Tupac Shakur

1971–1996

Harlem · Baltimore · Marin City · Oakland · Tarzana · Las Vegas

He trained as an actor before he made a record. His mother’s foundation plants peace poles; this one has six faces. Turn it.

The front of the pole: his name. Turn it to read the places of his life.

Shops and traffic on 125th Street in Harlem in 1982 — 125th Street, Harlem, May 1982. Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0.

New York · 1971 to 1984

A revolutionary’s name,
and a Harlem stage.

Tupac Shakur was born on 16 June 1971 in East Harlem, Manhattan, according to Wikipedia.

The estate’s 1993 biography says he was born and raised in the Bronx. He was named for Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century descendant of the last Inca ruler, executed in 1781 after leading a revolt against Spanish rule. His mother wanted him to carry the name of revolutionary indigenous people.

He was a member of the 127th Street Repertory Ensemble, a Harlem theatre company founded in 1973 by Ernie McClintock and Ronald Walker.

Neighbourhoods, not a single address: no birthplace, school or theatre is identified for a visit, so nothing is pinned. Walk 125th Street.

Sources

Hush Tours

Hush Tours: Birthplace of Hip Hop

Harlem and the Bronx, New York · See the site for dates and prices

Bus and walking tours of hip-hop history in Harlem and the Bronx, plus private tours.

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A street of brick tenements in East Harlem — Pleasant Avenue from East 114th Street, East Harlem, March 2022. Deansfa, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baltimore · 1984 to 1988

Acting, poetry, jazz,
and ballet.

Six Baltimore School for the Arts students in 1988, Tupac Shakur among them — School for the Arts students Julie May, Rhonda Elliott, Tupac Shakur, Kia Holt, LaKeisha Fernandez and Antoinette Ware, The Evening Sun, 20 September 1988 (cropped from the newspaper page). Bo Rader or George H. Cook, The Evening Sun, Public domain.

He moved to Baltimore in 1984 and went to Roland Park Middle School and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School before the Baltimore School for the Arts. At the School for the Arts, from tenth grade, he studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet. Choose one of his classes.

Four subjects at the School for the Arts.

Pick a class to see what he did in it.

The ornate stone front of the Baltimore School for the Arts on Cathedral Street — The Baltimore School for the Arts, 712 Cathedral Street, June 2017. Eli Pousson, Baltimore Heritage · CC0

Baltimore School for the Arts · 712 Cathedral Street, Mount Vernon, Baltimore, MD 21201

He became friends there with Jada Pinkett, a fellow student.

The school occupies the old Alcazar Hotel and a brownstone at Cathedral and Madison Streets, and was established in 1979. The Evening Sun photographs him at the school for a piece on school clothes.

A working public high school; the buildings are not open to visitors. See them from Cathedral Street and Madison Street, in the Mount Vernon district.

Sources

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A wide Baltimore avenue of rowhouses and shops — Greenmount Avenue looking north from North Avenue, Baltimore, July 2016. Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tupac Shakur Way, Greenmount Avenue · Greenmount Avenue, North Baltimore

He lived with his mother and sister in a rowhouse in the 3900 block of Greenmount Avenue.

A public avenue. The honorary sign is in North Baltimore; the family’s old rowhouse is a private home and is not identified here. The card shows Greenmount Avenue further south.

Sources

Marin City, Mill Valley and Oakland · 1988 to 1993

Roadie, dancer,
then a verse.

1988

Marin City

The family moved from Baltimore to Marin City in 1988.

The estate’s biography remembers it as a hard time, when he had nowhere to live and slept on a public bench.

A small community off Highway 101, just north of the Golden Gate. The card is from the Alta Trail above it.

Sources

A pale Spanish-style arch and clock tower at dusk — The arch and tower of Tamalpais High School, Mill Valley, July 2006. Skip Lacaze (uploaded by Hjal) · CC BY-SA 2.5

1988–89

Tamalpais High School · 700 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941

At Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley he was in several theatre productions. He did not graduate, and later took a GED.

Tam is the first home of the Conservatory Theatre Ensemble, once the Ensemble Theater Company; Wikipedia lists him among its alumni.

A working public high school; look from Miller Avenue. The Conservatory Theatre Ensemble still stages its fall and spring one-act festivals here.

Sources

A street sign reading Tupac Shakur Way on MacArthur Boulevard — The stretch of MacArthur Boulevard named Tupac Shakur Way, Oakland, March 2024. Brian.S.W · CC BY-SA 4.0

1990–91

Tupac Shakur Way, MacArthur Boulevard

In 1990 he worked for Digital Underground as a roadie and backup dancer.

He first went on stage with the group as a dancer and hype man, and first appeared on record on Same Song, from This Is an EP Release, in January 1991. In its video he played an African king. Digital Underground were formed in 1987 by Shock G, Kenny-K and Chopmaster J, mostly out of Oakland and Berkeley.

A public street by the Grand Lake district; the pin is the Grand Avenue end of the named stretch.

Sources

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Shock G performing in Humpty Hump’s glasses and false nose — Shock G of Digital Underground, as Humpty Hump, in 2006. Creative Commons HQ, CC BY 2.0. A later photograph: no free one of the group in 1990 was found.

Two films, and a first album

He goes with Money-B to an audition for Juice, asks the producer Neal H. Moritz to read with him, gets 15 minutes to rehearse, and wins the part of Bishop. The film is shot in Harlem.

His first album comes out on Interscope; it goes Gold.

In John Singleton’s Poetic Justice he plays Lucky, a postal worker who drives Janet Jackson’s Justice from South Los Angeles to Oakland in a mail truck. It is shot from April to July 1992 and opens on 23 July 1993.

Sources

Tarzana and the Mojave · October 1995 to February 1996

Out on a Thursday,
in the studio on Friday.

