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this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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It's bittersweet for sure. I don't know the whole history of the murder but I was a kid when it happened.
Basically, Tupac was a poser who surrounded himself with actual killers and criminals and that persona caught up with him. I believe the strongest conspiracy theory is that Puffy was involved. Cops likely didn’t kill him, but they all got paid to be off duty bodyguards for rappers and celebrities so it was in their best interest to keep quiet
He did spread Marxist theory on MTV News and was surrounded by people from the black panthers. It's not really that crazy for law enforcement to use criminal assets to do their dirty work, they openly talk about regularly doing that.
Tupac talking theory on MTV News: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8MrYWxJ/
Tupac on police brutality and self defense: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8MMEkdN/
The thing about puffy is, if he did put out a $1 million dollar bounty on Tupac, why didn't anyone collect? If puffy refused to pay, why wasn't there an issue between the people who killed Tupac and puffy? They all seemed to just quietly get murdered in "unrelated" crimes after the murder (except for the one). Maybe they had something on puffy related to an attempt to hire a hitman for a million dollars and this was their way of communicating that threat to him (them having that evidence against him for that).
It's also kind of strange that the popular rumor for the kurt Cobain suicide (occurring in the same era, and a celebrity figure who was also anti capitalist) was also a hitman hired by someone in his orbit (Cobain's significant other in that case).
Tupac no doubt had communist theory in him. He dated the daughter of a communist party leader and his aunt was famous for being an outlaw who fled to Cuba. But Tupac never really explicitly promoted communism or anything like that. Pac also wasn’t like MLK who was organizing with unions before being killed, so he didn’t really pose a threat to anything other than white conservative children’s “proper” music tastes. Many rappers were and are more violent, militant, or ideological than him and were rarely targeted outside of standard harassment.
Black Panthers were quickly sanitized after their downfall, so their militant communism was usually secondary to the imagery of black power - which is fine, but when their ideology is ignored you start getting cranks out there like Beyoncé wearing their outfit while being a billionaire - or some of the former members claiming Huey Newton would’ve supported Biden and oppose police defunding.
You’re right it’s not far fetched to imagine the police killing him. But why exactly? Tupac hated cops but had no problem paying them to protect him. Maybe it was ideological - but again, many rappers have been more problematic to the police and they’re still fine.
However, a lot of cops themselves were formal gang members of the groups Tupac associated with or dissed. I.e. literal bloods and crips with badges. So I would definitely agree that these guys would’ve taken a shot at him and receive protection. But the police as a capitalist and white supremacist institution? I imagine they had plans, but it was just perfect timing and they didn’t need to go through with it.
Tupac did join communist orgs though. The rappers who are more explicitly ideological aren't Beyonce level entertainment stars. It's the platform and the messaging that was the problem. Fred Hampton was 5 years younger than Tupac when he was murdered by the police (in an era before rap music). Tupac was on his way to becoming a mega star next to people like Michael Jackson (which would make him much harder to touch at that point). That's a serious platform.
Tupacs communist league membership card: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8MMwjXo/
To add to what you said, Tupac was also getting into acting, which shouldn't be surprising since he was a theatre kid at high school. Lucas apparently wanted Tupac to be Mace Windu and Samuel L Jackson only got the role because Tupac got murdered.
The dude was super talented and was sufficiently radicalized that the feds would want him dead. The combination of having star power and respect from OGs was a potent combination.
Again, he may have been a communist but it was never part of his image. But I agree with you that he would’ve received a very large platform, and perhaps he was waiting until he did before he spoke about communism more openly.
I'm extremely confident that was the plan. The dude openly talked about all of those values and wasn't in it for the money. His image was crafted so he would be heard by a specific audience. He was raised by multiple panther leaders (high ranking leaders too) from the good panther era.
Preaching values without labeling them as communist seems like it could be a good strategy tbh, especially if they are concerned about being targeted. Someone can still be actively pursuing ideological goals without saying "communism". I imagine throwing an audience into the deep end isn't as effective as moving gradually.
The video of him where he mentions owning and reading a book by Stalin just screams someone playing down how committed they are. It felt like he was pretending to forget Stalin's name and letting someone else say it for him. I find it very sus that someone who owns and reads theory wouldn't be able to remember the name "Stalin" lol