

He raps, “When I was young, me and my mama had beef, 17 years old kicked out on the streets.” Their relationship would eventually come full circle and the two had a loving bond until his passing. Tupac displayed his love for his mother in his 1995 single, “Dear Mama.” He spoke of their difficult relationship, sometimes brought on by her drug addiction. “I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood.” “I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world,” Shakur once said about her son. He was an 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary of indigenous blood who led the largest indigenous uprising in Spanish American colonial history. The second known person to carry the name was José Gabriel Condorcanqui, better known as Tupac Amaru II. According to a profile piece on the rapper and activist’s name on The Track Record, the first known Tupac Amaru was the last indigenous monarch of Inca.

Tupac’s name means “shining serpent” in Inca.Īn avid reader, Shakur was inspired to change her son’s name after something with a powerful meaning. When he was a year old, she legally had Crooks’ name changed to Tupac Amaru Shakur. Shakur originally named her son Lesane Parish Crooks. Tupac Shakur’s birth name and significance of name change Her son was born a month after her release on June 16, 1971. She successfully fought her case and was acquitted in May 1971. Afeni became pregnant with her son while she was in prison. Without a law degree, she chose to represent herself in court and faced a 300-year sentence. The goal of getting the Shakur’s bail was so that they could work to raise bail for others as they’d successfully done so in the past.Īfeni Shakur remained in prison while she awaited bail.


Their bail was set at $100,000 and other members of the Black Panther Party decided to raise bail money first for them, as there were 19 others who were arrested for being a part of the alleged ring.
