Tupac Shakur Way: California city to name street after iconic rapper

A northern California street may soon bear the name of late rapper Tupac Shakur.

On Tuesday, Oakland’s city council unanimously agreed to name a part of a city street after the rapper, who called the city home in the early 1990s.

A stretch of MacArthur Boulevard by Lake Merritt where Shakur once lived will keep its existing name, but also receive the additional, honorary name of Tupac Shakur Way. Commemorative plaques and signs signaling the change will be paid for by the Tupac Shakur Foundation.

Shakur’s connection to the city goes beyond the lessons he learned while living in the city in the early 1990s. In 1991 he sued the Oakland police department for $10m after police slammed him to the ground and arrested him during a jaywalking stop in downtown Oakland. The case was ultimately settled for $42,000.

Shakur also filmed the video for one of his most well-known songs, Brenda’s Got a Baby in the city. The song and music video tells the tragic story of a teenage mother who is murdered.

Shakur was 25 when he was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996, and he has remained one of the most recognizable rappers in the hip-hop community.

Shakur is the son Afeni Shakur, a racial justice activist and member of the Black Panther party. Tupac would often point to his mother’s activism as a driving force behind his socially conscious records and outspokenness about police brutality, racism and poverty.

He wrote the 1995 single Dear Mama in honor of the late organizer, who died in northern California in 2016.

There is no timeline for the street name addition. The city council legislation says the renamed part of the street will remind people of Shakur’s contributions to Oakland and celebrate art and culture as a catalyst for societal change.

The Associated Press contributed reporting