news archives

December 22, 2003 - Josh Kun of the Boston Phoenix weighed in on the soundtrack to the documentary 'Tupac: Resurrection', and Eminem's contribution to the album. Kun says of 'One Day at a Time': "Eminem's 'duet' with Tupac obscures the latter's legacy of black radicalism in favor of Em's brand of white narcissism." Read more.

November 30, 2003 - Ben Quiñones of OC Weekly caught up with the guys from Boo-Yaa Tribe, who spoke of Tupac Shakur's influence on them. "Tupac put impact in our life, now we’re trying to hit a nerve, hit an artery; Boo-Yaa goes straight into your heart," says Ganxsta Ridd. "I’ve been telling my little homies in the hood, it’s all about divide and conquer. They put labels to divide. Fu** that, music is music." Brother Kobra jumps in, "Chaos brings order. Boo-Yaa’s been through every fu**in’ chapter, and it was the music that saved us." Read more.

November 25, 2003 - Miles O'Brien of CNN's 'Live From...' interviewed Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, who was promoting 'Tupac: Resurrection'. Asked if the documentary was painful, Afeni said, "Actually, it's not painful because I try and keep it all in context. First of all, a lot of people, a lot of women and men, have lost their children. I'm not the only one. But I happen to be blessed that my son gave me all these things to work with so that I get to work out my grief in a way that other people are not able to. So I can't possibly be downtrodden about that." Read more.

November 23, 2003 - Charles Gray of the Phoenix New Times shared his thoughts on the Tupac Shakur documentary 'Tupac: Resurrection'. Gray proclaims "Tupac is Jesus." Gray explained, "As evidenced in the new feature-length documentary Tupac: Resurrection, the major events of the lives of both Jesus and Tupac are jarringly isomorphic. Start with their early years, where they both shared a miraculous time in the womb: Jesus was immaculately conceived, whereas Tupac's mother, Afeni, carried him for five months in prison, which is also pretty immaculate. Later, both messiahs experienced midlife persecutions resulting from their unflinching moral convictions: Jesus heard it from the Jews and then more firmly from the Romans; Tupac heard it from critics of gangsta rap music, who somehow mistook rap artists for authoring the dreary social situations of the inner city. Most telling, though, is that it was the betrayal by their closest friends that sealed both Tupac and Jesus' fate: Judas Iscariot identified his homey to the Romans, whereas many believe that Death Row Records magistrate Suge Knight had a hand in Pac's gunning down. But Tupac is not only similar to Jesus. He is better." Read more.

November 23, 2003 - Tupac Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur is a little annoyed that others jumped the gun with their own versions of Tupac's life story. For her, it was important to take the time to do it right with the just released documentary 'Tupac: Resurrection'. "It is painful that people maybe don't have enough faith that I will do the right thing by my son," she tells TV Guide Online. "I'm just a little hurt by that. I said in '96 that I was committed to putting my son's music and his work out in an organized, rational way. This is seven years later, and I feel comfortable that is what we have done. We tried very hard to be honest and to have integrity about this project, because that is the way we give honor to Tupac." Read more.

November 19, 2003 - Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Jeff Buckley, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, and Aaliyah are music's lost souls - the artists who leave the world at the peak of their youth and talent and pass into legend. To what extent are they being exploited beyond the grave? Is it right that material they may never have released when they were alive is re-packaged after their death? Listen to a documentary from Radio1.

November 17, 2003 - Movies and shows have been made about the life and death of rapper Tupac Shakur. But a new documentary has the slain artist telling the story in his own words. Watch a video clip, featuring highlights from the documentary, including comments from 50 Cent, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Snoop Dogg at WB11.

November 17, 2003 - Afeni Shakur's desire to let her son Tupac Shakur do the talking on 'Tupac: Resurrection' fit nicely with the creative vision director Lauren Lazin had for the project. "I've always wanted to do something different -- that wasn't Behind the Music, that wasn't an E! True Hollywood Story," Lazin told Rolling Stone at the film's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. "A kind of filmmaking that was told entirely from the subject's point of view. There's no narrator in the film, no experts, no interviews with other people. It's all him." Read more.

November 16, 2003 - Jack Mathews of The New York Daily News reviewed 'Tupac Shakur: Resurrection', giving it 3 stars. He writes, "In the end, his is less a story of redemption and love than of tragic waste. Shakur had a brilliant mind whose contradictory experiences - growing up in poverty and simultaneously studying dance, theater, literature and art at grant schools in Harlem and Baltimore - made him proud to be both refined and a thug." Read more.

November 16, 2003 - adambernard writes "The legacy of Tupac Shakur is an amazing one, and one that has grown by leaps and bounds since his passing in September of 1996. Books, TV specials, and numerous posthumous CD's have all helped the public gain more knowledge on this incredible man. The latest endeavor to attempt to give more insight into Tupac is the film 'Tupac - Resurrection.' The best part about 'Tupac - Resurrection,' however, leads to it's worst part. Read more."

November 16, 2003 - One of Tupac Shakur's closest friends, Snoop Dogg, tells Radio 1 he believes Tupac was a genius. "He always had a different style, he always came from the heart so you would feel his music no matter what situation, what label, what type of music, you would always feel the words he was saying," Snoop said. "When he spoke it you knew it was real, you knew it wasn't somebody just rapping about it; it was somebody who really lived it who was actually going through it and could really tell you about it. It made people really want to tune into him because he was so likeable, because his style was fun but at the same time he was dealing with some real situations."

November 13, 2003 - Ed Gonzalez of slant magazine reviewed the new Tupac Shakur documentary 'Tupac: Resurrection', giving it 3 out of 4 stars. He writes, "[Director Lauren] Lazin and her editors have essentially made Tupac’s life as accessible as possible for the so-called MTV generation, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if it reconnects a Tupac fan with his or her lost messiah." Read more.

November 11, 2003 - Tupac Shakur's mother, former Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur, the keeper of her son's legacy, tells USA Today the past seven years "have been extremely painful, watching and listening while others incorrectly attempted to define who my son really was." She says she's not trying to change her son's image with a documentary movie and best-selling book, "but I have an obligation to let him tell his story even if he is not here physically. The end result is in God's hands." Read more.

November 11, 2003 - The New York Daily News reports that Eminem recently told a fried regarding Tupac Shakur, "The day he died, the world kinda stopped." Eminem has contributed to the 'Tupac: Resurrection' documenary soundtrack. "I remember buying my first Tupac album at 17," he said. "I think honestly that Tupac was the greatest songwriter that ever lived... I never had the chance to meet him because I wasn't up on the ladder yet, but I remembered hearing the news of his death while I worked as a cook in a Detroit restaurant, and will never forget the feeling." Shakur died at 25 in September 1996. His murder remains unsolved.

November 8, 2003 - Tupac Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur, MC Lyte, and Stevie Wonder were amongst those at the premiere of Paramount Picture's 'Tupac: Resurrection' at the ArcLight Theaters in Hollywood, California on Tuesday (November 4). Check out pictures here.

November 6, 2003 - Anonymous writes "Watch the brand new Tupac Shakur and Biggie video for 'Runnin' (dying to live) from the up and comming 'Tupac: Resurrection' soundtrack, which will be hitting stores November 11th. Watch it here."

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