Kendrick Lamar has long done his part to keep 2Pac’s memory alive, and that was especially true this week as the Hip Hop community observed a fateful date in the late rapper’s life.
On Thursday (September 7), the Compton kingpin took to his personal Instagram account @jojoruski, which fans discovered earlier this year, to share a photo and video dump from his recent trip to Tokyo.
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Among the slideshow are photos of K. Dot linking with BAPE founder Nigo, shopping for CDs at Tower Records — where he picked up copies of Dr. Dre‘s The Chronic and 2001 — and stumbling across a stranger working out in the park on his lunch break.
There’s also a picture of what appears to be Kendrick rocking a vintage 2Pac shirt featuring the late rap icon holding both of his middle fingers up, which is taken from an iconic 1994 photoshoot by the photographer Mike Miller.
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While Kendrick’s post didn’t come with a caption, its timing felt significant considering Thursday marked 27 years since ‘Pac was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
Less than a week later, the Death Row Records signee died from his injuries in hospital, cutting short the life and career of one of Hip Hop’s most influential figures.
Kendrick Lamar has made no secret of his admiration of 2Pac over the years. In a particularly memorable interview with Home Grown Radio in 2011, the former TDE rapper detailed ‘Pac visiting him in a dream and urging him to continue his legacy.
“It’s a crazy true story, actually. You know one of them things when you really delirious in your sleep? I was sleeping one night and a silhouette [came] and he said, ‘Keep doing what you doing, don’t let my music die,’” he recalled.
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“The shit scared the shit out of me! Just off the fact that prior to that, a day before, my mom bringing up, ‘You know, you and 2Pac, y’all like days apart, y’all birthdays.’ I never knew that shit, that’s some wild shit.
“Once she said that shit — and I’m really big on shit like that — somebody comes in your dreams and relays a message, you gotta listen to it because I’ve got past family relatives that’s been coming to my dreams forever and been talking to me.”
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Four years later, Kendrick made 2Pac a central figure of his Grammy-winning album To Pimp a Butterfly, which ended with a staged conversation between the two lyricists.
Dot revealed in an interview with MTV following its release that he was even going to call the project Tu Pimp a Catterpillar, which shortens to Tu.P.A.C.
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While 2Pac’s death has long remained unsolved, this summer has seen renewed efforts into the murder investigation that may lead to charges finally being filed.
In July, Las Vegas police searched a Nevada home belonging to Duane “Keefe D” Davis, a former Compton gang member and the uncle of Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, ‘Pac’s alleged killer (who himself died in an unrelated shooting in 1998).
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The search turned up various items, including multiple .40 caliber bullets, although forensic testing determined they didn’t match the shell casings found at the crime scene.
Nevertheless, a Vegas police source said last month that detectives have built a compelling case against Davis and charges against him are “imminent” — including potentially first-degree murder.
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The 60-year-old has on numerous occasions confessed to being in the car with Anderson and two others the night 2Pac was shot and has even admitted he handed his nephew the murder weapon.
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