Claire Reid
Eminem once penned a heartfelt letter to the mother of Tupac Shakur following his death in which he said the late rapper had ‘inspired his whole career’.
In the letter, which also included a sketch of Tupac, Eminem thanked Afeni Shakur for ‘always being kind’ to him and hailed her as a ‘true queen’.
The letter and drawing were printed in the 2008 book, Tupac Remembered, and were reportedly placed on display in the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts.
In an unusual modest display, Eminem - real name Marshall Mathers - begins by apologizing to Afeni for the ‘sloppy’ drawing, saying he could have done a better job had he had the correct tools but that he ended up using a pen.
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The rapper went on: “I’ve been drawing since I was 10, and I thought you might like it.
“Anyways, thank you for always being so kind to me. You are a true Queen, and I mean that in every sense of the word. I will never forget the opportunities you have given me.
"You will always be in my heart, my thoughts, and my prayers.”
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The Grammy-winning rapper then went on to heap praise on Tupac, saying that his mom had ‘no idea how much your son and his music has inspired, not only the hip-hop world, but speaking for myself, has inspired my whole career’.
“He was and still is the true definition of a ‘soldier’. When I was feeling at my worst (before fame and before Dre) I knew that I could put that Tupac tape in, and suddenly, things weren’t so bad.
“He gave me the courage to stand up and say, ‘f**k the world! This is who I am! And if you don’t like it go f**k yourself!’”
He finished his note by writing: “Thank you for giving us his spirit and yours! God bless you!”
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Eminem has previously branded Tupac ‘the greatest songwriter of all time’.
Speaking on his radio show Shade45 in 2020, he said: “OK, this next song is from an artist who I feel like might be the greatest songwriter of all-time.
“Debate what you want about MC skills and all that, because he had that too. This is one of them songs by 2Pac that, to me, he was showing you, ‘I can write heartfelt s**t and I can write lyrical, crazy s**t too'.”
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He added: “You can’t just listen to ‘Pac, you feel ‘Pac. If you listen to him, you gonna feel him.”