A love letter written by the late Tupac Shakur to his high school crush is being sold for $35,000 on the auction site, Moments In Time.
The slain rapper wrote the note to woman he nicknamed "Beethoven", because of her fondness for playing the piano. The two met at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California, where they studied Shakespeare.
"He was good, I mean really good," she wrote in a letter on the auction site. "When Tupac's turn came, suddenly you understood what we were reading. He took something as difficult as Shakespeare and gave it such a contemporary voice."
According to the woman, the two became fast friends. She recalls they "used to sit together and commiserate about our unrequited love."
In the love letter Tupac drew artwork to replace letters and words like "I" with an actual eye and a heart drawn instead of spelt out. He also included tender musings like, “As you will soon find out, I do not spare words, I say what I feel. So if something I say scares you, please don’t panic because I tend to get over emotional.”
Although Tupac and his piano aficionado shared common interests like a love of Prince and candles, their brief romance ended after he dropped out of high school and became a famous rapper.
"The second and last time I saw him and I was driving out of Marin City and he was in a car," she wrote. "He leaned his head out the window and yelled my name as he reached out and waved to me enthusiastically."
Beethoven was no longer a fan of Tupac after he changed from an affectionate writer to a perceived gangsta rapper.
“I didn't know that man who tattooed "Thug Life" on his chest and was gunned down on a Las Vegas Street," she said, referencing his 1996 murder. "I never really cared for the music he recorded — it was nothing like those freestyles I remember in front of our school. I knew the kid who made me understand Shakespeare and who didn’t care that he dressed different or wore his hair different."
There's always been many facets of Tupac, from the revolutionary to the hood story teller and now the Shakespearean writer.
