Tupac Shakur’s Influence After 15 Years: From Eminem to Libyan Rebels

A little over 15 years ago on Sept. 7, 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match. On Sept. 13, 1996, he died in the hospital from internal bleeding.

On the 15th anniversary of his death, Tupac's influence on the world still remains.

The deceased Tupac was posthumously ranked among the most influential rapper/MC of all time on multiple lists.

Almost every single hip-hop star in the late 1990s and early 2000s cite him as one of their influences.

Eminem, who has listened to Tupac since he was 17, said he was the greatest songwriter that ever lived, reported MTV.

Two Tupac songs that made a deep impression on Eminem include Brenda's Got a Baby and Dear Mama, which the Michigan rapper reportedly played in his car for practically a year after it came out.

In a Rolling Stone piece, rapper 50 Cent wrote every rapper who grew up in the Nineties owes something to Tupac.

I can still listen to two or three Tupac CDs straight, he wrote.

Tupac's influence extends beyond professional hip-hop artists.

He is one of the most popular artists on YouTube, which was launched almost a decade after his death. His song Life Goes On, for example, has been viewed over 29 million times on the video sharing service.

His lyrics have inspired everyone from Libyan rebel fighters to basketball star Amare Stoudemire.

[Tupac's] music articulated a set of experiences that a lot of people around the world, and particularly in Africa, have perceived as a kind of shared experience...Marginalization; poverty; angst; and a sense of powerlessness that can be converted into a sense of personal empowerment, Jeremy Prestholdt, a professor of African history at UC San Diego, told LA Times.

I guess no matter what color you was or where you came from, you felt like you could relate to him. He made you feel like you knew him, said Eminem.