Tupac's first big break came when he joined the group Digital Underground as a dancer and roadie. During that time, Tupac spent much of it composing his own poetry and lyrics to launch his own career, and in 1991 he signed with Interscope and a year later released his first album, 2Pacalypse Now, which immediately landed him into gangsta rap stardom. Also that year he starred in Juice with Omar Epps and Samuel L. Jackson. It was the beginning and too early of an ending to a bright acting career which he also landed other urban and African American oriented films such as Poetic Justice (1993), Above the Rim (1994), Bullet (1996), and Gridlock'd (1996). His main notoriety though was through music, and he followed up his successful debut with Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. in 1993, which also was a crossover pop success. In 1995 he released Me Against the World and his last living album release came with All Eyez on Me in 1996.

Shakur's post-celebrity run-ins with the law were almost as frequent as when he was growing up. In 1992 he was arrested when a stray bullet killed a 6 year old child during a scuffle between Shakur and two others, though later charges against Shakur were dropped. In 1993 Tupac was arrested for allegedly shooting 2 off-duty Butts County Atlanta police officers who were harassing a black motorist, but the charges were again dropped. Ironically, one of the Butts County officers was shot in the ass, and in 1998 Deputy Scott Whitwell won a $210,000 lawsuit for the incident. Then, that same year, Tupac was accused of sexual abuse against a 19 year old woman in a New York City luxury hotel. Shakur's legal troubles continued in 1994 when he punched out  Menace II Society codirector Allen Hughes and served a 15 day jail sentence for his actions. The sexual charge came to haunt Shakur in that 1994 as he was convicted and sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, and to add insult to injury, Shakur was shot 5 times and robbed of his jewelry the same day, a mugging that Shakur later claimed came from the Notorious B.I.G. was responsible for hiring those who shot him and it intensified the East Coast vs West Coast gangsta animosity. After going to serve his sentence, Tupac's Me Against the World and its hit Dear Moma was released, and later his soon to be new Death Row Records Label and its CEO Marion "Suge" Knight posted $1.4 million in bail to get Tupac out of prison. Immediately he flew off to LA to record his fourth album and in an apparent attempt to further enrage Biggie Smalls, said he had slept with the rapper's wife, Faith Evans (which she denied). He also dated actress Jada Pinkett and was briefly married to Keisha Morris, though it ended in annulment. Tupac added more fuel to the Bad Boy vs. Death Row feud when he released videos 2 of Americaz Most Wanted (with Snoop) and later Hit `Em Up, both of which assassinated the character of Bad Boy, Biggie, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Mobb Deep, and others on the label. He returned to New York in 1996 just three days before he was shot and got in a fight at the MTV Video Awards.

His troubles in Las Vegas would turn out to be his last, as after attending a heavyweight boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon, Shakur and Knight got in a scuffle outside of the MGM Grand Hotel with Orlando Anderson (who was later murdered himself). Many speculate what happened afterwards was revenge for what had just happened, as a white Cadillac with four people inside pulled alongside the car Suge was driving at an intersection and one person opened fire. Tupac was shot 4 times, Suge escaped with minor injuries. Six days later, Tupac, in a medical coma, was pronounced dead. His body was later cremated.

What followed Tupac's death were and continue to be a string of lawsuits. His mother won the rights from Death Row Records to the unreleased music that Tupac created and it is said there is enough material to do 10 albums. The lawyers for the late Orlando Anderson sued Tupac for $78,000 while Tupac's mother Afeni filed a wrongful death suit against Anderson. There was no love between Afeni and Tupac's record label either, as she not only sued and won the rights to her son's music, but she claims Death Row failed to pay royalties due to Tupac and that when he died he only had about $150,000 to his name and sued the label for over $20 million. The label countered that Tupac owed them $7.1 million at the time of his death for cars, houses, and jewelry. In 1997, anti-rap crusader C. Delores Tucker filed a $16.6 million lawsuit against Tupac after she suffered "great humiliation, mental pain, and suffering" when Shakur made unkind references to her on his 1996 album All Eyez on Me. Tupac's estate won a case in 1998 against a woman paralyzed after being shot at a Tupac concert in 1993 where she alleged that he "whipped the crowd into a hysterical frenzy causing a riot-like atmosphere." Another '98 case came from a jeweler which Shakur had custom ordered jewelry from before his death, and after his death R&S Antiques had nobody to pay for the jewelry, thus prompting a $93,000 lawsuit.

Today there still is mystery as to who was responsible for Tupac's death. The only witness to the slaying that was originally willing to talk (though became less willing after being represented by a Death Row lawyer), Yafeu Fula, was found dead of a gunshot wound Sunday at a New Jersey housing project. There is quite a bit of internet speculation as to who is responsible. A 1997 story in Vanity Fair indicated that Tupac was planning to walk away from his violent, drug-influenced lifestyle and settle down with Quicy Jone's daughter and his fiancée Kidada Jones. The article went on to say he wanted out from Death Row and just weeks before his death had contacted Warner Brothers about a deal. Tupac had also started a company called Euphanasia, which was created to develop movies and help finance centers for at-risk youth. All of this has led many to believe that Suge was responsible for the killing, as they speculate his desire to keep Tupac's enormous library of unreleased music before he could switch record labels. His mother, however, blames not only Anderson, but the Las Vegas police, as she told the LA Times "It was clear to me from day one that the Las Vegas police never had any interest in solving the case of my son's murder." Some others blamed Biggie Smalls, though the east-coast rapper was gunned down himself in what many view as retaliation to the Tupac slaying. As in the Shakur case, no witnesses have wanted to talk. The final piece of speculation (that we know of anyways), says that Tupac is still alive, and that he had faked his own death to break away from the entire gangsta scene for his personal and mental health, where they also point to the continuation of musical releases from the artist. Whatever the case, it is clear that the musical and film talents of 2pac will be greatly missed, and perhaps the only way to get to the bottom of what happened September 7, 1996 will be a deathbed confession from those involved, that is if they still are alive.