Hip-hop's greatest gift and heaviest burden is its legacy of urban mythology. It will be remembered as that bittersweet moment when young black men won the ears of America and in the process defined themselves on their own terms, raised the middle finger defiantly to a history that shamed them with slavery, misrepresented them as raccoons and criminals and co-opted the best of their culture. Family History Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971 in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York. He was the son of Alice Faye Williams, born January 10, 1947 in Lumberton, North Carolina, to Rosa Belle Williams and Walter Williams. Tupac Shakur's great-grandfather was a poor white man from Lumberton named Powell who married Millie Ann Afeni's grandmother and Tupac Shakur's great-grandmother. Millie Ann was a black woman who Powell was disowned by her family and tied to a wagon and dragged through town. Rosa Belle Williams and Walter had two children, their firstborn was Gloria Williams, Tupac Shakur's aunt, and Alice Faye Williams, named after the actress Alice Faye. Alice's father, Wa...