KRISHA SIKKA

By: Krisha Sikka

Created for ASCJ 200: NAVIGATING MEDIA & NEWS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

At the age of 25, Tupac Shakur’s life was taken from him through a drive-by shooting. He would go down to be known as a key figure in gangster rap, a legend whose life was cut short.

There have been many theories surrounding the motives and causes of this brutal murder. According to The Independent, his murder was possibly corroborated by Suge Knight, the other passenger, due to Shakur potentially leaving his record deal.

Thus, there has never been any confirmation of what the real motive was. However, his death represents a continuous, larger pattern in the music industry: gun violence.

So, I decided to add my own spin on the iconic image of Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight on the night he was killed to represent this pattern.

The cultural impact of the original image before the shooting shows how unexpected things could turn for Tupac. According to PMA Magazine, September 7th originally was a day of much buzz in Las Vegas, as individuals including Tupac and Suge themselves tuned into a Mike Tyson boxing match. A UCLA student, Leonard Jefferson, captured this image after running into them. Little did he know that this image would go down to document a crucial example of violence in the music industry taking a talent too soon.

With uncertainty around Suge Knight’s involvement, I decided to replace his image with the silhouettes of musical artists who are all connected through being victims of the systemic violence in the music industry. They have all had their lives cut short from gun violence due to a variety of reasons, even ranging from politics, like Sidhu Moosewala, to mental health, like Kurt Cobain. They are all passengers in the same vehicle of violence and are thus placed together.

I decided to also place their popular music albums fading away out the corners of the image and the car to depict how their amazing talent was taken away. By placing a a red tint on the entire image and a red outline around Tupac and the silhouette, it serves to be a commentary to again connect all these victims through their bloodshed, which was also why the gunshots were added to further emphasize the turmoil.

And, the usage of the gold glowing perimeter and golden halos symbolizes how they have passed away and are no longer able to create more music. It commemorates them for their artistic abilities while still acknowledging that they are know longer alive.

Thus, this image manipulation is intended to foster discourse around these amazing artists and how their lives were affected by violence in the music industry and gun violence overall. These artists were legends, and they shall be remembered forever as not only gifting us with their talent but also revealing some harsh truths about violence.