Talk:Tupac Shakur

Influences

Didn't 2Pac have a lot of influences? How come none of his influences are on the article. He had influences. KRS-One, Rakim, LL Cool J to name a few. Can somebody please tell me why there are no influences on the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.169.29.138 (talk) 15:50, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Kool G rap was one of 2pac's main influences I know that much

I don't think Rakim is one of them. A correct list would be KRS One, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Public Enemny, Whodini, Melly Mell, LL, Mr. Magic, FLASH, Grandmaster Caz, and Salt N' Peppa to name a few. He mentions some of these people and or songs they did (like Push it by Salt Peppa) on the song Old Skool. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.230.19.191 (talk) 05:09, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Good question, go to Allmuis.com and look up 2Pac I think they have a list of some of his influences

Rakim is listed on allmusic.com as an influence to 2pac. Also, in the song "Old School" Tupac says "Eric B. & Rakim was, the shit to me ...", and at the end of the song he says "I came through the door, said it before / That was the SHIT!" a clear reference to Eric B. & Rakim's classic track "Eric B. Is President."

This article should replace all instances of "african american" with "black." Tupac didn't use the phrase african american to describe his work; it's shameful to use a phrase the deceased didn't like to describe his influences.

Biggie

Include The Notrious BIG as a an associated act since Tupac is under Biggie's Associated acts —Preceding talk • contribs) 22:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Questionable Content

Can someone varify the line "Some of his ashes were later mixed with cannabis and smoked by members of Outlawz.[46]" ?

Yes. Somebody please verify this. In the referenced article it states there was an ash scattering ceremony, but nothing about smoking some of the ashes with cannabis. [47] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.173.142.140 (talk) 23:16, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

This is true. I've heard it from many sources. Part of the ashes were given to the Outlawz to smoke. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.0.24.7 (talk) 16:26, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Frankee Confusion

Um, i think there should be information disambiguating the connection between 2pac and Frankee —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.178.182.58 (talk) 09:59, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Top 10 Billboard Singles

-How come a alot of the songs in the list of Top 10 Billboard Singles are not said to be top 10 singles in the discography? If I don't get an answer about this in the next few days it needs to be changed. Duder999 (talk) 20:59, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

bianca x —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.241.162.86 (talk) 22:13, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

how come the sentence referring to tupac as the greatest rapper ever isnt in there anymore? someone should put it back. someone edited BIG and said that hes the best rapper ever, change it back to #3 on BIGs article. i know that that isnt true about BIG but he was stil an excellent rapper.( june 9 2008) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nellsb (talk • contribs) 09:54, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Phonetic Pronunciation

I think we should incude a phonetic pronunciation in the opening line of the article. I have heard enough of the media refering to him as "Two-Pack." This is a page that script writers might actually check before programming the teleprompter if they are unsure of how to inform the Brokaws and O'Reilys how to pronounce the names of the icons of today's young people. -Wakamusha (talk) 19:03, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Go back through the page history to find the IPA phonetic pronunciation, which we previously included, but which was unceremoniously stripped by someone who thought it was unimportant. SqlPac (talk) 03:16, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Origin vs. Birthplace

Can someone please explain to me the difference between origin and birthplace? As it stands now, he has one birthplace (New York) and two origins, which are, conveniently, 3000 miles from one another (in CA and MD). I feel as though something here is wrong. Tiger Khan (talk) 02:43, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

There was a discussion about origin versus birthplace before. The arguments were basically these:

• He was verifiably born in NYC (although there was argument as to where, I believe it was verified that he was actually born in Manhattan - most likely in Harlem, but raised in Brooklyn until the family moved). This established his birthplace as NYC.
• The arguments about origin were largely focused on where his professional career started. I'm not aware of anything indicating his professional career beginning in MD, though he went to school there for years; apparently someone else thinks differently. If whatever he did in high school in MD counts as part of his "professional career", then I'm not sure how his work in the acting troupe in NYC at a very young age was discounted.
• There were also arguments indicating he "claimed" Los Angeles, and therefore L.A. should be listed as his origin. IIRC these arguments were dismantled fairly quickly.
• AFAIK his professional career began in Oakland, CA, when he started out as a backup dancer for Digital Underground. If origin relates to the origin of his professional career, then it should probably be indicated as Oakland, CA. I would also recommend changing the "origin" label to something more descriptive that indicates it's a "professional origin" as opposed to the ambiguous "origin".

