In death, each coast claimed Mr. Shakur as its own. He was born in the Bronx, the birthplace of rap, on June 16, 1971, a month after his mother, Afeni Shakur, was acquitted of bombing charges along with other members of the Black Panthers.

At the House of the Lord Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry eulogized Mr. Shakur today before a cheering congregation. He said he remembered the child Tupac Shakur from the early 1980's, when he and his family lived in New York. ''When he was 10 years old and he stood right here in front of me and I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up,'' Mr. Daughtry said, ''he answered, 'a revolutionary.' '' But, he added, Mr. Shakur did not appear to know how to be a revolutionary.

Mr. Shakur's methods and life style garnered the attention not only of fans but also of politicians, including Bob Dole, who vilified the lyrics of gangsta rap for their messages of hatred and violence.

Perhaps, some suggest, Mr. Shakur became a prisoner, and ultimately a victim, of his finely molded machismo. Some elements of the East Coast rap establishment had learned their lessons well. To stay competitive, gangsta rap began echoing back to California from places like Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and New Jersey. East Coast rappers began adopting their rivals' tactics: intimidation, threats and violence.

Mr. Shakur pushed back even harder, daring death by taunting his enemies in public and in recordings with pointed words and coiled humiliations. For instance, Mr. Shakur repeatedly blamed his rivals in interviews and in his songs for his own shooting in 1994. The deaths of two others, in Atlanta and Queens, fed a feud that became so worrisome, even to rappers, that Mustafa Farrakhan, son of Louis Farrakhan, was reportedly sent in to try to broker a peace between the two groups. But no one, including the Las Vegas police, has offered evidence that this vitriolic dispute caused Mr. Shakur's death.

Rather, the ambush by someone in a white Cadillac has spurred calls for reconciliation.

James Jenkins, 34, a New York record producer who operates J Luv Entertainment and Pologrounds Records, called the killing of Mr. Shakur ''a real tragedy.'' Although he described the East-West rift as more of a media creation, he acknowledged that ''the lesson is we have to focus on our talents.''

''We're going to have to get together,'' said Mr. Jenkins, who is also know as J Luv.

A Puzzling Study In Contradictions