It's not often that never-before-seen work of Tupac Shakur surfaces online. Today, however, is different. On the eve of his 50th birthday, Jada Pinkett Smith took to Instagram to share a poem he wrote for her, and it feels very premonition-y.
Alongside a heartfelt caption that read, "Tupac Amaru Shakur would have been 50 midnight tonight! 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 Happy “you goin’n to be 50 at midnight” Birthday Pac! I got next."
After having met in high school and forming a lifelong bond before his passing at the young age of 25, the note is a sweet tribute to the late rapper - who Pinkett Smith has previously spoken about on Red Table Talk.
"He was one of those people that I expected to be here. My upset is more anger. Because I feel that he left me. And I know that’s not true and it’s a very selfish way to think about it but I really did believe that he was gonna be here for the long run." She said.
In Pinkett Smith's Instagram video, she notes that Tupac wrote her “many letters and many poems,” but that she didn’t think the one she released had ever been “published honestly.” She also said she believed Shakur wrote the poem during his time incarcerated at Rikers Island in New York City. She proceeds to read the poem aloud, which reads:
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.
View this post on Instagram
Image: @90sanxiety
