Kidada Jones was the woman at Tupac’s side when he died. That it was her, of all people, is a story in itself, only a few years earlier Tupac had publicly insulted her father.
A difficult start
Kidada Jones, born in 1974, is the daughter of producer Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton; her younger sister is the actress Rashida Jones. In 1993 Tupac told The Source magazine that he disapproved of Quincy Jones marrying white women. Rashida, a teenager at the time, answered with an angry open letter.
In prison in 1995 Tupac changed his tune. He told VIBE that he had apologised to Quincy Jones for all the things he had said about him and his wives.
Love in Los Angeles
According to Vanity Fair, the two first met at a club shortly before Tupac’s trial in late 1994. At that first meeting Kidada would not speak to him, partly because of her father. At the second he apologised; at the third he introduced her to his mother and announced that she was going to be his wife. One scene from that report: late one night at a deli in Los Angeles, a man came up behind Tupac and put his hands on his shoulders, Quincy Jones. The two went to another table to talk, and when Kidada looked up, they were hugging.
After his release in October 1995, according to Vanity Fair, Tupac sent her a poem every day, always with a rose. Soon the two were living in a Death Row-leased house in Calabasas that was always full: Afeni and Sekyiwa came for weeks at a time, and the Outlawz were in and out. Quincy Jones writes in his autobiography that they lived together for four months. Kidada wore his ring; they were considered engaged.
In late June 1996 the couple travelled with Tupac’s bodyguard Frank Alexander to men’s fashion week in Milan. There Tupac walked the runway for Versace in a gold velvet suit with Kidada on his arm; according to the Italian magazine Panorama, designer Romeo Gigli also brought the whole group out onto his catwalk. Sekyiwa Shakur, her mother said, was planning a line of cosmetics with Kidada.
Las Vegas, September 1996
In early September 1996 the couple went to Las Vegas, where Tupac wanted to see Mike Tyson’s fight with Suge Knight. While packing in Calabasas, Vanity Fair reports, Kidada reached for the bulletproof vest he had lately taken to wearing. Tupac said no: “It’ll be too hot.” A different reply is sometimes passed on, in which Tupac supposedly said even the Crips liked him in Las Vegas; there is no source for it.
Kidada stayed at the Luxor hotel during the fight. Afterwards Tupac came back briefly, wound up after a fight at the MGM Grand, and told her to stay at the hotel. A little later he was shot at a red light.
Over the following days Kidada was at University Medical Center. In his hospital room she played him Don McLean’s Vincent, one of his favourite songs. Tupac died on September 13, 1996.
Corrections
The couple’s Luxor suite is sometimes placed at “110 Sunset Blvd”, and an unsourced rumour about Tupac’s motives goes with it. The Luxor is on Las Vegas Boulevard, and there is no source for the rumour.