Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur

Rapper Tupac Shakur transmitted Black Panther militance to a new generation, according to this scattershot biography. Music journalist Van Nguyen (Iron Age) frames Shakur as the heir to the Black radicalism of the 1960s, tracing his ideological roots to Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party, in which his mother Afeni Shakur played a prominent role. Outlining the Panthers’ beliefs, Van Nguyen highlights their critique of white supremacy and capitalism and their defiance of police brutality. According to Van Nguyen, these viewpoints shaped Shakur’s social consciousness and found expression in such songs as “Panther Power.” After his 1996 murder, Shakur became a global resistance icon to everyone from George Floyd protestors in New Zealand to child soldiers in Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front. Van Nguyen styles Shakur as “America’s last great revolutionary figure” and hip-hop’s “most aesthetically perfect man,” praising his “words of wisdom, of freedom, of truth.” Such reverential descriptions sometimes clash, however, with Van Nguyen’s attempts to make sense of more troubling aspects of Shakur’s biography, such as his conviction for sexual abuse. The result is an avid yet muddled portrait of an enigmatic superstar. Photos. (May)

This review has been updated.