June 16, 2016 would have been Bay Area rapper Tupac Shakur's 45th birthday, but the New York-born, Marin City-reared star was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and he died just days later, at the age of 24. In honor of his birthday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf declared June 16th Tupac Shakur Day, as SF Weekly notes, and this is because Oakland claims him for where his career began, with the Oakland-based Digital Underground.
Also, notably, as Hot New Hip Hop points out, "In 1991, he sued the Oakland Police Department for $10 million for allegedly beating him for jaywalking."
Even though the teaser for new Tupac biopic All Eyez On Me dropped today, perhaps this wasn't the best year for Schaaf to bestow the honor, given that unfolding OPD scandal and all. Was she aware that he was a convicted sexual assailant?
The teaser trailer for the film, which takes its name from Tupac's final and most acclaimed album, is above, and the film is set for a November 11 release. As CBS 5 says, star Demetrius Shipp Jr. "has an uncanny resemblance" to Tupac. The film also stars The Walking Dead's Danai Gurira as Afeni Shakur, who just died at age 69 last month in Sausalito, and Kat Graham as Jada Pinkett.