Words for My Comrades
A Political History of Tupac Shakur
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Featured on NPR's Books We Love 2025
'An astounding achievement' MARCUS J. MOORE
'Learned [and] compassionate' THE TIMES
'A must-read' IRISH TIMES
Before his murder at twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the pre-eminent storyteller of the 1990s. He recorded several platinum-selling albums, starred in major films and became an activist and political hero known the world over. In this extraordinary cultural history, Dean Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac's coming of age, fame and influence and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a icon.
Drawing upon conversations with the people who bore witness, Words for My Comrades tells the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by consumer culture - and how America produced, in Tupac and his Black Panther mother Afeni, two of its most iconic revolutionaries.
'An astounding achievement' MARCUS J. MOORE
'Learned [and] compassionate' THE TIMES
'A must-read' IRISH TIMES
Before his murder at twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the pre-eminent storyteller of the 1990s. He recorded several platinum-selling albums, starred in major films and became an activist and political hero known the world over. In this extraordinary cultural history, Dean Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac's coming of age, fame and influence and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a icon.
Drawing upon conversations with the people who bore witness, Words for My Comrades tells the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by consumer culture - and how America produced, in Tupac and his Black Panther mother Afeni, two of its most iconic revolutionaries.
- Published: May 07 2026
- ISBN: 9781399615457
Press Reviews
- Saeed Jones, award-winning author of How We Fight For Our Lives
In a time in which having a rich relationship with the truth is especially vital, here comes Dean Van Nguyen. History is either a tool of the state or an outside screaming for freedom. Words for My Comrades is about freedom - it is freedom at work
- Marcus J. Moore, author of High and Rising (A Book About De La Soul)
Words for My Comrades is elegant, incisive, and deeply considered. With Tupac's political history as the focus, Dean Van Nguyen properly humanizes a man who reached mythical status long ago. An astounding achievement
- Walter Thompson-Hernández, author of The Compton Cowboys
In Words For My Comrades, Dean Van Nguyen deftly ties Tupac's brilliant career with his anti-capitalist upbringing. A richly researched biography that honours his subject's bold, deeply textured life and art
- Kirkus Reviews
Moves confidently . . . Fresh interpretations of a foundational hip-hop narrative
Victoria Segal
THE TIMESSets out to transcend the standard pop star biography, carefully knotting the evolution of hip-hop into a sweeping account of 20th-century radical US politics . . . With the old-school grit of a hard-boiled crime writer, Van Nguyen sketches out a story full of explosive characters and explosive violence . . . It's no failing of this learned, compassionate narrative that Shakur the man remains elusive
- IRISH TIMES
Dean Van Nguyen's fascinating new book tells the story of a musical icon's political life . . . Insightful, readable and thoroughly well researched, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of politics and pop culture
- IRISH TIMES
[There is] much to admire about Van Nguyen's industrious, thought-provoking research, oral histories and thorough critical analysis of Shakur's significance . . . anyone (Shakur fans or not) interested in hip-hop history and Black radical political ideology will, with some justification, love it
Hamza Shehryar
JacobinThe defiant stare, gangster caricature, and death at just twenty-five: all of it has been repackaged into a consumable legend, more often that not detached from the political environment that made him. Words for My Comrades is, at its core, a rejection of that hollowing out. It is Van Nguyen's attempt to return Tupac to the radical context from which he emerged ... These revealing excavations of Tupac's personal and political journey make his book as captivating as it is revealing
Michael Schaub
NPR, Books We Love 2025This is a beautifully written, fascinating look at the legacy of an American legend through a different lens
- The San Francisco Chronicle
Insightful . . . Van Nguyen contextualizes the hallowed lyrics of Shakur's music by contrasting a personal biography of the rapper with relevant history lessons on, among others, the Black Panthers and Malcolm X
- Harper's Bazaar
Music journalist Dean Van Nguyen paints a comprehensive portrait of Tupac Shakur-not just as the legendary rapper, but also as an artist existentially shaped by radical politics . . . As this bold biography makes evident, Shakur's political conscience naturally informed the way he approached his art
- RTÉ
This smart and sharp political biography traces Tupac's activism and artistry, exploring how his radical legacy continues to resonate-especially after the George Floyd uprisings. A bold, insightful take that moves beyond the myth, this book celebrates Shakur as a voice for justice and change in America's racial and cultural landscape
- Monique Snyman, Bram Stoker-award nominated author of The Night Weaver
Words for My Comrades is a searing, essential corrective to the myth-making machine . . . reminding us that behind every platinum plaque might be a Panther's ghost, still howling for justice
- Stanley Fritz, author of Confessions of a Sucker for Love
The book expertly tells the political story of Tupac's life and how the radicalisation he grew up in impacted his music and, by extension, the world. But more than that, it walks you through two generations of justice, hurt, love, pain, and trauma, by not only telling his story, but the story of his mother