TUPAC SHAKUR'S LEGEND LIVES ON.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

He's hot, he's dead, and he's at a theater near you.

Slightly more than one year after the still-unsolved murder of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, the actor-rapper is as popular - if not more so - as when he was alive. Shakur has two albums in the Billboard 200, another in the pop catalog chart and a starring role in the feature film ``Gang Related,'' which hit screens this week. The soundtrack, which boasts three previously unreleased Shakur tracks, is expected to enter the album charts next week.

Shakur's name also remains in the news, the result of dueling lawsuits over his money, estate and violent death in September 1996. The rapper, whose torso was emblazened with the legend ``thug life,'' has taken his place in the popular imagination. Numerous Web sites are devoted to the theory that Shakur faked his own death to escape his business partners and is currently living it up on a Jamaican beach.

``A process of canonization has occured,'' said Ronin Ro, author of a book on the merchandising of gangsta rap. ``People aren't seeing the real Tupac. They're seeing what they want to see. They're not seeing the real-life violent Tupac. It shows what a wasteland popular culture has become. But people find their heroes where they can.''

One thing that's certain is Shakur was frozen in time at age 25 when he was gunned down in front of about 45 people on a Saturday night on Flamingo Road in the heart of Vegas. Theories on the homicide include bad blood between East Coast and West Coast rappers, a Bloods/Crips rivalry or a professional hit.

``There was all this talk in the media about East Coast vs. West Coast and, who knows, somebody on the street, some gang-bangers or something, could have taken all this talk seriously and thought this was what they were supposed to do,'' Treach (short for ``treacherous'') of the rap group Naughty By Nature said this week.

In his lyrics, Shakur didn't just hint at a life steeped in violence, he crowed about it. Take, for example, a song like 1995's ``If I Die 2Nite'': ``I ain't happy here/I hope they bury me and send me to my rest/Headlines reading Murdered to Death, my last breath.''

It's been reported that his label, Death Row Records, has access to around 200 unreleased Shakur songs.

Now comes Shakur's final film role in ``Gang Related,'' in which the rapper, paired with James Belushi, plays a crooked cop named Rodriguez. Previously, Shakur had roles in ``Juice,'' ``Above the Rim,'' ``Gridlock'' and ``Poetic Justice'' with Janet Jackson.

``Who could play a cop better?'' Shakur said last year in an interview on the set of the new film. ``I've seen them in their evil when they think nobody's looking. I've seen the compassion, the anger, the jealousy, fear, respect. And I've seen hate from cops. I been there. I just got out of (prison). I got arrested like 12 times last year. I got to see police more than I wanted to. For that reason alone, I'm the perfect choice for the role.''

For his part, Belushi likes to talk about a ``special chemistry'' he found working with Shakur.

``First of all, he was an artist who started in high school,'' Belushi said. ``He had a deep well of passion in his soul. He was a young artist in the sense he only trusted spontaneity. He never wanted to do a scene more than once because he felt re-creating it wasn't honest.''

Shakur was born in 1971 after his mother, former Black Panther Afeni Shakur, was released from prisonin connection with a bombing (she was later acquitted). The young Shakur never knew who his father was. A song about his mother, ``Dear Mama,'' was nominated for a Grammy Award two years ago.

Trouble and success had no problem finding Shakur. He was convicted of assault for attacking the Hughes brothers, who'd fired him from the film ``Menace II Society.'' And he was jailed in 1995 for a sexual assault conviction he was in the process of appealing.

The twin-CD ``All Eyez on Me,'' Shakur's fourth solo album but his first after signing with Death Row, entered the charts at No. 1 and went on to sell almost 6 million copies. An earlier album, ``Me Against the World,'' also reached No. 1, as did the posthumous ``Makaveli'' disc.

The murders of Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. a few months later in Los Angeles appeared to symbolize the end of gangsta rap. But those reports have been greatly exaggerated and, in the past year, tough-talking albums from Master P, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and others have reached the top 10.

``The critics are constantly saying rap sales are dropping off,'' Keith Clinksdale, president and CEO of Vibe magazine, has said. ``That's not true. Rap is influencing a lot of r&b and soul music as well. The reach and power is growing and getting stronger and stronger.''

As far as the gangsta genre, he admits ``there are some problems. But by and large, the best thing in the music industry right now is urban music.''

Rapper Ice Cube insists there will always be a place for material that chronicles violence.

``I'm not worried about the music or what it's saying,'' he said earlier this year. ``It's just entertainment. It's just music, you know?''

As for Shakur's rap skills, Ro, who has covered the genre for the Source, Vibe and other magazines, says the actor had some talent, especially early in his career.

``As a rapper, Tupac was gifted with rhythm and his lyrics were good at the beginning,'' Ro said. ``I would compare him to Oliver Stone. He started out structured and relevant and then got into all this personal garbage. But I wouldn't say Tupac was a very good actor.''

Belushi disagrees: ``He was a terrific actor. The chemistry took both of our performances to a place we'd never experienced. `Gang Related' is his final and finest performance.''

In his last interview, Shakur, whose character in the cop/buddy film develops a conscience in the final reel, explained his technique.

``I can't play basketball like every other black person in America,'' he said. ``But I can act. I know how to go to that true spot in myself. The reason I sold 6 million records, the reason I can go to jail and come out without a scratch ... the reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly into my face and find my soul ... those first two takes, I'm that person.''

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) ALL EYEZ STILL ON TUPAC

A year after his death, Shakur remains in the spotlight with `Gang Related'

(2) Ganngsta rapper Tupac Shakur plays a cop in ``Gang Related,'' the film he finished before he was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996.

(3) Tupac Shakur's ``Me Against The World'' CD went to No. 1.