Only God Can Judge Me

The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur

By: Jeff Pearlman

Narrated by: James Shippy

“Jeff Pearlman breaks down Tupac’s life like a veteran sportswriter examining a dynasty. This detailed look at his life is the work of a writer who understands the ego of greatness.”—Chuck D

“Pearlman delivers rich, engrossing, and fascinating new details about Shakur’s life and legacy—not just once or twice—but throughout each lively page...This is the type of needed journalism, reporting, and biography that finally and deservedly provides the definitive historic account on Shakur.”—Jonathan Abrams, author of The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop

Scrutinized in life, mythologized in death, Tupac Shakur remains a subject of immense cultural significance and speculation nearly thirty years after his murder. Despite a multitude of books, documentaries, and even a feature film, much about Tupac’s story remains shrouded and misunderstood. Like many icons who died tragically young, Tupac the man has long been obscured—his edges sanded down, his complexity numbed—by the competing agendas that surround his legacy.

In Only God Can Judge Me, accomplished biographer and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman tackles his most nuanced subject, telling the definitive story of Tupac Shakur in unprecedented depth. In this authoritative look at Tupac’s life, Pearlman skillfully recreates West Coast hip hop in all its glory, going inside Death Row Records and on the sets of movies like Juice and Poetic Justice to offer the most clear-eyed rendering to date of the man who still casts a shadow over modern hip hop. But more than just a biography of a complicated figure, Only God Can Judge Me also captures the time and place in which Tupac rose, a singular moment in music history when West Coast hip hop became a phenomenon and transformed popular music.

Featuring nearly seven hundred original interviews and never-before-published details from every corner of Tupac’s life, the result offers a truly singular portrait of one of modern pop culture’s most towering figures. Guided by the voices of those who knew and lived life alongside him, Only God Can Judge Me captures the layers of a man who, even thirty years after his death, remains as elusive as ever.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Transcendent storytelling

Since I heard this was in the works a year ago, I’ve been waiting for this one. Remembered the release date. Preordered it. Anticipated it.

I knew Jeff Pearlman doesn’t do anything halfway. I knew it would be loaded with the untold stories and jaw dropping revelations his books are known for. I knew he
would manage to once again take an overfamiliar subject and somehow make it so unfamiliar, you walk away feeling as if you hadn’t known the subject at all (the best kind of storytelling).

Tupac Shakur is by far one of the single most interesting and extraordinarily complex people we’ll ever see. I don’t know how I’ve never seen a biography on him until now. But I’m glad it was Pearlman who took this project on. He’s at his absolute best telling this story.

This is the biography of the decade.

Jeff Pearlman is amazing!

I have always enjoyed the product of the author’s research that he crafts into incredibly deep stories. It is no different here, but this jump out of sports cements him as a great author- not just a sports author! Well worth your time!

The telling was beautifully done.

I feel like I know TuPac much better now. The good, bad and the ugly and love him even more than before.

Thorough

Amazingly comprehensive. I appreciate the exhausting research and the storytelling through the voices of others. Pearlman captures the complexity well. Excellent read

Jeff Pearlman did the damn thing!!

Jeff Pearlman does a WONDERFUL job of retelling the man’s life. Traces his steps from NYC to Baltimore to Marin City to Oakland and LA. Really builds the world with which he came up in and you understand his mother’s trauma, his trauma and how those things shaped him. You get anecdotes from a host of friends, family, teachers and former classmates. The author talked to as many people as possible to give the reader a full look at the man. Given how he lived and the way with which he died, the myth of Tupac has superseded the actual person. The author fills in gaps and as a result tempers down the outsized myth a bit. You’ll walk away from this book understanding that above all, Tupac Shakur was a young man figuring shit out on the fly. Trial and error. His ups, downs, contradictions, bouts of immaturity and bad choices. Only difference is that his exploits were for the world to see.