He meets The Notorious B.I.G. in 1993 and they become friends. After he is robbed and shot in the lobby of a Times Square studio on 30 November 1994, he blames people around Bad Boy, B.I.G. among them; B.I.G. denies it, and the two trade records.

He is released from Clinton Correctional Facility on a $1.4 million bond arranged by Suge Knight, and joins Death Row.

Sources

All Eyez on Me · 1996

Two discs in the case, 27 songs. Slide one out.

Disc one is where it was made. Disc two is where its first single was seen.

13 February 1996

All Eyez on Me comes out: rap’s first double album, 27 songs on two discs. It enters the Billboard 200 at No. 1 and sells 566,000 copies in its first week.

Sources

Las Vegas · September 1996

Seven months
after the record.

On 7 September 1996 he went to the Bruce Seldon–Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand with Suge Knight.

After the fight at the MGM Grand he is shot in a car at a stop light near East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. He dies at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada on 13 September 1996, aged 25.

The MGM Grand opened on 18 December 1993 with its 15,200-seat Garden Arena.

A working resort on the Strip, open round the clock; the Garden Arena is open for its events.

Sources

MGM Grand Las Vegas

MGM Grand

3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas · Book direct

The resort on the Strip where he watched the Tyson fight on 7 September 1996. It opened in 1993 with its Garden Arena.

Check rooms

The green glass towers of the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip — The MGM Grand, Las Vegas, September 2013. Tuxyso · CC BY-SA 3.0

Stone Mountain, Cleveland, Hollywood, Oakland and Baltimore · 2005 to 2026

A garden, a hall, a star,
two streets and a peace pole.

Afeni Shakur speaking at a lectern — Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mother, giving a speech in 2008. AidaGagnier, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts sign by a car park off Memorial Drive, with a shop building behind — The former site of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, Stone Mountain, June 2016. Thomson200 · CC0

11.6.05

Site of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts

Afeni Shakur, his mother, founded the centre in 1997. Its peace garden and visitor centre opened on 11 June 2005, in tribute to her son and to others who had died.

It closed in 2015, and in August that year she sold the property for $1.2 million.

The centre has closed and the property was sold. It is named here, not mapped; the card shows the site in 2016.

Sources

2017

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

He was inducted in 2017, his first year of eligibility; Snoop Dogg inducted him.

The Hall’s page notes that his parents were Black Panthers and that he was named after an Inca revolutionary.

Open daily 10am to 5pm from September to June, Thursdays to 9pm; closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adults $45; book ahead.

Sources

A pink terrazzo star with a brass record emblem, engraved Tupac Shakur — Tupac Shakur’s star on Hollywood Boulevard, September 2025. Alexis Doine · CC0

7.6.23

Tupac Shakur’s star

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce dedicated his star, in the recording category, at 6212 Hollywood Boulevard on 7 June 2023.

It is a memorial, not a place he performed.

Set in the pavement of Hollywood Boulevard. Free, any time.

Sources

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3.11.23

Tupac Shakur Way, MacArthur Boulevard

On 3 November 2023 MacArthur Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Van Buren Avenue became Tupac Shakur Way. His sister was there, and Sway Calloway spoke.

A public street by the Grand Lake district; the pin is the Grand Avenue end of the named stretch.

Sources

5.26

Tupac Shakur Way, Greenmount Avenue

In May 2026 Baltimore dedicated part of Greenmount Avenue as Tupac Shakur Way. His sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, and Mayor Brandon Scott spoke, and a street sign and a peace pole were unveiled.

The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation plants peace poles in cities across the country as safe spaces for their communities.

A public avenue. The honorary sign is in North Baltimore; the family’s old rowhouse is a private home and is not identified here. The card shows Greenmount Avenue further south.

Sources

A peace pole on Greenmount Avenue, outside the block where he lived.

Where it is now

Six faces,
8 places to stand.

Each city is its own trip. In Baltimore, Greenmount Avenue runs north from Mount Vernon and the School for the Arts. Marin City and Mill Valley are ten minutes apart north of the Golden Gate, with Oakland across the bay. Tarzana and Hollywood are both in Los Angeles; El Mirage is out in the Mojave.

Where it is now

8 places you can visit, from Cathedral Street to Hollywood Boulevard. Harlem, Marin City and Greenmount Avenue are neighbourhoods and streets, named but not pinned; the family’s homes are private. The Stone Mountain centre has closed and is named, not mapped.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school; the buildings are not open to visitors. See them from Cathedral Street and Madison Street, in the Mount Vernon district.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open daily 10am to 5pm from September to June, Thursdays to 9pm; closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adults $45; book ahead.

The Baltimore School for the Arts, 712 Cathedral Street, June 2017. Eli Pousson, Baltimore Heritage · CC0
712 Cathedral Street, Mount Vernon, Baltimore, MD 21201
Baltimore School for the Arts
He moved to Baltimore in 1984 and went to Roland Park Middle School and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School before the Baltimore School for the Arts.
A working public high school; the buildings are not open to visitors. See them from Cathedral Street and Madison Street, in the Mount Vernon district.
Sources
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, May 2016. MusikAnimal · CC BY-SA 4.0
1100 Rock & Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44114
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
He was inducted in 2017, his first year of eligibility; Snoop Dogg inducted him.
Open daily 10am to 5pm from September to June, Thursdays to 9pm; closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adults $45; book ahead.
Sources

Stay

A room at the MGM Grand.

The Las Vegas resort where he watched his last fight.

MGM Grand Las Vegas

MGM Grand

3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas · Book direct

The resort on the Strip where he watched the Tyson fight on 7 September 1996. It opened in 1993 with its Garden Arena.

Check rooms

Go there