Watch the First Teaser for Tupac Biopic All Eyez on Me

The teaser for the Tupac Shakur biopic begins with somber narration. “Like all black men,” the rapper’s mother tells her son, “you have a bulls-eye on your back.” The message serves as foreshadowing for Tupac’s untimely death at age 25 in 1996, but it also places the film squarely in the context of contemporary issues of race and justice in America. The teaser premiered on the Instagram feed of Los Angeles-based radio host Big Boy on what would have been Tupac’s 45th birthday,

The film, which cycled through several directors before landing on the prolific music video director Benny Boom, takes its name from the rapper’s bestselling 1996 double album, widely considered among the greatest and most influential rap albums of all time. It comes two years after a Broadway musical inspired by Tupac’s music, Holler If Ya Hear Me, closed following poor ticket sales.

The teaser, released just six weeks after the death of Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur, alternates between scenes of his tumultuous childhood and the rapturous crowds that would one day scream his name in sold-out stadiums. Tupac is played by newcomer Demetrius Shipp, Jr., who told TMZ he was regularly called “Pac” while in high school and working at his previous job at Target because of his striking resemblance to the rapper.

No release date has been announced yet for All Eyez On Me.