Tupac Shakur And Tupac Amaru. Who Were They? Most of the people, especially whose likes rap music knows who was Tupac Shakur. But many of them, don't know where that name "Tupac" comes from. Tupac Shakur was a rapper very successful who died in 1996. Even, after more than 20 years he passed away there is a lot of fans of his music. But his artistic name "Tupac Amaru" comes from a revolutionary indigenous, leader of the most important revolution against Spanish Empire in Hispanic South America in the 18 century. His real name was José Gabriel Condorcanqui, he was born in Canas, a province of Cuzco, Peru and he was raised as a descendant of the ancient Incas. His revolutionary ideas crop up after seeing the punishment that the indigenous suffered at the hands of the Spanish Empire. After being struggling and fighting with Spanish Army, he was executed, along with his wife and three of his four sons.