Summary

• Tupac Shakur's appearance in Straight Outta Compton is brief but impactful, with two actors portraying him: Marcc Rose and Darris Love.
• Marcc Rose, who plays Tupac on screen, closely resembles the rapper with his eyes, eyebrows, and posture, while Darris Love provides his vocals.
• Marcc Rose portrayed Tupac in another project, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G., but his performance was limited in showing the rapper's personality.

The celebrated rapper Tupac appears in one scene in underrated musical biopic that sadly didn't leave as much of a mark as maybe it should have. Released in 2015, the same year as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Inside Out, and many other celebrated movies, it was always going to be difficult for Straight Outta Compton to make waves. That's unfortunate because the film is an enthralling look at the build-up of a musical group and what happens when they go their separate ways.

Straight Outta Compton tells the real story of the formation of the rap group "N.W.A.". Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.), and MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) are the stars of the film, but Straight Outta Compton is filled with musicians and figures from the period. One of these figures is Tupac Shakur, one of the most important figures in West Coast hip-hop and politically charged rap. His influence on music is immense, which may be why it required two actors to play him in the film.

Marcc Rose Plays Tupac Onscreen While Darris Love Provides His Vocals In Straight Outta Compton

Tupac appears in Straight Outta Compton for one scene. The scene begins with Tupac in a recording booth singing "Hail Mary". Then Dre walks in to show him a new sound, which turns out to be "California Love". Before Dre can hear the late rapper perform what would end up being his signature song, Suge Knight's (R. Marcos Taylor) posse in the next room interrupts the session with gunshots and loud partying. Tupac is played by Marcc Rose on screen, but Darris Love provides his vocals in the two songs, and together, they are dead ringers for Shakur.

With a voice as unique as Tupac's and a visage as recognizable, director F. Gary Gray and his producers, the real Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, had to make sure that whoever portrayed him looked and sounded the part when making Straight Outta Compton. Rose looks remarkably like Tupac, particularly with his eyes and eyebrows, which can be seen from his Instagram, and the actor assumes Tupac's posture as well. However, Rose does not provide the rapper's voice (via USA Today). Love does Tupac's singing and speaking voice, though he mostly sings in the scene.

It's unclear why Love was not picked to portray Tupac on screen, but it's hard to deny that Rose looks much more like the rapper than Love does.

Marcc Rose Moved To LA In An Attempt To Win The Tupac Role

In an interview with USA Today, Rose said,

"I was walking down the street in New York. Somebody told me they were casting for the movie. I packed all my bags and I just moved to L.A. in hopes to find and land this opportunity. I went for it."

Apparently, Rose had been getting stopped on the street since he was 18 years old because of his resemblance to Tupac Shakur. So when he heard about the casting call, Rose packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles. In an interview with WBLS, around the 1-minute 40-second mark, Rose said that despite looking exactly like Tupac and receiving a blessing from Tupac's mother, he still had to audition for the role,

"F. Gary Gray called John Singleton, and was like, 'Cool, so I see that the biopic is on pause and that's cool 'cause we need 'Pac's presence. We want his presence in NWA. So one thing led to another, he called me, I had to audition for it, and two hours after that I got the role."

Oddly, when asked about someone else doing his vocals, Rose said that was a rumor, and that the singing and talking were all him. Either Rose was confused and misunderstood the question or the young actor was never alerted to the voice-over work until well after the movie premiered, as this interview takes place one month after Straight Outta Compton arrived in theaters. What's fact, is that Marcc Rose and Darris Love are both credited as playing Tupac in the film.

Rose Also Played Tupac In Unsolved: The Murders Of Tupac And The Notorious B.I.G.

This is not the only time Rose has played Tupac. After Straight Outta Compton, Rose went on to star in Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G., a true crime drama miniseries that premiered in 2018. The 10-episode series depicts the parallel rise of Tupac and East Coast rap icon, the Notorious B.I.G. (Wavyy Jonez), who were the biggest hip hop stars of their time and both suffered unexpected and violent deaths only a few months apart. The series is an adaptation of the book, Murder Rap: The Untold Story of Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations​.

The book was written by real-life detective Greg Kading, played by Josh Duhamel in the show, and follows three separate storylines: one of Tupac and Biggie, one of Kading's 2006 investigation when the case was reopened, and one of the original 1996 investigation by LAPD Detective Russell Poole (Jimi Simpson). Because the source material is from the viewpoint of Kading, it's his storyline that takes center stage, pushing Tupac and Biggie to a more ing arc, despite the story being all about them.

In this performance, Rose embodies the late rapper as well as he does in Straight Outta Compton. He is given much more to do in this series but still does not get to show much of Tupac's personality, as his and Biggies' roles are relegated to plot points. Rose certainly looks the part, but he does not do much more than present key moments in Tupac's life. At least in Straight Outta Compton, he was allowed to show some personality.

Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G is available to stream on Netflix, and can also be purchased on Apple TV+, Google Play, Vudu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Darris Love Plans To Star In The Biopic, Truth About Tupac

In 2015, when it was announced that Love and Rose would be sharing the part of Tupac in Straight Outta Compton, Love told USA Today that he was also pursuing another Tupac role, in the then- Truth About Tupac. Love said he had been preparing eight years for the role,

"I went vegan, I train in boxing every day. I lived with the (Shakur) family. It's not one of those roles where you can just act."

Despite Love's commitment to the role, Truth About Tupac never came to fruition, if it was ever in development in the first place. The only substantial information regarding Truth About Tupac comes from Love himself in an interview with BlackTreeTV. In the interview, Love says the movie is still in production with John Singleton, director of Boyz n the Hood and 2 Fast 2 Furious, attached. There are no credible sources pinning this production to Singleton, and the director pased away in 2019 after suffering a stroke.

Love also references an app "About Tupac", that one can get more information on by logging on to TruthAboutTupac, which does not have information regarding an film.

Love Is Known For Playing Ray In The Secret World Of Alex Mack

Love's best-known role is as Ray in The Secret World of Alex Mack, the Nickelodeon kids' show that ran from 1994-1998. In the show, Alex Mack (Larisa Oleynik) is an average teenage girl who gets drenched in a radioactive compound that gives her superpowers. Alex only confides her powers in her sister Annie (Meredith Bishop), and her best friend and next-door neighbor Ray. This was Love's breakout role, and he went on to have a steady acting career, appearing in one-episode performances in ER, NYPD Blue, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, Love was arrested in 2022 on a domestic violence charge, via Deadline. This led to a pause in his acting career after his 2017 appearance as a background character in IASIP. Love has posted to his Instagram since 2022, and he seems to have reevaluated his life. Whatever becomes of his career, his vocal performance in Straight Outta Compton will always be a highlight.

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