Sep 17, 1997603 words · 3 min
One Year Later: Tupac's Legacy in Music, Film, and Online
September 1997: Labels and studios fight over Tupac's estate. What became of the plans, and why MTV's historical correction was wrong itself.
Original: “Tupac Legacy Lives On In Music, Film, And Online” · MTV News · no byline · September 17, 1997
One year after Tupac Shakur’s death, MTV News took stock: not of his life, but of the business that followed. Citing the New York Post, the network reported that several parties were jockeying for the rights to a large number of unreleased songs. The film and video rights to his life story, as well as to poems and other writings, were also still up for sale at the time.
Record labels and Hollywood position themselves
Two labels in particular showed interest in the music: Mercury Records eyed an album of early recordings, and Tupac’s original label, Interscope, planned at least two albums from his final recordings. Film producers also came forward: Quincy Jones and Marvin Worth, producer of Malcolm X, wanted to bring Tupac’s life to the big screen; the HBO network was interested in a documentary.
For the murder investigation, MTV pointed to a new online offering from the Las Vegas Sun. The newspaper bundled a full year of coverage there, including photos, details from the death certificate, and timelines.
Afeni Shakur takes control, Hollywood takes its time
The unreleased music did indeed arrive, but first through Tupac’s mother. In November 1997, Afeni Shakur’s Amaru label released the double album R U Still Down? jointly with Interscope and Jive, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Further estate albums followed: in 2001, Until the End of Time reached No. 1.
In film, it took significantly longer. The documentary Tupac: Resurrection (2003), in which Tupac guides the audience through his life in his own words, was produced by MTV Films and Amaru and was nominated for an Oscar. A major theatrical feature film about his life only followed in 2017: All Eyez on Me, distributed by Lionsgate, grossed about $55.7 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo.
Late guilty verdict in the Las Vegas murder case
The murder case that the Las Vegas Sun documented in 1997 remained open for decades. On August 31, 2026, a Las Vegas jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of murder; according to the prosecution, he was not the shooter, but orchestrated the crime. Sentencing is scheduled for October 13, 2026, and Davis has announced an appeal. The verdict is not final (as of October 2026).
A correction that was off the mark itself
At the end of the report was a correction. On The Week in Rock, Kurt Loder had said Tupac was named after the Peruvian Tupac Amaru rebels. MTV corrected that Tupac and the rebels were both named after Tupac Amaru, a Cuban insurrectionary who had been active some 50 years ago.
Loder’s sentence was indeed wrong: the Peruvian guerrilla group MRTA only emerged in the early eighties, and Tupac was born in 1971. But the correction was just as wrong. The namesake of both is Túpac Amaru II, an Indigenous leader who led an uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Peru in 1780-81 and was executed in Cusco in 1781. He himself had taken his name from Túpac Amaru, the last Inca ruler.
Neither of them has anything to do with Cuba. The mix-up was understandable in 1997: at the time, the MRTA was making headlines worldwide due to the hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima.
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