This near-perfect autobiographical piece opens with death ("What's so bad about that?"), and it closes with death ("my mic will live forever"). In between lies the most lively, most introspective look at Tupac Amaru Shakur's life you'll ever witness. While numerous books, DVDs, magazine articles and posthumous CDs -for the record, 2Pac always felt his days were numbered so he recorded up to three songs a day-offer some clarity to the hypocritical genius, Lauren Lazin's documentary leaves no query of 2Pac unanswered.

Wonder how the iconic rapper got his first taste of stardom? Care to know what really happened that November 1994 night when that young lady cried rape? And what of Tupac's incessant referrals to "thug life"? Through the complex rapper's own eerily prophetic words-not Afeni Shakur's, not Suge Knight's, not Biggie's-all of those questions, amongst many others, are answered. Via rare or never-before-seen pictures, home videos and MTV interviews Pac discusses his troubled youth in the shadows of the Black Panther movement; his teenage years in Baltimore with Jada Pinkett; and the Las Vegas intersection where he was killed.

Silly email hoaxes and urban myths have some believing Tupac Shakur is off on an island somewhere right now. But that's all silliness, for as this film shows, 2Pac's earthly body is gone but his words clearly live on in the hearts of this filmmaker and in audiences that see this powerful movie.