Happy Birthday: Ice Cube & Tupac Shakur

Ice Cube, born O'Shea Jackson (June 15, 1969) is an American rapper, actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer, who started his music career with the west coast rap group C.I.A. After meeting producer Dr. Dre of the World Class Wreckin' Cru, Ice Cube would later join him, Eazy E, MC Ren and DJ Yella to form N.W.A.

In 1989, Ice Cube left N.W.A. to pursue a solo career after legal battles over royalties. His solo debut being titled AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, produced by The Bomb Squad would launch a successful solo career and his first movie role cast as "Doughboy" in John Singleton's "Boyz In The Hood" (1991). The starring role would also take him in the direction of starring in other films, writing, directing and producing many other films, as well as him starting his own film company, Cubevision. Word has it there's a 4th installation of the Friday series titled Last Friday in production and set to be released in 2012.



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Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac (or simply Pac) and Makaveli, was an American rapper and occasional actor. Shakur had sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.

In addition to his career as a rap artist, he was also an actor. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie and backup dancer for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground.