On 1988, Tupac moved in with a neighbor and started selling drugs on the street, but also made friends who helped spark his interest in rap music. One of these was Ray Luv, and with a mutual friend named DJ Dize (Dizz-ee), they started a rap group called Strictly Dope.
Their recordings were later released in 2001 under the name Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes
Tracklist:
1 Panther Power 4:40
2 The Case Of The Misplaced Mic 2:37
3 Let Knowledge Drop 3:37
4 Never Be Beat 5:34
5 A Day In The Life 4:56
6 My Burnin’ Heart 6:26
7 Minnie The Moocher 4:22
8 The Case Of The Misplaced Mic II 2:40
9 Static (Remix I) 4:21
10 Static (Remix II) 3:59
In June 1988, a drug-addicted Afeni was having trouble finding work (her Panther past did not help, either). She uprooted the family again and brought Tupac and Sekyiwa to live with a family friend in Marin City, California, where Tupac attended Tamalpais High School. He joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in entertainment.
Tupac move into Leila Steinberg’s home with his friend Ray Luv at the age of seventeen and he eventually dropped out of high school. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Tupac, an avid reader.
In August of 1988, Tupac’s stepfather Mutulu was sentenced to sixty years in prison for armed robbery after being on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for several years. Shakur soon moved in with a neighbor and started selling drugs on the street, but also made friends who helped spark his interest in rap music.
One of these was Ray Luv, and with a mutual friend named DJ Dize (Dizz-ee), they started a rap group called Strictly Dope. Their recordings were later released in 2001 under the name Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes. Their neighborhood performances brought Tupac enough acclaim to land an audition with Shock G of Digital Underground.
Steinberg has kept copies of the books that he read, which include J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Jamaica Kincaid’s At the Bottom of the River, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Eileen Southern’s Music of Black Americans, and the feminist writings of Alice Walker and Robin Morgan.
Most of these books were read before the age of twenty. It has been said that Tupac was, in fact, more well-read and intellectually well-rounded at that age than the average student in the first year class of most Ivy League institutions In 1989, Leila Steinberg organized a concert with Tupac’s group, Strictly Dope. The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with Digital Underground.
See also: ”Born Busy” Group
