Topline
An unpublished booklet of haiku poetry written and illustrated by Tupac Shakur when he was just 11 as a gift to his imprisoned Black Panther godfather, some of the late rapper’s earliest recorded writing, is estimated to fetch as much as $300,000 when it goes to auction Wednesday.
Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater in … [+]
Key Facts
According to Sotheby’s, the booklet is one of Shakur’s earliest pieces of writing ever recorded, and is the first of his manuscripts to come to market outside of his already rare personal correspondence.
The writing in the booklet is a rare depiction of Shakur’s early talent for wordplay and lyricism, according to the auction house, and deals with themes that he would go on to explore with his music as an adult including Black liberation, mass incarceration, race and masculinity.
The booklet is being sold after nearly 40 years by Shakur’s godfather Jamal Joseph, an activist, writer and director who at age 16 was one of the Panther 21 group – alongside Shakur’s mother Afeni Shakur – who were arrested and accused of planning to bomb New York police stations and other buildings before being acquitted in 1971, just a month before Shakur was born.
Shakur wrote and illustrated the booklet for Joseph and three other Black Panther Party members incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison over their roles in a deadly armored car heist in 1981, and in it he urged them to stay strong.
The booklet also features a self-portrait of Shakur sleeping, pen in hand, dreaming of the Black Panthers being freed from prison, and signed the booklet with a heart and the phrase “Tupac Shakur, Future Freedom Fighter.”
Shakur’s poetry booklet is being sold as part of Sotheby’s second hip-hop-themed auction that also includes a series of love letters written by Shakur to a high school sweetheart, a sable fur coat and hat custom made for Biz Markie and early flier for a Jazzy Jay event.
This excerpt from the poetry booklet shows an illustration by Tupac Shakur of a man demanding the … [+]
Tangent
Despite the violent themes his music, Shakur wrote poetry and penned hand-written letters to romantic interests and friends. In December, a handwritten poem Shakur penned in 1995 for a flame titled “All Eye Was Was Lookin 4” was listed for $95,000 by Moments In Time, an autograph dealer, which said the poem was “the genesis” for the title track of Shakur’s wildly successful 1996 album “All Eyez on Me.” Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, a teenage friend of Shakur’s, shared a poem online in June that he wrote for her to mark what would have been his 50th birthday. Smith speculated that Shakur wrote the poem in 1995 while incarcerated on Rikers Island after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a fan (he pleaded not guilty).
Key Background
Shakur was a rising star in the music world when he died in 1996 after being gunned down in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting at only 25 years old. His murder has never been solved, but is widely speculated to have been related to his ongoing feud with New York rapper Christopher Wallace, better known as the the Notorious B.I.G, who also died in a shooting just six months after Shakur’s death. The crown worn by Smalls for an iconic photoshoot just days before his murder sold for $594,750 during Sotheby’s first hip hop auction in 2020.
Further Reading
Biggie Smalls’ Crown Fetches $594,750 In $2 Million Hip Hop Auction (Forbes)
20 Years Later: Tupac Shakur’s Legacy By The Numbers (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/03/23/tupac-shakurs-unseen-childhood-poetry-written-for-an-incarcerated-black-panther-is-up-for-sale/