Secrets of Tupac Shakur’s Unseen Archives
Tupac Shakur was more than just one of the most influential rappers of the Nineties. He was also a poet and activist who became one of his era’s most revolutionary voices. The new exhibit Tupac Shakur: Wake Me When I’m Free showcases those aspects of his life in a stunning, immersive display of handwritten poems, song lyrics, previously unseen photographs, video, and more. It’s open now at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
“Hopefully, people are feeling that they have a one-on-one experience with Tupac as they go through this, and they walk away feeling a lot more inspired, and excited,” says Jeremy Hodges, the exhibit’s creative director. “But more importantly, I want them to love this man for who he was and what he was fighting for.”
-
Ambitionz
Image Credit: Collection of The Shakur Estate This early business card shows Tupac’s work with the Bay Area rap group Digital Underground (“The Humpty Dance”) and a new incarnation of the Black Panthers. Anyone who wanted to get ahold of “the lyrical lunatic” back then could just hit his pager.
-
2Pacalypse Now
Image Credit: Jeffery Newbury/© Amaru Entertainment Inc. A 1992 photograph of Shakur by Jeffrey Newbury, taken not long after his debut album made him a star. “He was just 25 when he died,” says Arron Saxe, co-producer of the exhibit. “It’s pretty stunning to look at how much he created in that time.”
-
Words of Wisdom
Image Credit: Collection of The Shakur Estate This handwritten poem is one of hundreds of pages that have rarely been seen by the public. “He is looking out the window and reporting the news,” says Saxe. “That’s what hip-hop was at that time, and continues to be today.”
-
The Real Tupac
Image Credit: © Amaru Entertainment Inc. The organizers behind the exhibit hope it will broaden people’s perspective of Tupac beyond the cartoonish image that was often pushed by the media while he was alive. “I no longer look at him as just a hip-hop artist or even an artist,” says Hodges. “I really look at him as my Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr.”
-
Take Notes
Image Credit: Collection of The Shakur Estate Tupac kept notebooks of poetry, lyrics, and stray thoughts and drawings throughout his life. “It’s interesting that he crossed out the white horse on the cover,” says Saxe.
-
The Struggle
Image Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images The exhibit begins with a look at the life of Tupac’s mother, activist Afeni Shakur. The Black Power salute statue in the center is more 10 feet high. The 300 handcuffs at the base represent the number of years in prison that Afeni and 20 other Panthers faced in a 1971 trial before they were acquitted.
-
Making Movies
Image Credit: © Amaru Entertainment Inc. In the final years of his life, Tupac starred in the movies Juice, Above the Rim, and Poetic Justice. “Poetic Justice showed the sensitive side of him,” says Saxe. “He was starting to stretch a bit as an actor. I think his acting is the thing that would have propelled him to the next level had he lived.”
-
Jailhouse Dreams
Image Credit: Collection of The Shakur Estate In 1995, Tupac served nine months in prison for sexual assault. While there, he wrote out this set list for a planned show at the L.A. House of Blues. “He’s looking ahead to his future,” says Saxe, “even though prison is usually a place where dreams go to die.”
-
All Eyez on Him
Image Credit: Jeffery Newbury/© Amaru Entertainment Inc. One of the main exhibit halls is called the Chaos Gallery; it draws from the chaotic period near the end of Tupac’s life. “That two and a half years from the debut album until he gets convicted of sexual assault is just chaotic,” says Saxe. “It’s three albums, three movies, and he gets shot five times. There’s a lot going on.”
-
Gratitude
Image Credit: Collection of The Shakur Estate These handwritten thank-yous for the liner notes of Tupac’s first album show his gratitude to a who’s who of Golden Age rap acts (Digital Underground’s Shock G, Queen Latifah, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim, KRS-One, NWA, 2 Live Crew, A Tribe Called Quest, EPMD, Salt-N-Pepa, and many more); Black Panther activists including Tupac’s mother, stepfather, and family friend Assata Shakur; and actress Jada Pinkett, a close friend from their high school days at Baltimore School for the Arts.
Tupac also made sure to dedicate “a special Fuck U 2 the crooked government, sellout radio stations, August Georgia, punk police, Howard Beach, Virginia Beach, Bensonhurst, Welfare, South Afrika and the racist bastards.”
-
The Poet
Image Credit: VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images “In the Event of My Demise” is one of many poems drawn from Tupac’s extensive journal archive, many of them coming from his early teenage years. “This young man from childhood was writing haikus, screenplays, and songs,” says Saxe. “He was also reading at a very high level, and writing thousands of pages of poems. It’s pretty mesmerizing.”
-
When I’m Free
Image Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images The exhibit is named after a line in a poem that Tupac wrote in his teenage years. “That’s him saying we’re all human beings,” says Saxe. “But we’re not all treated like human beings.”