When Tupac died in 1996, Marshall Mathers was a Detroit rapper without a major-label deal. The two never met in person. Still, hardly any artist shaped Tupac’s afterlife as profoundly as he did: Eminem produced an entire posthumous album, stepped forward publicly as an advocate, and surfaced in 2018 in a dispute tied to Tupac’s death.
A Letter to Afeni and Three Songs for the Soundtrack
Eminem has described multiple times what Tupac meant to him. In a letter for Paper magazine (2015), he wrote that Me Against the World was one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. Tupac was the first to show him how to build songs with meaning.
In a handwritten letter to Afeni Shakur, reproduced in the book Tupac Remembered (2008), he thanked her for the opportunities and wrote that Tupac’s music had inspired his entire career. When this letter was written remains unclear: Wikipedia follows an MTV interview according to which he asked Afeni for permission to produce an album; Eminem himself wrote in Paper that he thanked her afterward for granting permission. Both can be true if there were two letters.
Afeni agreed. In 2003, Eminem contributed three tracks to the soundtrack of Tupac: Resurrection, including Runnin’ (Dying to Live) with The Notorious B.I.G. After that, he received the recordings for an entire album.
At Number 1 on the Charts: “Loyal to the Game” Without Death Row
Loyal to the Game was released on December 14, 2004, on Amaru Entertainment and Interscope. It was the first posthumous album that Afeni Shakur released without Suge Knight and Death Row. Eminem and his keyboardist Luis Resto rebuilt the instrumentals around vocal tracks from the years 1991 to 1994.
The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 with more than 330,000 copies sold in its first week; the RIAA certified it platinum on February 15, 2005. By September 2011, it had sold 1,204,124 copies in the US (Wikipedia). Ghetto Gospel featuring Elton John reached number 1 on the UK charts in the summer of 2005. Details, guests, and reviews are on the page Loyal to the Game.
The work divided fans. The punch of the new beats drew praise, whereas critics objected that the pitch and tempo of Tupac’s voice were altered and individual syllables reassembled. Legally, the project went ahead with the mother’s consent through Amaru, not through Death Row.
“Killshot”: A Line About Diddy Stirs Up Old Rumors
On September 14, 2018, Eminem released the diss track Killshot aimed at Machine Gun Kelly. Near the end, he raps that Kelly will only land a hit when Sean “Diddy” Combs admits he ordered the hit on Tupac-and quickly adds that he is only joking. The line picked up an old rumor that has never been substantiated.
The rapper Jay Electronica called out Eminem that very day, accusing him of blaming Combs instead of talking about Jimmy Iovine. On September 19, Joe Budden recounted that Combs had told him the matter was “in my hands.” The sources consulted report no statement from Combs himself.
There is no evidence of a role played by Combs; he has denied any involvement, and authorities never listed him as a suspect (Theories). The details can be found in the report of September 14, 2018.
Praise on the Radio and an Announcement for 2026
In May 2020, Eminem called Tupac perhaps the greatest songwriter of all time on his Sirius XM show. In June 2020, he put him on an unranked list of great rappers. These are judgments, not facts, but they show how high Tupac stands in the canon (Influence on Other Artists).
On July 24, 2026, 50 Cent announced he had recorded a track for the Street Fighter movie with Eminem and an unreleased Tupac recording; the estate had approved, and the voice is not AI-generated. According to the sources consulted, it had not been released as of October 9, 2026.