Going beyond legend of Tupac

A new biography on the rapper is based on a sportswriter's more than 650 interviews.

- KEITH MURPHY

TUPAC is the subject of "Only God Can Judge Me"

It was an odd pitch.

For nearly 30 years, veteran journalist and author Jeff Pearlman had made his bones as a respected sportswriter with a stacked resume that included seven New York Times bestsellers. His acclaimed 2014 read, "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s," was even adapted into an Emmy-nominated HBO series, "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty." Yet when Pearlman told his agent in the summer of 2022 about an idea he had for a book chronicling the turbulent life, euphoric rise and tragic death of hip-hop deity Tupac Shakur, he was met with bewilderment. "He said, 'But you are a white guy who writes about sports," " Pearlman said of the initial discussion.

"Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of TuShakur" (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers) sticks out of Pearlman's literary portfolio like Kendrick Lamar at a Drake fan meet-and-greet. His previous work detailed the highs, lows and triumphs of such sporting icons as the 1986 World Series-winning, wild bunch New York Mets; disgraced MLB pitcher Roger Clemens; dynastic '90s Super Bowl champs the Dallas Cowboys; Chicago Bears running back great Walter Payton; NFL gunslinger Brett Favre; and twosport phenom Bo Jackson.

Yet the charismatic Tupac Amaru Shakur, a gifted emcee, actor and social activist who was killed at the too-soon age of 25 in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting on Sept. 7, 1996 was as much an eloquent voice of a generation as he was the self-destructive face of gangster rap. The same celebrated Shakur who rapped about women's empowerment on his hopeful song "Keep Ya Head Up" also did a sevenmonth stint at Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York in 1995, after being charged and convicted of sexual abuse, stemming from a 1993 incident.