Review: Book follows rapper's rough life

By Sebastian Garcia

Teen Pulse Staff Writer

“Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon,” by Tayannah Lee Mcquiller and Fred L. Johnson III, PhD (2010) follows Lesane Parish Crooks’ life, beginning with his birth in New York on June 16, 1971 to Black Panther member Alice Faye Williams and ending with the rapper’s death in 1996.

Because of her association with the Black Panthers, Williams renamed herself Afeni Shakur. She then later changed Crooks’ name to Tupac Amaru Shakur, after the South American emperor.

Shakur didn’t have an ordinary life. His mother was addicted to drugs and she had people coming in and out of their house all the time and his father was not involved in Shakur’s life. Although his life at home was hectic, Shakur was enrolled in the Baltimore School of Fine Arts, where he excelled in his classes and had an interest in drama and acting.

The book details Shakur’s having to leave his Baltimore school to move to California in 1991 with his sister. His mother Afeni sent him and his sister to California by themselves, where they were to live with her friend. 

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