Tupac Shakur, who had deep roots in Oakland, including his work with legendary Hip-Hop group Digital Underground and rap legend Ray Love, will have a street named in his honor.
Per OaklandSide, the city plans on renaming a section of one of its most prominent streets after the rapper. Today (May 16), the City Council will vote on renaming the section of MacArthur Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Van Buren Avenue as "Tupac Shakur Way." The item is on the consent agenda, which means it will be voted on with other items without discussion.
“Tupac Shakur’s legacy will continue through his contributions in art and social outreach, through his family and fans, touching countless lives of children and elders over the years while alive and after his death, taken too young by gun violence,” states the resolution, which was introduced by Councilmember Carroll Fife.
2Pac rose to fame while with Digital Underground and recorded his debut solo album, 2Pacalypse Now, while living in the city. Ray Love famously contributed the opening to one of his signature songs, "Trapped," and Pac continued working with Bay Area artists throughout his career, including Richie Rich, Spice-1, E-40, and Too Short among others.
Digital Underground's Money B previously spoke to Rock The Bells about working with 2Pac.
"His work ethic is unlike anything that I've seen since," he remembered. "I know what work ethic looks like because he was super focused and he worked super hard. I've never seen anybody work that hard when it comes to writing songs and being laser-focused on what he wanted to do and how he wanted to get the most out of things. It was Shock G on the production side and 2Pac on the writing side and neither one of them would leave the studio until things were sounding exactly how we wanted them to sound."
In 2016, Oakland city officials also proclaimed June 16 to be “Tupac Shakur Day.”