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Tupac Shakur has been dead for longer than the 25 years he lived. During his lifetime, he rose to levels of stardom matched by few other rappers, rocketing quickly from a Digital Underground backup dancer to a chart-topper and movie star, all while courting controversy with law enforcement and presidential administrations<\/a>. In the decades since his 1996 murder in Las Vegas<\/a>, he has endured as one of the genre\u2019s defining figures, in no small part because of the mystery surrounding his death.<\/p>\n The Friday arrest of Duane Keith Davis<\/a> in connection with Shakur\u2019s killing \u2014 he was indicted on a murder charge \u2014 is a step in solving one of hip-hop\u2019s greatest tragedies and longest mysteries. Nearly two years before his death, Shakur had been ambushed and shot in New York. The assault instigated a visceral feud between Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., a New York rapper who was slain nearly six months after Shakur, forever linking the rivals and the coastal feud that hung over \u201990s hip-hop.<\/p>\n Shakur\u2019s breadth as a rapper included enduring anthems like \u201cDear Mama,\u201d \u201cKeep Ya Head Up\u201d and \u201cCalifornia Love,\u201d while also featuring songs laced with misogyny and vengeance. He poignantly rapped about social activism and the oppression of Black Americans, which helps his music resonate just as strong today as it did in the \u201990s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHis death caused people to really magnify what he was doing musically and when they saw it, they were like, \u2018Oh my Lord,\u2019\u201d said Greg Mack, a radio programmer who helped bring hip-hop music into the mainstream on the West Coast. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know that\u2019s who we had.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Part of Shakur\u2019s staying power is because his murder investigation stayed open longer than he lived, allowing fans to offer up theories about what may have happened. Almost immediately after his Sept. 13, 1996, death was announced, rumors circulated that Shakur was actually alive and well, recording in solitude on some far-off island. These wild theories continued with regularity over the years.<\/p>\n (In one 2011 example, hackers gained access to the PBS website and wrote that Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. were living together in a small New Zealand town<\/a>. The story spread quickly on social media even after PBS removed it.)<\/p>\n Shakur often prophesied an early death in lyrics and interviews. He recorded a trove of music during his lifetime, and much of that material saw the light of day after his death. Over the course of a decade, Shakur\u2019s estate released several albums that culminated with 2006\u2019s \u201cPac\u2019s Life.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n His posthumous output extends beyond his own albums. A holographic image of Shakur memorably performed<\/a> at 2012\u2019s Coachella festival. Kendrick Lamar used excerpts from a rare 1994 Shakur interview for the two to engage in a conversation on his influential album \u201cTo Pimp a Butterfly.\u201d In June, Shakur received a star<\/a> on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Actors including Anthony Mackie and Demetrius Shipp Jr. have portrayed him in films.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n More than a dozen documentaries, plays and books have been shot, acted and written to display and dissect Shakur\u2019s short life, including 2003\u2019s \u201cTupac: Resurrection,\u201d which earned an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature.<\/p>\n This year, the director Allen Hughes released \u201cDear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur,\u201d a five-part docuseries that examines Shakur\u2019s relationship with his mother, Afeni Shakur. (Tupac Shakur once assaulted Hughes for firing him from the movie \u201cMenace II Society.\u201d) Next month, Staci Robinson, who knew Shakur in high school, will publish the first estate-approved biography on Shakur, a book she worked on for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n \u201cTupac Shakur no longer belongs to Tupac Shakur,\u201d Neil Strauss of The New York Times wrote in 2001<\/a>. \u201cSoon he won\u2019t even belong to Afeni Shakur. He will belong to playwrights, filmmakers, novelists, television executives and other modern-day mythmakers. \u201d That prediction has largely rung true.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n