Iverson_64
Superstar
The actual "gangsta" element was more so popularized by NWA, Dre, and Snoop though as well as the Mafioso Rap coming from the East. Pac's Thug Life album only went Gold and it still had conscious elements in it.Pacs - Thuglife Album and he's Keep it Real / Crash out / Ready to Die personal really influenced Black Culture and music.
On top of he was a sexual symbol. So he poison our women just as much as the men.
Pac's most mainstream music wasn't really all that stereotypically gangster and Pac never portrayed himself as a drug kingpin or mob boss like so many other rappers during that era. Pac always acknowledged his demons and his faults in his music while still having songs that uplifted people. He was similar to early 90's Ice Cube who kinda did the same thing.
The media made Pac into the embodiment of "gangsta rap" because they were still upset at Pac for shooting those racist White cops for harrassing a Black man. And the media tried to blame another brother shooting at a cop on Tupac. That was the real motive behind the initial villainization of Pac and why the media kept making him out to be more of a gangsta rapper than he actually was. Even Pac himself denounced being labeled as "gangsta rapper."