Oakland, California, has officially paid tribute to one of the most influential figures in hip-hop history, Tupac Shakur, by renaming a stretch of street after him. On Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, a section of MacArthur Boulevard near Lake Merritt, where the rapper lived in the early 1990s, became Tupac Shakur Way.
The street naming ceremony was attended by hundreds of fans, family members, and former collaborators of Shakur, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996 at the age of 25. Among the speakers were Bay Area legends like MC Hammer, E-40, Too Short, Spice 1, Money B, and Richie Rich, as well as Shakur’s siblings Mopreme and Sekyiwa, his earliest manager Atron Gregory, and various community representatives, including members of the Black Panther Party.
Sway Calloway, host of Sway’s Universe and a longtime friend of Shakur, led the ceremony and said that Shakur “confirmed to me what my role would be in the culture. We started spreading what we do in the Bay Area to the rest of the world. He stood ten toes down for us.”
Shakur was born in New York and raised there and in Baltimore, but he moved with his mother to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s. He joined the group Digital Underground and launched his solo career in Oakland, where he recorded his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now. He also embraced Oakland as his adopted hometown and often referenced it in his songs.
“He claimed Oakland,” said City Councilwoman Carroll Fife, who spearheaded the effort to rename the street. “He said Oakland gave him his game.”
The street naming was also initiated by Shakur’s sister Sekyiwa, hip-hop historian Leroy McCarthy, and one of Shakur’s closest friends, rapper Ray Luv. Sekyiwa Shakur said that her brother “died at 25 years old in gang violence, by the hands of another Black man, by the planning of another Black man, whoever that man may be.”
She also said that her brother’s spirit lives on in the streets and in the hearts of the people. “Let his spirit live on the rest of these years in these streets and in your hearts,” she told the crowd, wiping away tears.
The sign for Tupac Shakur Way was unveiled at the end of the nearly two-hour ceremony, drawing cheers and applause from the audience. The street name is a fitting tribute to a rap icon who left a lasting legacy in the music industry and beyond.
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