story behind ‘Brenda’s Got a Baby’
09:23 Tupac goes to Hollywood
18:39 The women Tupac wrote about
20:55 What Thug Life meant to Tupac
27:24 The confrontations that followed fame
30:21 The case that leads into Part 3
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Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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