Hip-Hop Journalists Break Down Tupac Shakur's Legacy 20 Years Later

The rapper died two decades ago and is still idolized.

ByABC News
September 13, 2016, 11:08 AM
Tupac Shakur is photographed on Nov. 13, 1994.
Tupac Shakur is photographed on Nov. 13, 1994.
Getty Images

— -- Today marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Tupac Shakur and "All Eyez" will be on the late great West Coast rapper and his legacy.

Hip-hop historian Shaheem Reid explained why Tupac still remains relevant two decades after his untimely death at age 25.

"I think we all see pieces of Pac in ourselves," Reid told ABC News. "I think ... his perspective was, 'We're in the struggle together,' and as opposed to, 'I'm going to overcome it.'"

Chuck Creekmur, owner of Allhiphop.com, said Tupac was still growing as a leader before his death.

"Like others before him, such as Malcolm X, it took time for them to evolve in[to] the men they would be. And I think Pac was actively making moves...[and]...evolving very rapidly to what I think he would have been," he explained.

Reid said if Tupac were alive today, he could have made it to the top of the political world.

"I think he would have been some type of political leader in addition to a hip-hop messiah and, shoot man, if he would have been old enough he could have got that White House seat to me," Reid said.

The death of Tupac, who was shot multiple times on Sept. 7, 1996, as he was leaving an event on the Las Vegas strip and died six days later, is still a mystery. According to Creekmur, it's unlikely it will ever be solved.

"There were all kinds of discrepancies around his death as well Biggie's and I don't think we'll ever get that truth, because it opens up a Pandora's box of truth," he said.