Rostafa was five or six years old when he first heard Tupac Shakur’s voice come out of his father’s car speakers. It was 1996 or 1997, and two cassette tapes sat in the console: Biggie’s “Ready to Die” and Tupac’s “Me Against the World.” His father was in his 40s, not the target demographic for gangsta rap, but he recognized something in it anyway.
“He recognized the poetry that was spewing out of rap, but more particularly with Tupac,” Rostafa said. “He understood the anger, he understood the frustrations, he understood the abandonment of lock-in-key kids at that generation.”
Nearly 30 years later, that same recognition is driving a daylong Tupac Shakur tribute across three Montclair locations on September 12, timed to the 30th anniversary of Shakur’s death on September 13, 1996. It is called “2Pac Revisited,” and Rostafa, the Montclair-based actor, musician and event producer behind it, wants one thing understood before anybody buys a ticket.
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“We’re not here to celebrate Tupac a celebrity,” Rostafa said. “We’re here to celebrate Tupac the human being, the revolutionary artist and activist and community person.”…