During his short stay in the rap game, Tupac Amaru Shakur was part of many groups which most of even his biggest fans dont know about. These groups are from before Tupac hit it big time, and afterwards. I also reveal to you some groups Tupac tried to bring 'under his wing' and help them make the big time, but for most it never happened:
Born Busy
It is now well known by most fans that Tuapc's first alias was MC NEW YORK, however, not many know when he took this alias, and the what group he was a part of. Tupac first known raps as MC NEW YORK were around the time when Tupac will have been in the eighth grade, he formed a group called BORN BUSY, along with friends under the aliases of, Ace Rocker and DJ Plain Terror. The group were popular and used to write lyrics for Jada Pinkett who at the time was rapping!
2 from the Crew
In 1986 Tupac joined the crew of '2 from the Crew', which was a rap group formed by teenagers who lived in the 'Jungle' of Marin City. This was the time when Pac first came up with his 'Thug Life'. They were called thugs in the neighborhood, that's why their theme song was called 'Thug Life'. So you can see that Pac didn't came up with Thug Life only for the media as some people claim; he was really living it. The group made songs like 'Lifestyle of the Poor and Homeless' and 'Lets Get It On'. They were rapping about the life of a young black male living in the ghetto, a topic Pac always wanted to inform the people about.
Strictly Dope
Tupac was very lucky when he met Leila Steinberg in San Francisco. He became friends with her and she became his manager. She was a show moderator and had good connections in the music industry. She introduced 'Pac to Ray Luv and later, Tupac and Ray formed the group known as 'Strictly Dope'. They recorded several songs and after his death they were released on the album '1 in 21'. It was Leila who introduced Pac to Atron Gregory, who was the manager of the grammy-nominated group Digital Underground.
Digital Underground
Tupac was 18 when he joined the rap crew Digital Underground which was formed by Shock G and ChopMaster J. The groups first record in 1987, entitled 'Underwater Rimes' made it to No.1 in the Netherlands. Then in 1989 they signed to to the label 'Tommy Boy Records.' At that time they had 7 members, one of which was Tupac. Tupac joined the group and went on tour with them, for DU to make room for him on the tour he filled the 'roady' position. Tuapc made his first big appearance as he features on the EP release, 'Same Song'. Then later he went on to rap under his alias 'MC New York' and went with DU on a world tour. Tupac then became a solo artist with his first solo record '2Pacalypse Now', despite his split from the DU crew it is known that Tupac was close with all of DU until 'pac died in '96.
Underground RailRoad
This is a group Tupac was a part of from just before the '2pacalypse Now' release and upto around the time of 'Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z' release, and then they mysteriously split. In fact if you would take the time to look in the booklet of the 2pacalypse Now album, you will in fact see that all songs are produced by the so called Underground RailRoad. Again this is another unknown group as far as most pac fans are concerned as very little was heard of them. The group consisted of The Live Squad, Big D The Impossible, Pee Wee, Jeremy, Raw Fusion, and various members of Digital Underground, who as also the group Tupac had joined to make his first studio records, appearing on songs such as 'Same Sing', beofre the days of his solo career. Live Squad was also the crew of Randy 'Stretch' Walker who was Tupac's closest homeboy around the time when 2Pacalypse Now and Strictly For My NIGGAZ were produced. But the pair were to later fall out of friendship over Stretch's loyalty to Tupac during the '94 assasination attempt on 'pac.
ThugLife
In 1986, Tupac and another rapper formed the group 2 From The Crew. People in their neighborhood always called them thugs, so they started saying, "Thug Life. Shut up, beitch." They eventually recorded a song titled "Thug Life." Years later, Tupac and Randy "Stretch" Walker formed the duo Thug Life. Stretch later left the group for unknown reasons.
In 1992, Tupac met Tyruss "Little Psycho" Himes. They recorded a song also titled "Thug Life" and soon Little Psycho joined the group under the name Syke. Later Macadoshis and The Rated R joined the group. They signed with Interscope Records and recorded an LP titled Thug Life Volume 1. It was so hardcore and underground that Interscope at first didn't want it, but they later changed their mind. Then Tupac's stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, joined the group.
On September 26, 1994, Thug Life Volume 1 was released. It sold gold, which was good, but not as good as they expected. A lot of people blamed Interscope who edited and removed a lot of songs on the LP. The first single and video was "Pour Out A Little Liquor" which was a Tupac solo song. The second, third and fourth singles and videos were "Cradle To The Grave," "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" and "It Don't Stop."
On November 30, Tupac was robbed and shot four times at Quad Recording Studios in New York. The next day he was arrested for sexual abuse. He was found guilty and on Februrary 14, 1995, he was sent to prison. On October 12, Death Row Records, Interscope Records and Time Warner paid a $1,4 million bail to have Tupac released. In return he had to sign a three album deal with Death Row Records. After all this, the group broke up. Tupac is known to have dropped his 'ThugLife' persona whilst incarcerated. Syke and Mopreme also joined Tupac's new group, the Outlawz, but then left. Syke signed with Makaveli Records and he and Tupac were planning to record a second Thug Life volume, but on September 7, 1996, Tupac was fatally shot four times in a drive-by-shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Outlawz
The Outlawz are the crew Tuapc was part of until the day he died. After the attmepted assaisination of Tupac in 94 he believed many people betrayed him and left him for dead. On February 14, 1995 he was incarcerated in 1995 when he was sentenced to 4 1/2 years, he apparantly never recieved one visit or phone call form these so call 'homies' who he thought betrayed him. Fueled by his anger that these people, such as Biggie Smalls among others, were publicly mocking him and slowly taking his rap crown away, he started ideas to construct a group consisting of 'ThugLife soldiers' like him, to go up against this now NEW YORK superpower.
<< READ MORE ON THE OUTLAWZ, IN OUR OUTLAWZ SECTION HERE >>
Other related info: Herbie Lovebug, manger of "Salt-N-Peppa," was once asked by Tupac's group Born Busy to hear one of their raps. Herbie told them "Naw, I aint got time for this shit I gotta be on a plane in ten hours!" Years later when Tupac was at the opening of "Juice," Herbie approached him and expressed a desire to work with him. Tupac's reply wasn't one Herbie was looking for.
After Pac had released 2Pacalypse Now he wanted to bring out a group called "Nothing Gold." He was going to do production for them while they wrote their own lyrics, but it never happened. He was also working with a female artist called "A Sister Named Mister," but she never came out either.
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