Who Do U Believe In?

One of the homies stopped by the office today while we were discussing the Ferguson riots. This led to a discussion about the LA riots where he was reminiscing about scoring his first Sega Genesis during the looting. He mentioned Tupac participating in the riots followed by a long story about how they met and the depth of their relationship. I asked him what the craziest thing he saw Pac do was, but after a brief pause switched my question to ask him about the most heartwarming thing he ever saw Tupac do. Both valid questions, but I feel like a lot of times Pac’s crazier moments make more highlight reels than his compassionate ones.

His face lit up when I asked this question. He told me about one day when he and Pac were riding down Sunset. Pac heard over the radio that there was a sick child whose dream it was to meet Janet Jackson. Apparently Janet couldn’t make it or could only spend a short period of time with the child because of scheduling. Pac made a few phone calls and ending up visiting the child personally. He spent the entire day with her and before her unfortunate passing, the girl had removed all her Janet posters and had plastered her wall with Pac. That’s just the kind of guy he was. This was never publicized because it was never about that for Tupac. His heart was so big and his intentions were so pure and positive.

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West Coast Soul Vibe

I was scrolling through the Reckless Girls Instagram mentions at work one day when I stumbled upon a photo of a girl in our Thug Wife T-shirt captioned, “I swear I was Pac’s girl in a past life #TupacTuesdays”. Having a similar affinity/obsession for Tupac, I followed the link in her bio to her blog, HasWestCoastSoul.com. The about me section read, “Think Tupac, a WestCoastSoul isn’t necessarily someone who is Cali born x raised, but he/she is definitely a revolutionary with an open mind and a sharp tongue. They know the motto – hustle, create, inspire and build your empire. Impossible to stop. One hand always towards the sky, reach for your dreams, put up a fighting fist, one for the love, two for the peace or twist that shit and throw ya dubs up.” Boom. Who is this girl? I had to find out. I sent her a brief message admiring her blog and lamenting on all of our similarities including our love for culture, for hip hop, and in particular, for Tupac. I sent her some Y&R product and was pleasantly surprised a few weeks later when she posted a dope photo shoot she had styled and modeled for wearing our clothes. We made plans to meet up and the rest is history.

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