Oakland officially names street after legendary deceased rap icon
On Friday, a segment of a street in Oakland, California, was renamed in honor of Tupac Shakur, marking 27 years since the iconic hip-hop artist’s tragic death. The portion of MacArthur Boulevard, close to where Tupac resided in the 1990s, was christened Tupac Shakur Way. The renaming was celebrated with a two-hour event attended by Tupac’s family and the Oakland-born rapper, MC Hammer.
Following the ceremony, the Tupac Shakur Way sign was revealed. MC Hammer, renowned for his hit ‘U Can’t Touch This’ and who was close to Tupac during the last months of his life before his untimely death in 1996, proclaimed in his speech that Tupac was unequivocally ‘the greatest rapper ever.’
Other notable figures from the hip-hop community, including Tupac’s collaborator Money-B and Oakland’s own Too Short, also shared their thoughts during the event.
While Tupac was born in New York and spent his early years in New York and Baltimore, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area with his mother in the late 1980s. He lived in Oakland during the early 1990s and often referred to it as his adopted city. This dedication occurred a day after a former gang leader from Southern California pleaded not guilty to the murder charges related to Tupac’s shooting in Las Vegas.
