In the mid-nineties Tupac was making millions for others, for Interscope, for Death Row. By the summer of 1996 he wanted to change that. He set up companies, planned his own label and talked openly about leaving Death Row. Only part of this became reality, and most of it only after his death. His contracts with Interscope and Death Row are covered on the Death Row Records page.
Joshua’s Dream and Ghetto Gospel
Tupac had his own music publishing company to hold the rights to his lyrics. It was reportedly first called “Ghetto Gospel Music” and later renamed “Joshua’s Dream” after a terminally ill boy named Joshua whom Tupac visited at his parents’ request. The name appears in the publishing credits of many Tupac songs; the story about the boy could not be confirmed in independent sources.
Euphanasia
Tupac saw himself not only as a rapper but as an actor and director. In 1996 he founded Euphanasia, a company meant to produce his own films and videos. It was also said to be meant to help young people get into the film business, fund youth centres and run a helpline for teenagers. September 16, 1996, is often given as its founding date, three days after Tupac died. That cannot be right; only the year 1996 is documented.
Closely linked, reportedly, was a company called 24/7, meant to produce videos and market music, clips and scripts, as well as books and calendars for charity. “Thug Nation,” with similar aims, was only set up after his death. There is little evidence for either.
Makaveli Records and “One Nation”
In 1996 Tupac called himself Makaveli, after the political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, and that was to be the name of his label. Makaveli Records was meant to release the Outlawz and other artists. The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory did come out in November 1996 credited to Makaveli Records alongside Death Row and Interscope.
The most important project was One Nation: an album with rappers from the East, the West and the South, meant to defuse the conflict with New York. Members of Brooklyn’s Boot Camp Clik later recalled sessions together, and a handwritten letter by Tupac that surfaced in 2015 lists OutKast among the guests. Often named as well are Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Scarface, Spice 1, the Luniz, Snoop Dogg and Melle Mel. The album was never released.
Amaru Entertainment
After Tupac’s death his mother Afeni Shakur founded Amaru Records in 1997, later Amaru Entertainment. It obtained the rights to release Tupac’s unreleased recordings from both the Interscope and the Death Row years and reissued his early Interscope albums. First came R U Still Down? (Remember Me) in 1997, distributed by Jive; Interscope later took over distribution. Around a dozen posthumous albums and the documentary Tupac: Resurrection (2003) were released through Amaru.
Since Afeni’s death in May 2016 the label has been run by Tom Whalley, the executive who signed Tupac to Interscope in 1991. In January 2022 Tupac’s sister Sekyiwa Shakur and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation sued him in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that he had paid himself excessive compensation as administrator and withheld personal items from the estate that were due to her. Whalley’s lawyer rejected the claims, saying Whalley had never taken trustee’s fees and had brought Amaru back from near insolvency to solid financial footing. We found no outcome of the case in the sources checked (as of October 2026).
Makaveli Branded and the foundation
In the early 2000s Afeni Shakur launched an official fashion label, Makaveli Branded, reportedly shortly after the seventh anniversary of Tupac’s death. 1997 also saw the start of what is now the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation: it awards scholarships, runs arts camps for teenagers and in 2005 opened an arts centre in Stone Mountain, Georgia, which closed again in 2015, close to what Tupac had in mind for Euphanasia.
It is often said that after Tupac’s death all his companies except Amaru were immediately shut down. For most of his plans that is true, they died with him.