Thug Immortal

Dispensing with niceties like narration, this no-budget straight-to-tape tribute to Tupac Shakur cobbles together interviews with his associates, television news clips, and revealing footage of our man in full thug mode (check out the scene where he browbeats a Manhattan newsdealer for selling bootleg tapes). While bawdy anecdotes from those who knew Shakur before his success provide bittersweet humor, there's little to surprise hardcore fans. Still, like a good down-and-dirty rap song, Thug Immortal exudes a blunt, incendiary power, making it a decent — if hardly definitive — look at hip-hop's most notorious martyr. B-