Popnography
Tupac's Prison Letter Reveals He Ended Relations with Madonna Because She's White
"I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was."
July 05 2017 12:17 PM EST
March 12 2019 1:28 AM EST
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"I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was."
In a newly obtained love letter, which Tupac wrote in prison on January 15, 1995, the rapper admits he broke up with Madonna because she's white. "I've waited a long time 2 finally write this mainly because I was struggling to find all the answers so that I wouldn't leave any unanswered questions," he writes, before diving into an honest confessional about the pressures of being a famous black sex symbol in hip-hop.
"First and foremost, I must apologize to you because like you said I haven't been the kind of friend I know I am capable of being," he says. "Can u understand that? For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeoparidze your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting. But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was. I never meant to hurt you."
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The rapper highlights an interview where Madonna said, "I'm off to rehabilitate all the rappers and basketball players." This statement, he writes, deeply affected him. "I had never known you to be with any rappers besides myself. It was at this moment out of hurt & natural instinct to strike back and defend my heart & ego that I said a lot of things. Can you feel me?"
In the time between breaking up with Madonna and writing this letter, Tupac says he'd grown "both spiritually and mentally." He writes, "It no longer matters how I'm perceived. Please understand my previous position as that of a young man with limited experience with a extremely famous sex symbol." With a fresh new mindset, Tupac offered his friendship, only "this time much stronger & focused," before warning Madonna to be careful of envious, evil hearts. "Let my 5 bullets be proof of that," he writes.
Tupac's entire note, penned at the Clinton Correctional Facility, can be read in full on TMZ. It will be auctioned later this month at Gotta Have Rock and Roll, with a starting bid of $100k that's expected to rise tremendously--his last letter sold for more than $170k.