A letter the late Tupac Shakur wrote in 1995 while incarcerated to pop icon Madonna is expected to sell for as much as $400,000 at an upcoming auction.
The rapper, who was killed in a 1996 drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, revealed in the Jan. 15, 1995, letter that he broke off his relationship with Madonna, who is white, in the early 1990s because of her race.
“For you to be seen with a Black man wouldn’t in any way jeopardize your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting,” wrote Shakur, who was in prison on a sexual abuse conviction. “But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my ‘image’ I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was.”
The two-page handwritten letter, which will be auctioned later this month at a starting bid of $100,000, is currently in possession of Gotta Have Rock and Roll.
A previous Shakur letter sold for more than $170,000, entertainment website TMZ reported.