There has been a lot Tupac memorabilia in the past years. This month, a particularly valuable item was auctioned off: a handwritten four-page letter called “Is Thug Life Dead?” that Tupac wrote while incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility in 1995. This isn’t the first piece of valuable Tupac memorabilia and it won’t be the last.
The original price for the letter was listed at $10,000. After 31 bids, it was sold for $172,725. Pac addressed the letter to “young black Americans” and sent the letter to Death Row Records employee Nina Bhadreshwar, but Pac’s label blocked the letter from being published.
In the letter, Pac writes of the three stages of life:
“Ours begins with a young Dust Kicker, a Thug Nigga then finally a Boss Playa … Each stage has many obstacles and pleasure, but they are all lethal if not played properly … A regular Playa plays women. A Boss Playa plays life. A Boss Playa is a thinker, a leader, a builder, a moneymaker, a souljah, a teacher and most of all, a Man.”
You can read the essay in its entirety here.
