Jada Pinkett Smith took a trip down memory to celebrate what would’ve been Tupac Shakur’s 50th birthday.
“Tupac Amaru Shakur would have been 50 midnight tonight!” the actress wrote on Instagram. “As we prepare to celebrate his legacy … let’s remember him for that which we loved most … his way with words. Here are a few you may have never heard before.”
Jada shared a photo of a handwritten poem written to her by the late rapper who was killed in 1996.
“Pac wrote me many letters and many poems. And I don’t think this has ever been published honestly,” The Red Table Talk host said in a video tribute, while unveiling the unreleased poem titled Lost Soulz.
She said he later dropped the single of the same title but believes he wrote the concept during his incarceration in Rikers Island. “I don’t think he would have minded that I shared this with you guys.”
Pac wrote in blue ink on the notepad line:
“Some say nothing gold can last forever / And 2 believe this [I] need no proof / I have witnessed all that was pure in me / And be changed by the evil men can do / The innocence possessed by children / Once lived inside my soul / But surviving years with criminal peers / Has turned my warm heart to cold / I used 2 dream and fantasize / But now I’m scared 2 sleep / Petrified, not to live or die / But to awaken and still be me / It is true that nothing gold can last / We will all one day see death / When the purest hearts are torn apart / LOST SOULS are all that’s left / Down on my knees I beg of God / To save me from this fate / Let me live to see what was gold in me / Before it is all too late.”
He signed it, “Yours, Tupac.”
Her mom and RTT co-host, Adrienne Norris, commented, “This is beautiful! I believe he would have been a powerful influence in this ‘state of emergency’. RIP.”
