Sanyika Shakur

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Sanyika Shakur" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Sanyika Shakur
2007 mugshot
Born	Kody Dejohn Scott (1963-11-13)November 13, 1963 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	June 6, 2021(2021-06-06) (aged 57) Oceanside, California, U.S.
Other names	Monster, Monster Kody, Monster Kody Scott
Occupation(s)	Author, speaker
Children	3
Parent(s)	Ernest Scott, Birdie Scott
Conviction(s)	Armed robbery, assault, illegal possession of a weapon, parole violation, attempted murder, grand-theft auto
Criminal penalty	Imprisonment of six years

Sanyika Shakur (born Kody Dejohn Scott; November 13, 1963 – June 6, 2021),

.

Monster describes how Shakur was drawn into gang life, his experiences as a gangster both on the street and in prisons, and eventually his transformation into a Black nationalist.

Shakur spent 36 months at

In March 2007, Shakur, already sought by police for

Also in 2008, Shakur made his fiction debut with the publication of T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. (Grove Atlantic Books). He was released from Pelican Bay after serving two-thirds of his 6-year sentence in August 2012.

Early life

Shakur was born Kody Dejohn Scott in

Ernest Scott physically and emotionally abused Kody, routinely beating him and showing deliberate favoritism toward his biological children over Shakur, which included taking the other children out to dinners, movies, and trips to his hometown of Houston and intentionally leaving Shakur behind. In 1970, Ernest and Birdie Scott divorced, and, for the next five years, Ernest Scott would visit the family on weekends but still openly displayed contempt for young Shakur.

In 1972, Birdie Scott moved her family into a house on West 69th Street and Denker Avenue in a very rough and gang-infested neighborhood on the west side of

Stanley Tookie Williams

, the leader of the West Side Crips street gang.

In his memoir

and lift weights at Williams's house. According to Williams, Shakur was always present at the house and would watch in awe as the gang members would lift weights and tell stories about gang fights and shootings that they had committed. In the book, Williams also expressed his regret regarding his behavior around the impressionable young Shakur, and he held himself personally responsible for exposing Shakur to drugs, as Shakur himself would later become a frequent PCP user.

Joining the Crips

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

In 1975, a member of the West Side Crips nicknamed Sidewinder formed a set called the

Eight Tray Gangster Crips

(also known as 83GC, ETG or ETGC) in Shakur's neighborhood. On the evening of June 15, 1975, the day of his sixth-grade graduation, Shakur was courted into (also known as being "jumped in," when gang members beat up the new recruit to see if he or she is brave enough to fight back and defend himself or herself) the ETGs.

Shakur and another gang member then

12-gauge shotgun

and instructed not to return to the car unless he used all eight rounds of the weapon, shot several Brims gang members that evening.

Disfiguring an older black man

As a new member of the Crips, Shakur was mentored in the ways of gang-banging by Tray Ball. In 1977, at the ripe age of 13, Shakur and Tray Ball attempted to rob an older black man who was walking through their neighborhood. The man punched Shakur in the face and, after being physically restrained by Tray Ball when he attempted to run, was kicked and stomped by Kody for approximately twenty minutes. Kody's vicious attack left the man in a coma with his face permanently disfigured.

According to Shakur, Crips present at the crime scene overheard police officers saying that whoever assaulted the man was a "monster" and reported this back to him. From that point on, other members of the ETGs referred to Shakur as Monster, and he took the name as a street moniker.

First arrest for shooting

Shakur's first arrest occurred in 1978 at age 14 after he shot at the employee of a fast-food restaurant who had assaulted his younger brother Kershaun and later assaulted and pulled a gun on Shakur. Kershaun Scott later joined the Eight Trays and assumed the nickname Li'l Monster.

A week after being released from jail, Shakur was arrested again after being falsely accused of shooting a member of the Inglewood Family Bloods while he and other members of the Crips were on their way to a roller-skating rink in Compton, California. On February 14, 1979, Shakur was arrested for assault and grand-theft auto and served nine months at Camp Munz in Lake Hughes, California.

The rivalry between the Eight Trays and the Rollin' 60s: the beginning of Crip-on-Crip violence

During Shakur's stay at Camp Munz, several major events occurred on the streets of South Central Los Angeles that involved the Crips. On March 15, 1979, the West Side Crips leader

on December 13, 2005.

