Kendrick Lamar's Open Letter on the 19th Anniversary of Tupac's Death

At eight years old, Kendrick Lamar sat on his father’s shoulders at the Compton Swap Meet. He watched Tupac and Dr. Dre shoot the video for “California Love”. Tupac stood up in the passenger seat and yelled at motorcycle police officers-a scene Lamar recounted to Rolling Stone in an earlier interview. On the 19th anniversary of his death on September 13, 2015, he published an open letter on the official website 2Pac.com.

“INSPIRED” at the Intersection

“I was 8 yrs old when I first saw you,” the text begins. Lamar describes the feeling from back then with a single word: “INSPIRED”. The people Tupac touched at that small intersection had changed lives forever. Lamar resolved to be a voice for others one day. Who would have thought, he wrote, that he was speaking out loud so Tupac would listen. Rolling Stone called him one of the “offspring of the legacy”.

A Scene at the Same Spot

For his own video for “King Kunta”, Kendrick Lamar later shot a scene at the same spot. For the connection between the two rappers, see Kendrick Lamar and Tupac.