How One of Hip-Hop’s Biggest Stars Died Broke. Inside Tupac’s Deal with Suge Knight’s Death Row

Despite achieving remarkable success with four top 20 songs on the Billboard charts, starring in multiple films, and being one of the most recognizable figures in hip-hop, Tupac Shakur died broke in September 1996. This financial predicament was allegedly orchestrated by Marion “Suge” Knight, the head of Death Row Records, to maintain control over the influential rapper. CHICAGO – MARCH 1994: Rapper Tupac Shakur performs at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images) A 1997 article in The New Yorker revealed how Suge Knight, a former gang member turned businessman, designed a financial setup that kept Tupac financially dependent and submissive. Within a year of Tupac’s death, his mother, Afeni Shakur, a former Black Panther and activist, became the executor of his estate and sued Death Row Records, claiming her son had been defrauded of over $50 million. The estate initially sought damages of $150 million. The “Poetic Justice” actor’s life was extraordinary from the start. Tupac’s Radical Early Life Afeni was a member of the Black Panther Party. Early in 1971, while she was pregnant with Tupac, she was on trial for conspiring to blow up several New York department stores. She...