Special Coverage Pop Culture Classics (The EW 1000)Summer MusicSummer TVBox Office Game
The best rappers-turned-actors: Tupac Shakur | 102418__tupac_l
Gridlock'd: Everett Collection

RAP NAME 2Pac

RAP PERSONA Thug visionary who embodied the tension between higher spiritual yearnings and the call of the street; after his 1996 murder, he was seen as a martyr who prophesized his own doom.

SCREEN CHARACTER Spoon, a jazz musician who, along with bandmate Stretch (Tim Roth, right), tries to kick drugs and enter a rehab program, only to be frustrated by bureaucracy

WHY HE'S GREAT Shakur effortlessly navigates the movie's tricky tonal balance between bleakness and farce, and he has a terrific rapport with Roth.

EW MOVIE GRADE B (Read the review)

IF YOU LIKE THIS 2Pac may have been the most talented actor to emerge from hip-hop, but his early death made him into a James Dean-like figure of unfulfilled screen promise. He delivered a handful of memorable performances, including a street kid who goes bad in Juice, a romantic lead opposite Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice, and a corrupt cop in Gang Related.


Sign up for EW.com's The 25 newsletter!

Stay in the know and get EW.com's top 5 stories, 5 days a week (sent weekday afternoons).
Posted Nov 04, 2005 | Order Article Reprints