Tupac Shakur was one of the most well-known rappers in the world and, during the 1990s, was the go-to artist if you wanted hardcore and passionate gangsta rap. As the primary artist of Dr Dre and Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, Pac undeniably made massive hits and, before his murder in 1996, was one of the most famous rappers in the world
However, before Tupac made it big and was signed to Death Row in L.A., Pac was making music in other places with other people. Before settling in Los Angeles with his mother, Shakur lived in a number of places, including The Bronx, Harlem, Baltimore, Marin City and Oakland.
It is well-known that Pac had an unsettled and unstable childhood before becoming famous and had a number of different stints in various cities. Being born in New York City, he moved with his mother from shelter to shelter for a place to live as a youngster in single digits.
As he started entering double digits, he moved with his mother to the East Coast city of Baltimore, which is one of America’s most dangerous cities. While living here, Shakur spent two years at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School before he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied jazz, poetry, ballet, and acting.
While studying at Baltimore School for the Arts, Shakur had an extremely close relationship with Jada Pinkett-Smith. So close, he even wrote her a poem. Something he also did for Charyl ‘Salt’ James of hip hop duo Salt-N-Pepa. The poem was called ‘Lost Soulz’, and Smith has stated previously that she believes the poem was the basis for the rapper’s song ‘Lost Souls’.
While in Baltimore, Shakur and his mother resided on the first floor of a brick house on Greenmount Avenue. A road in the small neighbourhood of Pen Lucy. See more about his house in the video below.
