Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)

Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, one of the most influential musical artists of the 20th century, and a prominent political activist for Black America. He is among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Some of Shakur's music addressed social injustice, political issues, and the marginalization of African Americans, but he was also synonymous with gangsta rap and violent lyrics.

Quotes

The only thing that comes to a sleeping man are dreams.
I want to grow. I want to be better. You grow. We all grow. We're made to grow. You either evolve or you disappear.
Everybody's at war with different things...I'm at war with my own heart sometimes.
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven.
I'd rather die like a man than live like a coward.
When my heart can beat no more I hope I die for a principle or a belief that I have lived for.
My only fear of death is coming back reincarnated.
The only thing America respects is power and power concedes nothing. After the LA Riots, they tried to calm us down and nothing changed since.
I am society's child, this is how they made me, and now I'm saying what's on my mind and they dont want that. This is what you made me America.
If you walked by a street and you was walking on concrete and you saw a rose growing from concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So why is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstances and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how am leaning crooked to the side, you can't even see that I've come up from out of that.
You know it's funny when it rains it pours
They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor.
Here's a message to the new borns, waiting to breathe: if you believe then you can achieve. Just look at me, against all odds 'though life is hard, we carry on, livin' in the projects, broke with no lights on. To all the seeds that follow me- protect your essence, born with less, but you still precious.
Before we find world peace, we gotta find peace in the war on the streets.