Celebrating 26 years since the release of Tupac’s album “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,” under his Makaveli alias, the official 2Pac Instagram account shares an explanation as to why Tupac adopted the name.
Unfortunately Tupac passed away before releasing his debut album under his new alias. Released as his first posthumous project, Tupac recorded the entire album in 3 days. Not all the songs recorded for the album made the final cut.
Thankfully, prior to his untimely demise, Tupac provided some clarification as to why he would refer to himself as Makaveli. During an interview, dubbed as his very last interview, Tupac spoke about his new alias and album.
“I plotted every single step, from this to this. Everything is plotted,” said Tupac in the Rob Marriott interview. “That’s another way to keep your self esteem low. That’s another way to keep you unconfident and I’m putting the “K” cause I’m killing that illuminati s***.”
“If people keep supporting me, just buying my records and going to my concerts, just supporting me, I’m a keep giving money. Like Makaveli, every time it goes Platinum, I’m putting up money for a community center,” he added.
Since his early days all the way till his time incarnated, Tupac’s love for books was reflected in his music and interviews. Tupac’s reading about a sixteenth-century politician and philosopher, would influence Shakur’s new alias.
Fun Fact: Suge Knight stopped Tupac initial plans of releasing his Makaveli album “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,” as a free mixtape.
“The Italian’s I speak about were truly great men. And I find any great man, Black or White, I’m going to study them, learn them, so he can’t be great to me no more. Like, Machiavelli. My name is not Machiavelli. My name is Makaveli. I took it, that’s mine. He gave me that. And I don’t feel no guilt. All these motherf****** stole from us forever. I’m taking back what’s mine. It’s just that they recorded it when he said it. It’s probably something he took from us that they didn’t let us record,” explained Tupac in the 1996 interview.
Adding to the explanation was a post shared by the official 2Pac IG account. “What’s with this Makaveli? Why name yourself after a sixteenth-century politician and philosopher?,” the question read on the post. “That’s what got me here, My reading. It’s not like I idolize this one guy Machiavelli. I idolize that type of thinking where you do whatever’s gonna make you achieve your goal,” answered Makaveli.
