The new docuseries “Dear Mama: The Saga Of Afeni and Tupac Shakur” culminated in time for the Mother’s Day. In the last episode Eminem talked about how personal was for him loss of Tupac.
Slim Shady was not an international star back then. With his friend Denaun Porter he worked in a fast food restaurant, making music in his free time. This is where he learned devastating news, Eminem explained to an interviewer:
Interviewer: Where were you and your career when Tupac died?
Eminem: Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. When I heard that Tupac die I was cooking in the restaurant and tickets were pilling up and shit. I’m like, “I don’t care, fire me!” Man, that was devastating. It just like, “Oh, my God”.
Tupac was the first rapper to me that could make you cry. I felt him that much. You know, me not knowing my dad and shit was going on with my mom and the whole shit, it was just like, “Oh my God, That’s me!” He was one year older than me, he was only 25 years old, and we were just like, “What the fuck?..”
After he passed, he had 10 more albums. I wrote Afeni and drew a picture. She understood I was such a huge Tupac fan. She’s like the sweetest lady I’ve ever met. She was like, “Do what you feel”. And then they gave me all his acapellas. That was one of the funniest times in my life.
This is how Marshall ended up working as a producer and executive producer on the soundtrack for Tupac’s documentary “Tupac: Resurrection” (2003) together with his mother Afeni Shakur. And then Eminem did some serious production work on Tupac’s fifth posthumous album “Loyal to the Game” (2004), which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200.
