Tupac’s bizarre list of albums “to listen 2 when u alone”
Far from his tragic demise as the unfortunate victim of gangster rap’s enduring issue with gun crime, Tupac Shakur was a sensitive soul with an eclectic taste in music. In his youth, Shakur would seek performance at every turn, whether it involved ballet recitals or living room karaoke sessions.
As a teenager in the 1980s, the rapper was deeply inspired by contemporary pop music, especially by Prince. Inspired by Prince’s multiple talents and onstage charisma, Shakur used the Purple One as a touchstone throughout his career and personal life. As a 17-year-old schoolboy, he even referenced Prince in a love letter to his crush.
“I’m not going to lie, I love women with a passion. Sometimes I just want to call Prince and say, ‘Can we hang?’ because I love women like he loves women,” he wrote. It appears that, beyond a musical connection, Shakur felt an emotional connection to the virtuosic performer. “We both love Prince, we have both had heartbreak, and we both adore candles,” he added in the note.
Jamila Barnes, Shakur’s cousin, revealed in a past interview with BETNetworks that the late hip-hop hero would set up home concerts with family and friends in his early teen years. “He would have us perform different groups,” she recalled, “But his favourite that he would have us perform over and over again would be Prince and The Revolution, and the main song we always did was ‘1999’.”
These evenings of family fun would often become rather competitive, with Shakur entering full-method acting mode. “We would sing into a spoon,” Barnes continued, “and he would introduce the ‘band’ in all his Prince glory, fully in character.”
Once, Barnes light-heartedly challenged Shakur’s right to always play the part of Prince. She recalled that her passionate and eccentric cousin would reply: “I’m the one out here getting us work! Are you gonna be out here booking us jobs and getting us performances? Until you’re ready to be out here managing this group and taking us on tour, I’m a be Prince! And if anybody got a problem with me being Prince, then they need to let me know!”
Of course, such a response sought laughter in response, but Shakur stayed true to his idol’s creative passion. In 1991, aged just 20, he broke through to popular acclaim with the arrival of his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now. Over the next five years before his tragic murder, Shakur became one of the most important voices of hip–hop’s most seminal wave.
Shortly before his death, Shakur made a peculiar list of albums “to get and listen 2 when u alone”. Scrawled on a piece of lined notepaper, the list included the rapper’s favourite songs from each album, which are included in the Spotify playlist below.
Tupac’s albums “to listen 2 when u alone”
- Jamiroquai – The Return of the Space Cowboy
- Counting Crows – August and Everything After
- Dionne Farris – Wild Seed – Wild Flower
- Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
- Prince – The Hits/The B-Sides
