In a touching tribute, a segment of Oakland’s MacArthur Boulevard in California was officially renamed Tupac Shakur Way, commemorating the iconic hip-hop artist nearly three decades after his tragic passing.
Surrounded by his family and joined by fellow Oakland native MC Hammer, the ceremony served as a powerful reminder of Tupac’s enduring legacy. Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, Tupac’s sister, moved the crowd with heartfelt words, urging them to let his spirit resonate through the streets and their hearts. The unveiling of the Tupac Shakur Way sign marked a deeply significant moment.
MC Hammer, who shared Tupac’s final months before the artist’s untimely death at 25, declared Tupac as unequivocally “the greatest rapper ever,” leaving no room for debate.
Close collaborators like Money-B and Oakland hip-hop legend Too Short also paid their respects during the ceremony. Though Tupac was born in New York and raised between there and Baltimore, his move with his mother to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s would establish a profound connection. Oakland, in particular, became his chosen home in the early 1990s, a place he embraced wholeheartedly.
“He claimed Oakland,” affirmed City Councilwoman Carroll Fife, the driving force behind the street renaming. “He said Oakland gave him his game.”
The ceremony came on the heels of a former Southern California street gang leader, Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis, pleading not guilty to the murder charge related to Tupac’s tragic shooting in Las Vegas. As the sole living person associated with the vehicle from which the fatal shots were fired, Davis became the first and only individual charged in the case, 27 years after the tragic event.
Tupac’s family maintained a certain distance from the legal proceedings, with Sekyiwa Shakur briefly acknowledging the circumstances, emphasizing that her brother’s life was cut short by gang violence, orchestrated by another Black man, whose identity remains pivotal.