The Wake

Tupac is dead, but pardon his posthumous poetry. Ever since the death of rapper Tupac Shakur, countless rumors have surfaced that he is still alive. The biggest argument for this is the fact that Tupac has been more prolific than ever as a recording artist since he was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996.

The myth has just been perpetuated with the release of Tupac: Resurrection. The combination documentary film, soundtrack and book acts as the eulogy that many people were never able to speak. Among these people is his mother Afeni Shakur who gave her blessing for the whole project.

The film is the life story of Tupac told by the dead man himself. “I got shot” are the first ominous words of the film, setting the tone for the rest of the bio-documentary. Although the film starts with his death, it acts only as a foreshadowing for the next 90 minutes quickly moving to his birth and through his entire life.

Director Lauren Lazin took on the painstaking process of sifting through miles of footage to bring Tupac back to life. The whole film consists of interviews, old photographs and pages of poetry written by Tupac. All of this comes together to both squash misconceptions and add fuel to the fire of his critics.

If Tupac has a reputation for being controversial and contradictory, the film provides reason to the rhyme. Throughout the old interviews, Tupac faced allegations of being a misogynist, a thug and a perpetuator of violence through music, but came back time after time with critical, well thought out retorts.

One of the standout interviews is Tupac talking about what creates the aggressive attitude that he had been accused of arousing in the young people who listen to his music. Tupac spits back with an anecdote about hungry people behind a locked door that contains a room full of food. He said that after being turned down so many times, the hungry people will go from chanting “please give us some food” to “give us some fucking food or we’re coming through the door with guns blazing.” Tupac would argue that it is not his music, but frustration over injustice, racism, classicism. The music is only the messenger.

Along with those moments of genius are moments of eerie prophesizing. It has been said that Tupac knew he was going to die. Evidence of this points to videos that he had done and the lyrics in his songs, but never has this legend been put so eloquently as in Resurrection. Studio footage of Tupac rallying the troops to hurry up because he doesn’t have that much time left coupled with sound bites of him saying when he dies that he is going to be alone and he will just “fade out” require little explanation that this may be true.

Although Resurrection was a project in conjunction with Pac’s mother, it shows no bias as a whole. The film puts everything out there for the viewer to form his or her own opinion about the rapper. Tupac is a very contradictory man, and Resurrection proves this time and time again. He is very intelligent and critical of his surroundings, while at the same time, he is seen by many as a man who is morally bankrupt.

But what is a documentary about a music icon without a soundtrack? Tupac: Resurrection the album proves to be a perfect supplement to the film. Afeni Shakur commissioned Eminem to create the soundtrack to Tupac’s life using Tupac’s music.

Mr. Mathers was more than up to the challenge on this project. Along with new tracks, the soundtrack includes mostly lesser known Tupac tracks that span his entire living career. Everything from his first song “Same Song” with Digital Underground to “Staring Through My Rear View” from Gang Related, his last film, appears on the collection.

The standout tracks, however, are the new ones. Eminem used tapes of Tupac’s a capella rhymes and put his own beats to it. This serves to bring Tupac into the new millennium answering some of the “what if…?” questions that a lot of his fans have had since his death.

“Runnin’ (Dying to Live)” attempts to put Tupac’s rivalry with The Notorious B.I.G. to rest. The two slain rappers provide verses for the song, produced my Eminem. Bookending the verses are sound bites from interviews by the both of them talking about the beef that add to the message of the song.

On “The Realest Killaz” Tupac gets a chance to go head-to-head with today’s gangsta rap darling 50 Cent. Eminem provides the beat again as the old and the new coexist in the only way they can, on tape. 50 does all he can to go blow for blow with Pac, but comes up short answering another “what if…?”

With the case growing for Tupac as the greatest emcee of all time, as well as the most controversial, he can’t help but live on in the hearts of his friends, family and fans. Don’t be surprised if he persists on garnering similarities to Jesus by being resurrected again and again as he continues to be the martyr for a culture of gangsters, thugs and pimps, as well as a visionary of incredible importance.