As it stands now the origin appears to be a shortlist of places he happened to live at during various periods of his life. SqlPac (talk) 03:14, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I'm going to remove Baltimore if it hasn't been done already. Tiger Khan (talk) 13:53, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

In Marin City...I bumped into...Grag Jacobs aka Shock G and he hooked me up with Didgital Underground -Pac (pretty much puts this one to rest). -Wakamusha (talk) 01:27, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

It still doesn't define "origin". If "origin" is defined by the start of the professional career, this quote indicates that the start of the professional career is defined by the point in the Universe at which you happened to bump into someone who "hooked you up". What about the people you bump into who hook you up with the people who hook you up? If Tupac had happened to run into Shock G for the very first time on a plane over Idaho would that make his origin "10,000 feet above Boise"? That's pretty unsatisfying. If you're going to cite origin as the beginning of a personal career, something more solid like the location at which the person signed their contract, or maybe even where they gave their first public performance under a professional contract (although that could end up being a lot different from whatever is being slammed into "origin" in other cases), would be more concrete and a lot more satisfactory. OTOH why is there even an "origin" on here? It seems completely unnecessary; do a lot of other templates use "origin" in addition to "birthplace" when referring to the subject of the article? SqlPac (talk) 16:57, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I concur that it's a weird category to have. Anyone opposed to deleting the label altogether? Tiger Khan (talk) 02:23, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree we should get rid of "origin" for three reasons: (1) "origin" in this context isn't well defined at all (as evidenced by all the strange things people put in there), (2) "origin" doesn't add any value to the article, and (3) the inclusion of "origin" in the summary box is confusing at best. SqlPac (talk) 21:00, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I didnt mean "origin" as meaning where he got signed, or where he met Shock G, but where he was LIVING when all of this happened. Its splitting hairs, I know. But definitely either Marin City or Oakland should be put as origin (he lived in Marin, but Digital Underground was an Oakland-based hip-hop group). Most artists who have a different origin than their birthplace have it listed in their article, and this one should be no different.

Examples of articles with separate origins are Ludacris and Kanye West. -Wakamusha (talk) 20:22, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't get it, weren't there ever any controversy of him being born in the East Coast, but representing West Side?-SCB '92 (talk) 19:04, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

There was and there wasn't. Thats why it is helpful to list an origin, to establish him as a west coast rapper. The biggest difference between east coast and west coast hip-hop is production, and most of his beats were layed down by west coast producers. Wakamusha (talk) 11:35, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Requested move

Tupac Shakur → 2Pac — Move to 2Pac per WP:NCP, which states the name of an article should be "the most common name of a person or thing that does not conflict with the names of other people or things". 2Pac is clearly Shakur's most common name and it doesn't conflict with any other page since it already redirects to here. Two years ago there was a move discussion that had some ridiculous arguments against the move ("real name") that I hope are not repeated in this discussion. Do U(knome)? ^yes...|_{or no} 14:00, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.

• Oppose 2Pac was a stage name. No evidence is given that it is more commonly used name for him. All the references I recall seeing in mainstream media use "Tupac Shakur". older ≠ wiser 14:36, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

• Oppose apparent official bio [1] strictly uses 'Tupac' in the text. Ripe (talk) 20:12, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

• Oppose "2pac" is no longer the most common way he is referred to. It was while he was alive, but it appears that "Tupac" is now. 70.51.8.231 (talk) 05:01, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Discussion

Any additional comments: