Tupac Shakur Had A Place In His Heart For An Unlikely Style Of Music

As Golus also writes in her book, prior to relocating to California, Shakur's family lived for a time in Baltimore, Maryland where Shakur attended the Baltimore School for the Arts. That experience provided Shakur a broad liberal arts education. Despite the opportunities afforded Shakur by the institution, his family was economically underprivileged and his mother struggled with substance use issues, per Golus.

While in school in Baltimore, Shakur performed Shakespeare and even danced ballet (via Tupac Shakur). According to Golus, Tupac loved school and it was through that experience Shakur realized his interest in the arts. Born in 1971, Shakur was a teenager in the '80s. During this time music emerging from Britain was popular, a scene characterized by Rolling Stone as a "second British invasion." It was from this same stable of British musicians that Shakur drew some of his most surprising influences, as Golus writes.