Back In The Day

BACK COVER: A legend after a bullet killed him at the age of twenty-five. Tupac Shakur was the most compelling-- and controversial-- rap musician of his day. Far from being the insolent "gangsta" the press put forth, Shakur was fiercely intelligent, fearless, polarizing, and determined to make his mark. Darrin Bastfield grew up with him in a rough Baltimore neighborhood. In this vivid memoir, Bastfield reveals Tupac Shakur as the teenager he really was: mysterious and enigmatic; passionate and hungry for knowledge; as enamored with Shakespeare as he was with Salt 'N Pepa; destined for greatness. In tight, edgy prose, Bastfield recalls seven years of friendship. Shakur, new in town, a skinny thirteen-year-old in shabby clothes may have looked uncool, but when he blew the school away at a talent show, it was just the first in a series of increasingly electrifying performances. Later, at the Baltimore School for the Arts, Shakur hit the stride that would carry him to international stardom. Unforgettable shows, a new love for theater, the wild night of the 1988 senior prom-- Shakur and Bastfield lived through it all together, and here it all comes alive again.