Tupac Shakur was murdered 29 years ago today. His status as a cultural icon is beyond dispute, but the legend that’s built up around his tragically short life has often overshadowed the radical political outlook that shaped his work.

Tupac Shakur has been everything to everyone. A martyr. A thug. A poet. A luminary who eclipsed stardom itself. Almost three decades after his untimely death, he endures, his image splashed across murals, posters, and T-shirts worldwide — much like a certain Argentine doctor.

Yet while Tupac’s legacy persists, it is also, like that of Che Guevara, too often stripped of the radical politics that defined his life. His defiant scowl and “Thug Life” tattoo have been immortalized as a brand, while his revolutionary lineage and his critiques of capitalism, racism,

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