2pac 1993 Premium Cotton T-Shirt
Mugshot Story
In the early hours of 19 November 1993, 22-year-old Tupac Amaru Shakur was booked at Manhattan’s 18th Precinct after a 20-year-old fan accused him and several friends of sexually assaulting her in suite 1221 of the Parker Meridien Hotel.
Standing in the same bomber jacket he was wearing on the Harlem set of Above the Rim, Shakur posed for front-and-profile photos, the fresh scar on his right cheek merely stage make-up from the film – a detail that has since become part of the mugshot’s lore.
A grand jury indicted him a week later on charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and illegal weapons possession; he would be convicted in December 1994 of first-degree sexual abuse and given a 1½- to 4½-year sentence, serving about eight months before Suge Knight posted bail in 1995.
Today, the stark black-and-white images from that night are viewed as a turning point: they mark the moment the outspoken activist-rapper’s life tilted from rising stardom into the legal turmoil and defiant “Thug Life” persona that defined his remaining years.
