Makaveli

Makaveli was the alias used by American hip-hop artist, poet, and actor Tupac Shakur while he was with his hip-hop group the Outlawz. The posthumous solo studio album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was the only album to be officially released as Makaveli. Future posthumous releases of his with the Outlawz and solo Makaveli recordings were released under Tupac Shakur's more familiar alias 2Pac.

Tupac read and studied the works and life of Niccolo Machiavelli whose ideas were overshadowed by a reputation that was unfairly given to him because of a misunderstanding of his writings and political views. This inspired Tupac to take the name Makaveli as his alias with the Outlawz. With Tupac's spelling of Makaveli the letters can be rearranged to form the words ?Am Alive?.

The views from a posthumously published pamphlet written by Niccolo Machiavelli called The Prince inspired the term Machiavellian which refers to the view that politics is amoral and that any means can be justifiably used in achieving political power. Tupac named all the original Outlawz after famous Machiavellian leaders who gained power from governments they did not agree with. This made the Outlawz a group of individuals led by Makaveli who were named after individuals who lived their life in a way described by Machiavelli.