LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Tupac Shakur: Digital Underground
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In June 1988, Tupac Shakur and his family moved once again, this time to Marin City, California, where Shakur continued to pursue his career in entertainment. Due to his mother's crack addiction Tupac moved into Leila Steinberg's home with his friend Ray Luv at the age of 17. In 1989 Leila Steinberg organized a concert with Tupac's group, Strictly Dope, the concert lead to him to being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with Digital Underground. In 1990 he was hired as a back-up dancer and roadie for up-and-coming rap group Digital Underground.
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Tupac had moved in with a neighbour and begun selling drugs on the street. It was during this period he gained friendship with similar interest in rapping. With Ray Luv and a mutual friend DJ Dize they started a rap group called Strictly Dope. Their recordings made underground notoriety but failed to reach a substantial market base. By 2001 their work was considered collectable due to Tupac’s fame and consequently renamed under ‘Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes’. However their subdued success had enough acclaim to obtain an audition with Shock G from Oakland’s Digital Underground.
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As a teenager, Shakur attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he took acting and dance classes, including ballet. While living in Baltimore, he discovered rap and began performing as MC New York. In the late 1980s, Shakur and his family moved to the West Coast. He joined the Oakland, California-based hip-hop group Digital Underground, which earlierhad scored a hit with the song “The Humpty Dance.”
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Shakur's professional entertainment career began in the early 1990s, when he debuted his rapping skills on "Same Song" from the Digital Underground album This is an EP Release. He first appeared in the music video for "Same Song". After his rap debut, Shakur performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons Of The P. Later, he released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Initially he had trouble marketing his solo debut, but Interscope Records' executives Ted Field and Tom Whalley eventually agreed to distribute the record.
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In 1991, Tupac had trouble shopping his solo-debut, “2Pacalypse Now”. Eventually, Interscope records agreed to distribute the record; one can credit executives Ted Field and Tom Whalley for giving Tupac the chance. Although produced with the help of his Digital Underground crew, the intent of the album was to showcase his individual talent. While Tupac claimed his album was aimed at the problems facing young black males, it was ... filled with images of violence by and against police. 2Pacalypse Now quickly attracted public criticism, especially after a young man who killed a Texas Trooper claimed he was inspired by the album, the case against Tupac was later thrown out of court for Tupac’s right of freedom of expression; unfortunately he had passed before the decision had been made.
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After living on the streets and hustling for a few years, Tupac joined Digital Underground as a backup dancer. While he toured with this group he ... worked on his own music, and soon released his own debut album, "2Pacalypse Now." This album was followed by "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." which went platinum in 1993 and firmly established 2Pac as a serious artist.
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