2Pac inspired musical to hit Broadway

Image: Tupac Shakur

When Tupac Shakur was shot in September 1996, dying seven days later, it may have called the end on his life but it by no means curtailed the mortality of his music. Despite being extremely prolific during his shortlived career (he knocked out four albums from his debut dropping in 1991 till his death, with an album for his group Thug Life and a posthumous one under the Makaveli pseduonym dropping months after his death to add to it), there has since a constant output of material since.

Add to that a richly publicised hologram at last year’s Coachella Festival and two films released after his death he starred in (and a number of documentaries), and he’s got a case for being the most celebrated artist in death ever… even more so than Elvis. And whilst they both have an abundance of conspiracy theories surrounding the legitimacy of their death, Elvis did have a musical to brag about in heaven in the name of one-upmanship. Now that advantage has gone.

Director Kenny Leon is currently getting together a Broadway musical entitled ‘Holler if ya hear me’, the title of a song taken from Shakur’s profanity laden sophomore album Strictly for my N****z, but the musical eschews the plotline of his life in favour of simply using his music to soundtrack the story of others. Leon told Broadway.com:

"Tupac was a prophet and I want everyone to see that. ['Holler If Ya Hear Me'] is a present day musical using all of Tupac's music, but Tupac is not a character in the musical".

This is either going to be the best or the worst thing ever, we really can’t decide. Although we do know what we think of our favourite’s Autocycle doing a cheeky edit of his epochal ‘Do For love’ hit from 1998; it's great:

Of course musicals and holograms are all good, but 2Pac remains an enigmatic but very dead rapper, and there’s no chance of hearing him perform his music unless technology really does move on. You can indulge in plenty of top dollar urban music from 100% alive musicians though at this year’s Wireless Legends of the Summer, with Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z dueting hologram free. We assume.

Tickets are no longer available for this event