Eminem Pens Tribute to Tupac Shakur

In the latest issue of PAPER Magazine, the publication asked three rap icons to pay tribute to “lost leaders of the game.” In Eminem’s piece, the Detroit rapper writes an insightful essay that describes everything from his first time listening to Tupac, to the emotional response he felt when relating to the rap legend’s lyrics. As a paragon in his own right, Eminem’s tribute is a rare look at a different side of the artist, who is essentially gushing in his homage to Tupac. He writes: “Regardless of how good a rapper someone is, it’s easy for things to eventually get dated. But when you make songs like Tupac did, songs that feel like something, that feeling never goes away.” The effect, however, is one of sincerity and honest admiration to a man that deserves every bit of that praise. Head over to PAPER Magazine to read the full essay.

He was taking things further than a lot of rappers at the time — pushing it to the next level as far as giving feeling to his words and his music. A lot of people say, “You feel Pac,” and it’s absolutely true. The way he chose which words to say with which beat was genius; it’s like he knew what part of the beat and what chord change was the right place to hit these certain words… to make them jump off the track and make you feel what he was saying. Like, listen to “If I Die 2Nite.” Whatever he was rapping about, it was urgent. If it was a sad song, it’d make you cry. But there were a lot of different sides to him: fed-up, angry, militant, having a good time. His spirit spoke to me because it was like you knew everything that he was going through, especially when he made Me Against the World. You just felt every aspect of his pain, every emotion: when he was happy, when he was sad. His ability to touch people’s lives like that was incredible.