Smithsonian Collections
Tupac Shakur

- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Exhibition Label
- Nearly two decades after his death, Tupac Shakur remains one of the most magnetic and best-selling rappers in music. A figure of great strength and vulnerability, Shakur wrote songs that probed the difficult circumstances experienced by many inner-city black youths. Repeatedly condemned for his explicit, violent, and at times misogynistic lyrics, he reveled in his outlaw status and became a part of the "thug life" that his music portrayed. Shakur’s eight-month incarceration for a sexual assault in 1993 coincided with his emergence as a crossover success. Though he glorified being a "playa" in baggy jeans, he was critical of hip-hop’s excesses and wrote poignantly about political and social injustice. Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996 at the age of twenty-five. Like that of his contemporary Kurt Cobain, his life seemed like a constant struggle between his art, his cultural politics, and the demands of fame.
- Artist
- Eli Reed, born 1946
- Sitter
- Tupac Shakur, 16 Jun 1971 - 13 Sept 1996
- Date
- 1992 (printed 2013)
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Digitally exposed chromogenic print
- Dimensions
- Image: 34.6 × 27.3 cm (13 5/8 × 10 3/4")
- Sheet: 35.5 × 28.4 cm (14 × 11 3/16")
- Type
- Photograph
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Object number
- NPG.2013.63
- Culture
- Tupac Shakur: American\African American
- Topic
- Costume\Jewelry\Necklace
- Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache
- Personal Attribute\Tattoo
- Tupac Shakur: Male
- Tupac Shakur: Literature\Writer
- Tupac Shakur: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician
- Tupac Shakur: Literature\Writer\Poet
- Tupac Shakur: Performing Arts\Performer\Actor
- Tupac Shakur: Performing Arts\Producer\Music
- Portrait
- Place
- United States\California\Los Angeles\Los Angeles
- Restrictions & Rights
- © Eli Reed/Magnum Photos