September 13, 1996. That was the day we lost one of hip-hops most brilliant minds.

Tupac Amaru Shakur, who went by his stage name 2Pac, wrote about the complexities of living in urban America–his lyrics often referenced hardship in big cities, racism and other issues that faced men who shared the same skin tone as his.

His lyrics were tough to hear sometimes but they capture a moment in time and a perspective that needed to be recorded and archived. He also had a soft side though *and that’s been archived too. *

1986: A young 2pac and Jada Pinkett record a music video at the Baltimore School for the Arts to Will Smith’s Parents Just Don’t Understand."

1988: A seventeen-year-old 2Pac on what’s it’s like to be young in the 1980s:

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