Global Courant 2023-05-18 02:42:18
A section of an Oakland street is partially renamed to commemorate the life of late legendary rapper Tupac Shakur during hip-hop’s 50th anniversary.
The Oakland City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to rename a portion of MacArthur Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Van Buren Avenue — where he once lived — “Tupac Shakur Way.” The initiative was introduced by District 3 Councilor Carroll Fife.
“When (hip-hop) first started, people didn’t think it was a valid art form,” Fife said at the meeting. “Now it has gained a foothold all over the world. Tupac Amaru Shakur is a name known all over the world, not only for his sole political influence, but also for his influence on music.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, a music genre and culture that emerged in the early 1970s.
Fife said the city plans to install a plaque on June 16, which would have been Shakur’s 52nd birthday. He died in 1996 after being shot in Las Vegas in a case that remains officially unsolved.
Although Shakur was born in Harlem in 1971, he lived in the Bay Area for a few years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There he met Oakland-based rap group Digital Underground and became their roadie and backup dancer. Shakur released his solo debut album “2Pacalypse Now” in 1991, which was recorded and mixed in San Francisco and Richmond, California.
Shakur joins notable public figures such as Huey P. Newton, Dorothy King, Joe Morgan, and Too Short as people given memorial street names in Oakland.
Oakland declared June 16 Tupac Shakur Day in 2016 for his contributions to the community. According to the proclamation by former mayor Libby Schaaf“He cherished his time in Oakland as his home and stated that he got his ‘Game’ (there).
“Tupac once said, ‘…I give all my love to Oakland, if I can claim anything, I will claim Oakland.'”
Shakur sued the Oakland Police Department for $10 million in 1991, alleging officers beat him for jaywalking.
He is one of the most influential rap artists of all time and has sold over 75 million albums worldwide.
“Tupac Shakur’s legacy will be carried on through his contributions in the arts and social outreach, through his family and fans, touching countless lives of children and the elderly over the years, while alive and after his death, taken too young by gun violence. said the street. – rename resolution.
