REMEMBERING TUPAC SHAKUR'S DEATH...14 YEARS LATER
BET.com--Monday (September 13) is the 14th anniversary of the death of Tupac Shakur. Pac died in 1996, after succumbing to gunshot wounds he suffered a week prior when leaving a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas.
Travie McCoy still vividly remembers the day. He said he did not believe the news at first.
"I was still in high school," McCoy recalled at the VMA Radio Forum on Friday in Los Angeles. "I was a freshman. I got to school and kids were crying. Kids were upset. I was like, 'What's going on?' I hadn't heard the news. I thought somebody in the school had died. They was, 'Nah — Tupac didn't make it.' My jaw immediately dropped. My school took it upon themselves to play R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts.' It was pandemonium. Everybody burst in tears, in pieces. It was a sad day. He was a fallen soldier to say the least."
Like so many others, McCoy loved Shakur's music but he also respected the rap legend as a person.
"I came up on Pac. I think I might have given [my cousin] Tyga his first Pac record," Travie said. "I just got tingles thinking about that day. Thinking about hearing one of the saddest songs played over the loudspeaker in school when he got killed. It's a shame. But his music lives on. I was listening to All Eyez on Me three days ago."
Meanwhile, veteran rapper-producer David Banner also recently commented about Pac's passing. In an MTV News interview Friday, Banner said, "It was bigger than the death of a rapper. It was the death of an icon for young people ... Pac was deeper than music."
Travie McCoy still vividly remembers the day. He said he did not believe the news at first.
"I was still in high school," McCoy recalled at the VMA Radio Forum on Friday in Los Angeles. "I was a freshman. I got to school and kids were crying. Kids were upset. I was like, 'What's going on?' I hadn't heard the news. I thought somebody in the school had died. They was, 'Nah — Tupac didn't make it.' My jaw immediately dropped. My school took it upon themselves to play R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts.' It was pandemonium. Everybody burst in tears, in pieces. It was a sad day. He was a fallen soldier to say the least."
Like so many others, McCoy loved Shakur's music but he also respected the rap legend as a person.
"I came up on Pac. I think I might have given [my cousin] Tyga his first Pac record," Travie said. "I just got tingles thinking about that day. Thinking about hearing one of the saddest songs played over the loudspeaker in school when he got killed. It's a shame. But his music lives on. I was listening to All Eyez on Me three days ago."
Meanwhile, veteran rapper-producer David Banner also recently commented about Pac's passing. In an MTV News interview Friday, Banner said, "It was bigger than the death of a rapper. It was the death of an icon for young people ... Pac was deeper than music."
And what a lot of music he left behind...