Kendrick Lamar Writes Heartfelt Letter To Tupac Shakur On The 19th Anniversary Of Late Rapper’s Death
On September 13, the 19th anniversary of Tupac’s death, Kendrick Lamar wrote about the hip-hop icon. The note, published on the late rapper’s official website, described Lamar’s first encounter with his idol.
“I was 8 yrs old when I first saw you. I couldn’t describe how I felt at that moment. So many emotions. Full of excitement. Full of joy and eagerness. 20 yrs later I understand exactly what the feeling was. INSPIRED.”
In his touching tribute, Kendrick Lamar thanked his idol for inspiring him because “that small intersection changed lives forever.”
Kendrick Lamar penned a letter to 2Pac on the 19th anniversary of his passing: http://t.co/A7MaH0zuDS pic.twitter.com/px61a49GCx
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) September 14, 2015
Kendrick Lamar, 28, told Rolling Stone that he was 8-years-old when he saw Tupac and Dr. Dre at the Compton Swap Meet while the two artists were filming the music video for “California Love.”
The Compton Swap Meet is also the location of one of the scenes of the music video of “King Kunta,” a track in Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly album. The video was released in June this year.
In his album To Pimp A Butterfly, the track entitled “A Moral Man” features Lamar in a fictional interview with 2Pac, creatively using pieces of a 1994 interview between a Swedish journalist and Shakur.
“Being one of your offspring of the legacy you left behind I can truly tell you that there’s nothing but turmoil going on,” Lamar says in “A Mortal Man.”
Kendrick Lamar also revealed that the album’s original title is Tu Pimp a Caterpillar, or TuPaC before he decided to go with To Pimp a Butterfly.
To Pimp a Butterfly is Kendrick Lamar’s third album, a follow-up to Good Kid, MA.A.D City that was released in 2012.
Tupac Amaru Shakur, or, 2Pac was an American rapper and actor who sold millions of records across the globe. His album All Eyez on Me is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.
On September 13, 1996, when Kendrick Lamar was just 9, Skakur died in Las Vegas, six days after he was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting. To this day, his murder remains unsolved.
On September 29, Sotheby’s will auction two of 2Pac’s lyric sheets. The lyric sheets, all in the artist’s handwriting, were written when he was in prison. The sheets, that include drafts of “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” and lines from another song, are expected to be auctioned off at a price exceeding $100,000.
[Image by Ethan Miller, Getty Images]
