Tupac – Rappers Who Became Movie Stars

Tupac Shakur had a mercilessly brief stint as an actor that really coincided with the explosion of his rap career: he captured with perfect and terrifying accuracy the unpredictability of Bishop in 'Juice' before his first album debuted. But even as listeners learned every word from one single to the next, he utilized the mixed messages in his music to avoid being defined in one concrete way, playing a postman in 'Poetic Justice,' then a gangster in 'Above the Rim.' But when 'Gridlock’d' was released posthumously, it showed exactly what sort of promise was lost with his death, as he played a heroin addict struggling through the process of weaning himself off of the drug as a bureaucratic system converges on him from every side. The intelligence and vulnerability he brings to the role is still extraordinarily powerful, and evidenced why his work has endured – it’s not just skill or magnetism, but substance that people have connected with.