Assata Olugbala Shakur ( born July 16, 1947, as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard ) is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party ( BPP ) and Black Liberation Army ( BLA ).

Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.

In May 1973 Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Shakur and Trooper James Harper were wounded.

Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents — charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping — resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals.

Shakur was then incarcerated in several prisons, where her treatment drew criticism from some human rights groups.

Shakur was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, on July 16, 1947, where she lived for three years with her parents and grandparents, Lula and Frank Hill.

Shakur was arrested for the first time in 1967 with 100 other BMCC students, on charges of trespassing.

That same year she changed her name to Assata Shakur and joined the Black Liberation Army ( BLA ), " a politico-military organization, whose primary objective ( was ) to fight for the independence and self-determination of Afrikan people in the United States.

On April 6, 1971, Shakur was shot in the stomach during a struggle with a guest at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and was arrested on a string of charges.

Shakur then allegedly displayed a revolver and a struggle ensued, during which she was shot.

Shakur is alleged to have said that she was glad that she had been shot since now that she had experienced what it was like she was no longer afraid to be shot again.

Following an August 23, 1971, bank robbery in Queens, Shakur was sought for questioning, and a photograph of a woman ( who was later alleged to be Shakur ) with thick rimmed black glasses, a high hairdo pulled tightly over her head, and a steadily pointed gun became ubiquitous in banks and full page print ads paid for by the New York Clearing House Association.

On December 21, 1971, Shakur was named as one of four suspects by New York City police in a hand grenade attack that destroyed a police car and slightly injured two patrolmen in Maspeth, Queens ; a 13-state alarm was issued three days after the attack when a witness identified Shakur and Andrew Jackson from FBI photographs.

Shakur devotes only one paragraph of her autobiography to her marriage, attributing its termination to disagreements related to gender roles.

As of February 17, 1972, when Shakur was identified as one of four BLA members on a short trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Shakur was wanted for questioning ( along with Robert Vickers, Twyman Meyers, Samuel Cooper, and Paul Stewart ) in relation to police killings, a Queens bank robbery, and the grenade attack.

Shakur was announced as one of six suspects ( pictured left ) in the ambushing of four policemen — two in Jamaica, Queens, and two in Brooklyn — on January 28, 1973, despite the fact that the assailants were identified as male.

Oakland was the birthplace or home at one time of several rap acts, including MC Hammer, Digital Underground, Hieroglyphics ( including Souls of Mischief and Del tha Funkee Homosapien ), The Luniz, Tupac Shakur, and Too Short.

As a result, DMX was the second rapper in history ( following Tupac Shakur ) to have released two albums in the same year, which both debuted at number one on Billboard 200.

On this initial release, Shakur helped extend the success of such rap groups as Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, X-Clan, and Grandmaster Flash, as he became one of the first major socially conscious rappers from the West Coast.

San Francisco was one of the homes of the late global rapping legend Tupac Shakur.

Another report was that Death Row Artist, Sam Sneed, was beaten in one of the label's meetings by a group of Death Row affiliates, led by Knight and Shakur.

Exactly one year following Tupac's death, with the money made from Tupac's posthumous albums, Afeni founded the Georgia-based Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, which provides art programs for young people, and Amaru Entertainment, the holding company for all Tupac's unreleased material.

The genre-crossing Frank Zappa was also from Maryland, as was Tupac Shakur, who was born in Harlem, though he began his career in Baltimore, eventually becoming one of the most famous rappers in hip hop history.

On October 20, 1981, after six previous unsuccessful attempts to rob a Brinks truck, Shakur and five or six other men succeeded in robbing one in Nanuet, New York.

In October 2011, former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who was once the lead investigator in the murder of Christopher " Biggie Smalls " Wallace, came out with a book which alleges that Sean “ Diddy ” Combs commissioned Duane Keith “ Keffe D ” Davis to take out Tupac Shakur, along with Knight, for one million dollars.

Credited with being one of the forefathers of G-funk and the West Coast hip-hop scene, his frenetic hand-clapped, bass-driven beats inspired the productions of songs released by DJ Quik, Eazy-E, Warren G, Spice 1, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, E-40, Ice Cube, Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung, Sicx and even East Coast rapper The Notorious B. I. G.

Among musicians, the song drew criticism from singer Dionne Warwick, and disapproval from Kool Moe Dee and Chuck D, who felt that although Shakur was one of the most substantive rappers of that period, he had gone too far with " Hit ' Em Up ".

Despite initial critical cynicism of the program's concept, it quickly gained cult status and was praised for the quality of its production, witty and often cringe-induced humour ( one recalls a contestant's sobbing lament of the deaths of two icons she held dear-Diana, Princess of Wales, and Tupac Shakur ).

Justice is at the hair salon working one day when a young postal clerk named Lucky ( Tupac Shakur ) comes in and begins flirting with her.

Surkov reportedly has portraits of Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara and American rapper Tupac Shakur next to one of Putin in his Kremlin office and is fond of poets such as Allen Ginsberg of the Beat Generation.

Amaru Entertainment has also released eight posthumous albums by Tupac Shakur and one documentary, Tupac: Resurrection.

"; Shakur was also wanted for questioning after a further September 1, 1972 Bronx bank robbery.

Robert Daley, Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Police, for example, described Shakur as " the final wanted fugitive, the soul of the gang, the mother hen who kept them together, kept them moving, kept them shooting ".

In 1995, after doing " California Love ", which proved to be his best selling single ever, Tupac Shakur would do its remix with Dr. Dre again featured, who originally wanted it for his next album, but relented to let it be on the album All Eyez on Me instead.

Atlanta law enforcement officials said that Shakur and Jackson had lived together for several months in Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 1971.

On May 2, 1973, at about 12: 45 a. m., Assata Shakur, along with Zayd Malik Shakur ( born James F. Costan ) and Sundiata Acoli ( born Clark Squire ), was stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick by State Trooper James Harper, backed up by Trooper Werner Foerster in a second patrol vehicle ( Car 820 ), for driving with a broken tail light.

According to a New Jersey Police spokesperson, Assata Shakur was on her way to a " new hideout in Philadelphia " and " heading ultimately for Washington " and a book in the vehicle contained a list of potential BLA targets.

Assata Shakur testified that she was on her way to Baltimore for a job as a bar waitress.

" An individual's name change often coincides with a religious conversion ( Muhammad Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay and Louis Farrakhan changed his from Louis Eugene Walcott, for example ) or involvement with the black nationalist movement ( e. g., Amiri Baraka and Assata Shakur ).

Displaying his influence on rap and hip hop, Clinton also worked with Tupac Shakur on the song " Can't C Me " from the album All Eyez on Me ; Ice Cube on the song and video for " Bop Gun ( One Nation )" on the Lethal Injection album ( which sampled Funkadelic's earlier hit " One Nation Under A Groove "); Outkast on the song " Synthesizer " from the album Aquemini ; Redman on the song " J. U. M. P.

* The lead role was originally written for Tupac Shakur in 1996, but when he died, production for the film was put on hold.

** Tupac Shakur begins serving a 15-day sentence in a county jail for attacking director Allen Hughes on the set of a video shoot.

After several years of chart successes for artists including Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Outlawz and Tha Dogg Pound, Death Row Records stagnated after Knight's incarceration on parole violation charges in September 1996.