Tupac Shakur-Thug Angel: The Life of an Outlaw (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Booklet Featurette-Interviews (13) Audio-Only Track-Rashida Jones Telephone Interview Notes-Tupac's Reading Library Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	91:35
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Peter Spirer
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Tupac Shakur Quincy Jones Shock 'G' Money 'B' Johnny 'J' Leila Steinberg
Case	Click
RPI	$39.95	Music	QD3 Johnny 'J' Femi Ojetunde

    Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known as 2Pac and Makaveli later in life, was born on 16 June 1971 in the Bronx. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was a member of the Black Panthers, a militant political party which fought to address the inequality of life in White Americaah, to quote Eminem. Young Tupac, a voracious reader, absorbed the attitudes and teachings of his mother, stepfather, and other mentors during his formative years. Fuelled by lofty ambitions, a formidable intellect, natural talent, determination and charisma, Tupac's ascension to Hip Hop royalty was as inevitable as his premature demise.

    On 7 September 1996, at the age of 25, Tupac was shot four times in the chest after attending a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas. He died six days later on September 13, Black Friday. To date, no one has been formally charged with his murder. Slayings that went down just after Tupac was shot could be related.

    If you want a more thorough biography of Tupac, as told by those who knew and loved him, then grab a copy of this superb DVD. Produced by Quincy Jones' company QD3 for Black Watch Television in the US, Thug Angel - The Life of an Outlaw presents a multi-media tribute to the life and passions of this famous rapper: a man born, raised and killed on the streets of the country he strove to reform.

    The main footage of Tupac is drawn from one interview recorded at the age of 17, and another taped much later as he fires various automatic weapons at an indoor gun range. The difference between the younger and older Tupac is remarkable. Once articulate and wide-eyed with idealism, Tupac became a reflection of life on poverty row, where potatoes were often cooked as a meat substitute, crime was a hobby and drugs were commonplace. Although outspoken, hard working, generous, and sexually insatiable, Tupac also carried himself like a one-man army: afraid of no-one, suspicious of authority, always looking for a reason to fight. The fires that raged inside Tupac jostled for possession of his mind and spirit. The same man whose favourite piece of music was a passage from Les Miserables also smoked weed constantly and collected AK-47s. It comes as no surprise that he even predicted his own untimely death.

    Interspersed between Tupac's taped interviews are new testimonials by Karen Lee (family friend, publicist), Dr Mutulu Shakur (step-father), Mopreme Shakur (step-brother), Bobby McCall (former Black Panther), Ray Luv (early rap partner), Leila Steinberg (manager 1989-1992), Greg 'Shock G' Jacobs and Money B (from Digital Underground, Tupac's first official touring gig), Malcomb (one of Pac's loyal Outlaws), Johnny 'J' (record producer), Henry Fayson (bodyguard), Michael Badd (Tupac Historian), Quincy Jones and others.

    Interestingly, characters from the Death Row Records era, such as Frank Robinson, another of Tupac's bodyguards and the author of Got Your Back (a cool book), and the notorious boss of Death Row himself Suge Knight, are conspicuously absent. It is also worth mentioning that this DVD does not contain any music by Tupac, apart from early footage of him performing in his first live gig. I assume that Death Row own the rights to most of Tupac's back-catalogue; they were not involved with this documentary. Check out Death Row Uncut and The Best of Tupac (R1) for compilations of video clips. For a documentary about Tupac's final year, have a look at Before I Wake, which did involve biographer Frank Robinson.

Video

    As expected, sharpness and detail is pleasing. This is a highly professional production, bringing to mind the crisp hyperrealism of latter-day 'adult' videography. Apart from the garishness inherent with shot-on-tape material, the image is easy on the eye and offers an impressive amount of resolution. High contrast transitions betrayed some edge enhancement, and shadow detail is fair. The archival video footage, such as Tupac's 1988 interview and his Strictly Dope gig in 1989, ranges in sharpness from average to poor.

    Colours are solid and vibrant all round. There are no instances of colour bleed and skin tones are accurate. Saturation tends to be strong; I put that down to being characteristic of the video source used and not a transfer fault.

    The only artefacts worth mentioning relate to the archival video footage. Video noise, cross-colour artefacts, pixelization, undersaturated colours and other similar grievances affect the image, not to mention the usual menu of amateur camerawork gaffes, such as overexposures and focusing problems. One assumes that QD3 did what they could to make these elements presentable, and considering that this stuff is rarely more than 10 years old, most of it looks quite okay.

    I noticed no layer change during the feature, so I assume the dual layer formatting contains part or all of the two and a half hour's worth of supplemental video material.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Speech is loud and bold with no distortion. Audio sync is fine. Archival audio fidelity is variable.

    The phat beats laid in as sonic wallpaper are delivered by QD3, Johnny 'J' and Femi Ojetunde. While these tunes are not the raw rhyming raps of 2Pac, they do set the mood and complement the subject matter. Within the mix (credited to Earl and Oracle Post) they are accorded the full benefit of the Dolby Digital encoding.

    Occasionally the surrounds participate in telling the story of Tupac, for instance when covers of books he studied fly past the viewer left and right, and with some miscellaneous ambient sounds. My B&W subwoofer was also drafted into service to beef up bass lines in the music. The bulk of the sound design, though, is front-heavy and driven by the centre channel.

    All-in-all, this is a meaty, engaging soundtrack that makes a nice change from the usually adequate, but comparatively reserved Dolby Pro-Logic treatment. Play it with attitude.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

Interviews

• Tupac aged 17, 1988 (35:41)
• Tupac at the gun range, circa 1995 (26:01)
• Dr Mutulu Shakur in prison (22:51)
• Treach from Naughty by Nature (2:18)
• Shock 'G' from Digital Underground, a funny, entertaining character (17:29)
• Miles Eric Dyson on the lecture circuit (1:13)
• Susan McClary, Professor of Music, UCLA School of Music, dissecting one of Tupac's recurring musical motifs (3:10)
• Money 'B' from Digital Underground (1:31)
• Henry Fayzon, bodyguard (6:09)
• Karen Lee, former publicist (2:43)
• Quincy Jones (4:13)
• Leila Steinberg (2:30)
• Johnny 'J', record producer (2:32)
• Rashida Jones, daughter of Quincy Jones, phone interview (audio only, 7:59)

Tupac's Reading List (9 pages)

Photo Gallery (21:10)

Biography (5 pages)

DVD Credits

Booklet (16 pages)

• Tupac's personal facts, measurements and statistics
• A detailed timeline
• More personal statements by producers Quincy "QD3" Jones III, Leila Steinberg, Tracy Robinson, director Peter Spirer, and Casey Suschan
• Chapter listing

    The Region 4 release misses out on:

• Discography.
• Unreleased songs.
• Outtakes from "Mac Mall" videoclip directed by Tupac.

• Nothing.

    My advice is to go for the Region 4 DVD, since any missing extras are not going to be show stoppers.

    The Australian DVD boasts a clean video transfer coupled to a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that adds polish and shine to the proceedings. Thug Angel is recommended to fans of Tupac and anyone curious about why he's still revered and remembered six years after his death.

    Thug Angel - Life of an Outlaw has been released to coincide with Tupac's birthday. Keep it real.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
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