Legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was a global phenomenon. He was not only a generation-defining music star but was very much into sports. In fact, he has also donned baseball caps of the Oakland A’s and the Chicago White Sox. Shakur was also a regular attendee of big-name boxing fights that included the likes of Mike Tyson. Overall, the rapper saw sports as a unifier for good and believed that sports have the power to help in community building, and this vision of Shakur was also reflected in an old phone call.
In a throwback report, it was highlighted that Shakur had envisioned a sports league for the youth. He planned to reunite communities by providing a safe haven for boys and girls to participate in sports in front of their parents and friends and also wanted to involve other rappers in this project.
When Tupac Shakur planned to start a youth sports league
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After Tupac Shakur and Monster Kody were released from Rikers Island and Pelican Bay respectively, the two hopped on a phone call that gave way to a new endeavor. According to a report by The Source, Shakur stated,?“We start like this youth league right ? Football, basketball, softball, for boys and girls. Ima get all the rappers to adopt a team. Every rapper have their team ?”?The rapper further explained that he would convince his rapper friends to provide money for their respective teams so that they could sustain themselves.
Shakur explained that the local churches can come out and sell their food during these games while the fathers and uncles can help out with providing security. He explained that this would help boost the spirit of the community and then, during the weekends, the rappers can put on a weekend show for the community in the form of block parties.
Shakur, also known as Pac, believed that by doing all this, he could help a lot of people and bring people together. However, the talented rapper was not able to witness this vision turn into a reality, but he remained a lifelong sports enthusiast and shared a strong bond with legendary boxer Mike Tyson.
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Mike Tyson’s bond with the hip-hop star
Mike Tyson and Tupac Shakur’s friendship was widely known. In fact, Tyson has often revealed that while he was serving jail time, the rapper used to visit him regularly in prison. While Shakur had often heaped praise on his friend and, according to an old YouTube video, the rapper had also said, “He represented us. He always lived on the edge. They always wanted to make him a different kind of person and he would never be that. He would always be on the edge.??After winning his 1996 bout against Bruce Seldon, Tyson dedicated his triumph to his friend Tupac Shakur, who had suffered a sudden and tragic demise just weeks before the fight.
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As for Tupac Shakur’s dream of a youth sports league, it never materialized. However, his powerful words through his raps have often acted as a unifier for communities, and even after more than two decades of his demise, he is still equally relevant in bringing people together.
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