Tributes, Songs for Tupac

Few rappers have been the subject of as many songs as Tupac. The first dedications appeared within months of his death in September 1996, from friends, Bay Area peers, East Coast colleagues and artists who never met him. Some tributes are deeply personal; others use his name mainly as a selling point. This page separates what can be documented from what only appeared on a fan list.

Documented tribute songs

Richie Rich and Naughty by Nature were part of Tupac’s circle, and their songs came out within months of his death. Nas, by contrast, came from the East Coast that sat at the center of Tupac’s feuds in 1996. Honoring Tupac and Biggie in the same song three years later was one of the early signs that the scene wanted to move past the East-West conflict (see Feuds).

Kendrick Lamar and the Swedish interview

Mortal Man, the closing track of To Pimp a Butterfly (March 2015), is probably the best-known tribute from a younger generation. Tupac’s answers come from an interview Swedish radio host Mats Nileskär recorded for the show P3 Soul in November 1994, a few weeks before Tupac was shot at Quad Studios in New York. According to the Los Angeles Times, Lamar got the tape from Nileskär himself in 2014, and the Shakur family approved its use.

Tribute albums

• The Rose That Grew from Concrete (November 2000, Amaru/Interscope): artists and actors read and set to music poems Tupac wrote as a teenager, among them Q-Tip, Mos Def, Nikki Giovanni, Jasmine Guy, Danny Glover, Sonia Sanchez and dead prez. More on the book under Books.
• A 2Pac Tribute: Dare 2 Struggle (June 2006): put together by Tupac’s stepfather Dr. Mutulu Shakur for the tenth anniversary of his death, with contributions from Mopreme Shakur, the Outlawz and others. Half of the proceeds were earmarked for health and education projects.

Other tributes named in the hip-hop press include The Song Continuez by a group of Bay Area rappers and Maino’s Letter to Pac.

A Fan List from the 2000s

This collection of songs dedicated to Tupac comes from fan circles in the 2000s, and not every title could be confirmed as an explicit dedication. The list is preserved here as part of the archive, attributions not guaranteed.

Missing a song, or spotted a wrong attribution? Tributes backed by a reliable source, an artist interview, liner notes, press coverage, move up to the documented table.