It’s very easy to feel like you really know an artist from just following their music, but to spend time actually conversing and/or corresponding with them would likely give you a completely different perspective on their life. This is the case with journalist Nina Bhadreshwar, who was pen pals with Tupac while he was in jail in the ’90s.
In a feature for The Guardian, Bhadreshwar reflected on becoming stationary friends with Tupac and how they allowed her to see a lesser-known side of the famed rapper. “We were both passionate about social issues, especially police brutality,” she shared. “Writing to him struck a light in me.”
Bhadreshwar explained that while she “had to deal with racism, anorexia and mental health issues,” hearing Tupac share about his life “was a big smack around the face” because he “had been through terrible things and yet was still so determined.” She added: “It was like: you’d better get your act together.”
At that time, Bhadreshwar says, her friends in the United Kingdom were “very critical” of Tupac and West Coast hip-hop because they bought into the rivalry and had gone all-in on East Coast rap. “He’s not interesting, he’s not an artist,” she recalled one of her friends saying of Tupac.
“I saw a different side,” Bhadreshwar confessed, then revealing that she felt a camaraderie with Tupac as they were both “very bookish and introverted” kids of people. “He’d read all the books I’d read,” she continued. “I’d send excerpts from Frederick Douglass, the Bible or Machiavelli’s The Prince. His letters were largely about hustling and writing; they weren’t romantic. I’d send poems, but he didn’t. He never talked about fellow rapper Biggie Smalls.”
Notably, Bhadreshwar’s friendship with Tupac began before he was sent to prison over sexual assault charges in 1994. She says this is something they never talked about, but Tupac was very vocal in denying the allegations and conviction against him.
“Tupac hated jail,” Bhadreshwar offered. “His letters were more lucid, as he wasn’t smoking weed, but he wasn’t in a good place. I was concerned for him. He’d just been robbed and shot; that’s serious post-traumatic stress.”
While he’d been through a lot over the past few years, Bhadreshwar says that “over time” she began to notice that “he tone of his letters seemed to evolve: from depression to rage and, eventually, to courage and creativity.”
Sadly, Tupac was murdered in 1996, just one year after he was released from prison, pending appeal. Speaking about his tragic death, Bhadreshwar said she “was devastated when he was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.”
“It took me a long time to get over it,” she continued. “I’ve never had that sort of friendship, or level of trust, with anyone else. If he had lived, I think he would have been known for his writing more than his music.”
Finally, Bhadreshwar said of Tupac, “He was a man of letters.”
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