Despite building an entire career on the foundations of brutally dissing anybody ever mentioned in the same breath as him, Eminem has always spoken highly of Tupac Shakur. He once even sent a hand-written letter and illustration to Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, which appeared in the 2008 book Tupac Remembered and on display at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It's been peaking new interest over the last few days after it was made available online thanks to some blessed Reddit sleuths.
Annons
It's not clear when exactly it was sent, but in the letter Eminem thanks Afeni for "the opportunities" and "always being so kind" to him, which could relate to the fact that she allowed him to produce Tupac's fifth posthumous album Loyal to the Game in 2004 despite being fiercly protective over her son's legacy."He was, and still is, the true definition of a ‘Soldier," Eminem wrote, "When I was feeling at my worst (before fame, before Dre) I knew I could put that Tupac tape in, and suddenly, things weren’t so bad."It's also worth highlighting that not only is this a staggeringly rare example of Eminem being totally polite and respectful to the point where he gets all Parental Advisory on his own swears with a series of neat asterisks, but yung Marshal Mathers has much, much better handwriting than the majority of people I know, and man blatantly knows his way around a B2 pencil.Take a look at the illustration and letter in full below:
