Afeni Shakur-Davis

Afeni Shakur, the former revolutionary, activist, Black Panther, and mother of rap superstar Tupac Shakur, took on the duty of finishing the work her son was unable to complete after a bullet took his life in 1996. She is currently working to make his dreams a reality as founder and CEO of Amaru Entertainment, Inc., a record and film production company, and creator of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, Inc.

For Amaru Entertainment’s first project as a record company, Afeni put together the first posthumous album release, R U Still Down? (Remember Me), a double CD of 24 songs selected from the over 150 unreleased works Tupac had recorded. The triple platinum album sold over half a million copies and hit number five on the national pop charts in its first week of sales, a first-effort feat Shakur describes as “stunning.” Subsequent to that release, Shakur has released six additional albums containing the unreleased music of her son, all of which were executive produced by Shakur.

In addition to releasing the previously unreleased music of her son, Shakur published The Rose That Grew from Concrete, a posthumous collection of Tupac’s poetry, and a spoken-word version of the book by the same name. In 2000, she partnered with MTV Films to present the first and only feature documentary about Tupac Shakur, entitled Tupac: Resurrection, which was released in 2003 to great acclaim.

Shakur’s life story is now the subject of a brutally honest and fascinating biography by Jasmine Guy, entitled Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary. She was introduced to the Nation of Islam and the teachings of Malcolm X, and even though she never joined the Nation, she did become involved with the Black Panthers.