Tupac Amaru Shakur was inspired and influenced by many writers, poets, authors, musicians, actors and so forth. When Tupac attended the Baltimore School of Arts he studied William Shakespeare.
Tupac said, “I love Shakespeare. He wrote some of the rawest stories, man. I mean look at Romeo and Juliet. That’s some serious ghetto shit. You got this guy Romeo from the Bloods who falls for Juliet, a female from the Crips, and everybody in both gangs are against them. So they have to sneak out and they end up dead for nothing. Real tragic stuff.”
Tupac was also inspired by Niccolò Machiavelli. He gave himself the moniker “Makavelli” after studying The Prince while in jail. Tupac was a well read individual and when he misbehaved as a child his mother would instruct him to read The New York Times as punishment.
WRITINGS & BOOKS