Marin City, California — Tupac's Bay Area years

Marin City is a small unincorporated community of roughly 3,000 people tucked into the hills of Marin County, directly across the bay from San Francisco — an enclave of public housing and lower-income residents sitting in physical proximity to some of the wealthiest real estate in California. Tupac moved here in 1988 with his mother Afeni, after his formative years in Baltimore. He was seventeen. The contrast between Marin City's conditions and its surroundings — the wealth of Sausalito and Mill Valley visible from the same hillside — informed the political anger that runs through his music.

He worked various jobs in Marin City while pursuing music, eventually finding his way into the orbit of Digital Underground, a Bay Area hip hop group led by Shock G, who took him on as a roadie and dancer. His first recorded appearance was on Digital Underground's 1990 single "Same Song," which appeared on the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack and gave him his first national exposure. The connection to Digital Underground — and to the Bay Area rap scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s — shaped the West Coast foundation of his musical identity, alongside the Baltimore School for the Arts years and his subsequent move to Los Angeles.

Marin City itself has remained largely unchanged in character since Tupac's years there. A mural commemorating him has been painted in the community. His connection to the area is acknowledged in the local identity, even as the surrounding Marin County has become increasingly expensive and inaccessible to the communities he came from.