Celebrity Estate Lessons - Tupac Shakur

When Tupac Shakur died in 1996, he didn’t have a Will. Since he was a California resident at the time, both of his parents had a claim to his estate, even though his father had never been a part of his life, having famously paid only $820, a bag of peanuts, and a movie ticket in child support. Luckily, California’s law stipulates that parental claims are only valid if there is a substantial relationship and monetary support was provided to the child. Because of his father’s absence during Tupac’s life, he received nothing after his death; the entire estate went to his mother, Afeni Shakur.

Afeni set up the Tupac Amaru Shakur foundation, which opened a year after his death, to provide arts programming for young people. She also quickly set up a Trust, naming Tom Whalley, the former head of Warner Brothers records as the Trustee. Also included in the Trust is the ownership of Amaru Entertainment, which controls the rights to Tupac’s music.

Afeni then set out to gain ownership of as much of Tupac’s music as possible, suing both Death Row Records and Entertainment One, since both companies owned unreleased songs. Tupac has been impressively prolific after his death, having released seven albums, five of which went platinum and a Greatest Hits album that went diamond. Contact Harrison Estate Law, P.A. to learn about estate planning.