In the summer of 1988 Tupac moved with his family from Baltimore to Marin City, a small, poor community north of San Francisco. He was 17, had studied theatre at an arts school in Baltimore, and was writing poems and raps. He attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley and quickly found kindred spirits. With the rapper Ray Luv, who had grown up in Santa Rosa in the North Bay, he formed Strictly Dope, his first musical project on the West Coast.
Between consciousness and fun
According to KQED, Strictly Dope existed from 1988 to 1990; DJ Dize was also part of the group. The songs from that time mix politically aware lyrics with playful, light-hearted rhymes. Known titles include Panther Power, a tribute to the Black Panthers, the movement Tupac’s mother Afeni came from, and The Case of the Misplaced Mic.
Leila Steinberg, who met Tupac in her poetry and writing circle in 1988 or 1989 (accounts vary) and was his first manager from 1989 to 1993, played an important part. It is often said that she introduced Tupac and Ray Luv to each other; what is documented is that Ray Luv also attended her circles and that she later managed him too. Steinberg took the three to Digital Underground co-founder Jimi “Chopmaster J” Dright, who recorded their first studio sessions. She then connected Tupac with Atron Gregory, manager of Digital Underground, who, by his own account, first signed Strictly Dope rather than Tupac alone.
What became of the recordings
Strictly Dope released nothing official during Tupac’s lifetime. The demos only became known after his death: early recordings came out in 2000 on The Lost Tapes: Circa 1989, expanded in 2007 as Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988-1991. Panther Power, credited to Chopmaster J and Strictly Dope as producers, also appeared in 2003 on the soundtrack to the documentary Tupac: Resurrection. An album called 1 in 21 is sometimes cited as their release; no evidence for it could be found.
Ray Luv stayed connected to Tupac: in 1996 the two rapped together with Young Lay and Mac Mall on Got 2 Survive from Young Lay’s album Black ‘n Dangerous. Strictly Dope stands at the start of a line that runs through Digital Underground to Tupac’s own career.