On August 9, 1979, Raymond Washington, the founder of the Crips, was murdered in a drive-by shooting near his home. Because Raymond Washington always made it a point never to walk up to cars, it was determined that his killers were people he knew personally since he had walked up to the murderers' car and had a conversation with them prior to being shot. Washington's murder was blamed on the Hoover Crips (now known as the Hoover Criminals or Hoover Gang), which started a war between the East Side Crips and the Hoovers.

Shooting and hospitalization

Shakur, along with his best friend Deautri "Crazy De" Denard, were deeply involved in this gang war and were responsible for shooting and assaulting dozens of members of the Rollin' 60s. On December 31, 1980, 16-year-old Shakur was ambushed and shot six times by three adult members of the Rollin' 60s after being set up by a group of girls who were dating friends from his set. Perhaps what saved his life was the fact that earlier that evening Shakur had been drinking a cheap brand of

of seeing the faces of all of the gang members he had shot since joining the Crips, as well as seeing the infant daughter that he had with his girlfriend Tamu. Shakur survived the shooting and was hospitalized for several weeks.

Shakur's younger brother Kershaun, who was by now a member of the Eight Trays and nicknamed Li'l Monster, sought vengeance for his older brother's shooting. On New Years Day 1981, Kershaun and several teenage members of the ETGs committed a string of retaliatory shootings. Kershaun shot two teenagers who were standing in the front yard at a house party that was being thrown in the Rollin' 60's neighborhood and, later that evening, shot another teenager to death in a drive-by as the young man was walking down the street.

Kershaun was later arrested and sentenced to five years in California Youth Authority for murder as a juvenile. While recovering in the hospital, Shakur's assailants from the Rollin' 60s came to the hospital in an attempt to finish him off. Due to the intervention of a nurse who was attending to him, however, Shakur was unharmed. When he was released from the hospital, he continued gang-banging and would spend the remainder of the 1980s in and out of the

for numerous violent offenses.

Changing his name to Sanyika Shakur

While in prison during the 1980s, Shakur befriended members of the

. After being released from prison in 1988, Shakur married his longtime girlfriend Tamu.

In January 1991, Shakur was arrested for assault and

.

Friendship with 2Pac and Vibe Magazine Interviews

In the early 1990s, Kody, now calling himself Sanyika Shakur, met rapper

." This was the last time that Shakur would ever see Tupac.

On September 13, 1996, Tupac Shakur died after being shot in a

Vibe Magazine

article about Tupac's murder, in which Anderson denied being involved in the rapper's murder.

After being captured by police, Shakur was sent to

was also incarcerated for a parole violation that stemmed from his participation in the assault on Anderson. According to the Vibe Magazine article, Shakur, upon hearing that Tupac had been shot, initially suspected that Suge Knight had set him up because Tupac was planning to leave Death Row Records to start his own record label.

In the article Shakur stated that he was incredulous after hearing Knight's claims that

1. Tupac died owing him money, despite selling over
   USD
   $60 million worth of albums for Death Row Records;
2. he knew that all of Tupac's possessions, including his home and his cars, were in Knight's name.

At the end of the interview, Knight told Shakur that Orlando Anderson was indeed the person who killed Tupac. Orlando Anderson was killed on May 29, 1998, in an unrelated shooting.

Since 2000

In March 2007, Shakur, already sought by police for

In May 2008 Shakur pleaded no contest to carjacking and robbery charges, and was sentenced to six years in state prison.^[6] Also in 2008, Shakur made his fiction debut with the publication of T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. (Grove Atlantic Books). He was released from Pelican Bay after serving two-thirds of his 6-year sentence in August 2012.

In November 2013, Shakur published a book of essays titled Stand up, Struggle Forward: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings on Nation, Class, and Patriarchy (Kersplebedeb Books

).

On July 10, 2017, Shakur was sent back to prison for an assault conviction out of

He was later released on parole.

On June 6, 2021, Shakur was found deceased in a tent in a homeless encampment in Oceanside, California. His cause of death according to the San Diego County Coroner’s Office is a stroke.[10]^[11]

References

External links

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQlGDJBJIZE/