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remembers.
“I thought my father was dead all my life. After I got shot, I looked up, there was this nigga that looked just like me. And he was my father; that’s when I found out.
“We still didn’t take no blood test, but the nigga looked just like me and the other nigga’s dead. So now I feel that I’m past the father stage. I do want to know him, and I do know him. We did talk and he did visit and help me when I was locked down, but I’m past that.” -Tupac, to Vibe magazine’s Kevin Powell, June 1996

There were several important male figures in Tupac Shakur’s life. But it wasn’t until he was 23 that he met his biological father.
A member of the Jersey City branch of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, Bill Garland met Afeni Shakur at a strategy officer’s meeting in New York City in 1969.

The two had a short affair in 1970, which led to the birth of Tupac, on June 16, 1971 – while Afeni was in jail for conspiracies to blow up New York department stores and subway police stations.
Living separately, but around the family for his son’s early childhood, Garland fell out of touch in the mid’70s and stayed that way until ‘Pac was recovering from being shot at New York’s Quad Studios in 1994.

After ‘Pac’s murder, two years later, Garland sued Afeni for half of the estate, citing, in the lawsuit, her false claim on the death certificate that her only son’s father was deceased. Garland lost the case, but a DNA test he took for the hearing confirmed his paternity.

Recently, approaching the 15th anniversary of his son’s death, Bill Garland, now 61, an employee of the Jersey City Incinerator Authority and a father of six, visited the XXL offices to talk about Tupac.
It’s been 15 years since your son Tupac’s death. How do you feel when you look back?

Billy Garland: It still hurts. We’re talking about someone that is a part of you. Someone that you wish you had spent more time with as a father. Someone that you loved and… Fifteen years, it still feels like yesterday.

To anybody out there, the last thing you ever, ever wanna do is lose your child. It’s the most painful thing in the world. Fortunately-I don’t know, fortunately or unfortunately – it’s a child that you see regularly. I walk down the street and see his picture on people’s T-shirts. I see magazines.
You hear him…

Every day on the radio. You know, I’m not the only parent who lost a celebrity son or daughter. But I’ve gotta be one of the few parents that have to see that and be reminded of that daily.
Does it amaze you? There are not too many celebrities who are that big, let alone rappers.

Yes, to a certain extent, because it was always my son. He was never “2Pac, the superstar.” You know, we played Monopoly together. And he tried to cheat. (Laughs) Yeah, in prison. Little, stupid stuff.
You know, we ate sunflower seeds together. He had that ability to be down home, just as real as anyone else. He cared for people.
That was his main thing. He really cared for people. I think that’s why he would get so upset when people tried to question his commitment, his love for Black women or Black men. – XXL.marg.