It was an odd pitch. For nearly 30 years, veteran journalist and author Jeff Pearlman had made his bones as a respected sportswriter with a stacked resume that included seven New York Times bestsellers. His acclaimed 2014 read \u201cShowtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s\u201d was even adapted into an Emmy-nominated HBO series, \u201cWinning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet when Pearlman told his agent in the summer of 2022 about an idea he had for a book chronicling the turbulent life, euphoric rise, and tragic death of hip-hop deity Tupac Shakur, he was met with bewilderment. \u201cHe said, \u2018But you are a white guy who writes about sports,\u2019\u201d Pearlman said of the initial discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur\u201d (Mariner Books\/HarperCollins Publishers), which hit bookshelves Wednesday, sticks out of Pearlman\u2019s literary portfolio like Kendrick Lamar at a Drake fan meet-and-greet. His previous work detailed the highs, lows and triumphs of such sporting icons as the 1986 World Series-winning, wild bunch New York Mets; disgraced MLB pitcher Roger Clemons; dynastic \u201990s Super Bowl champs the Dallas Cowboys; Chicago Bears running back great Walter Payton; NFL gunslinger Brett Favre; and two-sport phenom Bo Jackson.<\/p>\n
Yet the charismatic Tupac Amaru Shakur, a gifted emcee, actor and social activist \u2014 who was killed at the too-soon age of 25 in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting on Sept. 7, 1996 \u2014 was as much an eloquent voice of a generation as he was the self-destructive face of gangster rap. The same celebrated Shakur who rapped about women\u2019s empowerment on his hopeful song \u201cKeep Ya Head Up,\u201d also did a seven-month stint at Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York in 1995, after being charged and convicted of sexual abuse, stemming from a 1993 incident.<\/p>\n
Shakur\u2019s turbulent yet impactful short life was light years from Pearlman\u2019s sleepy, rural Mahopac, N.Y., roots. \u201cIt\u2019s admittedly weird that I\u2019m the one writing a Tupac biography,\u201d Pearlman says. \u201cI tell people, \u2018Look, I just want to acknowledge the obvious here. I\u2019m not of hip-hop.\u2019 But I found Tupac fascinating. I listened more to his second album \u201cStrictly For My\u2026\u201d because I liked \u2018I Get Around.\u2019 [Beyond that], I\u2019ve never written about hip-hop at any great length, but I don\u2019t feel like the subject of Tupac had ever been done the way I wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Tupac Shakur with Death Row Records boss Suge Knight.<\/p>\n
(Jeff Kravitz \/ FilmMagic \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly God Can Judge Me\u201d is a meticulous demystification of a young artist who since death has transcended into a global icon on par with Bob Marley.<\/p>\n
Pearlman unearthed a young Tupac, a hopeless romantic during his years attending Baltimore School for the Arts from 1986-1988. There are the never-before-seen 150 love letters he wrote to then-girlfriend Mary, a ballet dancer, whose mom found them under a bed in Nebraska. \u201cTupac was writing Mary these poems about love, lust, longing and sadness,\u201d Pearlman says. \u201dHe was just 15. I can understand why women [flocked] to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pearlman interviewed the EMT worker who was first on the scene after Shakur was ambushed and shot in the lobby of Manhattan\u2019s Quad Studios in 1994 (surprisingly enough, another first), a fateful event that would ignite the so-called East Coast versus West Coast rap war with friend-turned-rival Christopher \u201cNotorious B.I.G.\u201d Wallace. And yes, the urban legend is true. Tupac accidentally shot himself in the testicles.<\/p>\n
Pearlman throws cold water on the myriad conspiracy theories that have haunted the memory of Shakur since his death. According to him, neither Notorious B.I.G. (the multiplatinum Brooklyn rapper who was also gunned down in 1997 in Los Angeles), Bad Boy label honcho Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, nor Death Row Records label boss Suge Knight, who signed Shakur to a recording deal after bailing him out of prison for $1.4 million, had anything to do with the murder, Pearlman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has seen the [MGM Grand] video,\u201d says Pearlman, referring to the night Shakur led a Death Row Blood-affiliated entourage in the filmed beating of Compton Crip Orlando Anderson. He allegedly retaliated later that night, killing Shakur as he was riding in the passenger seat of a black 1996 BMW. Prosecutors claim Anderson\u2019s uncle, Duane \u201cKeefe D\u201d Davis<\/a>, was the ringleader of the shooting. Davis is set to go to trial in February for his alleged part in the murder, potentially closing a chapter in one of true crime\u2019s biggest mysteries.<\/p>\n Tupac Shakur received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023.<\/p>\n (Chris Pizzello \/ Invision \/ AP)<\/p>\n \u201cI talked to James \u2018Mob James,\u2019 McDonald, who was a Death Row guy,\u201d Pearlman says. \u201cWhen I was interviewing him, I felt the pain coming off this guy. He was like, \u2018Tupac\u2019s murder was the dumbest s\u2014 ever.\u2019 Tupac was a gifted talent who bought into the Blood image Suge sold him, and that\u2019s why he is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, the question has to be asked: Does the world need another Tupac book? There have been more than 40 works written about the Rock and Roll of Fame inductee, who has sold an estimated 125 million records worldwide and was on his way to becoming a respected thespian after a star-making debut in the gritty 1992 coming-of-age drama \u201cJuice\u201d as the psychopathic Bishop.<\/p>\n During the two and a half years Pearlman spent working on \u201cOnly God Can Judge Me,\u201d the rapper\u2019s estate released yet another posthumous book, 2024\u2019s \u201cTupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography.\u201d Pearlman, however, readily admits to taking a more obsessive approach to researching for his tome than his predecessors.<\/p>\n \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been any other Tupac book where you interview 650 people, travel all over the country, and track everyone down,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the book I wanted to write.\u201d<\/p>\n There are indeed some head-turning finds in \u201cOnly God Can Judge Me,\u201d the most noteworthy being the actual baby from Shakur\u2019s early \u201990s single \u201cBrenda\u2019s Got a Baby,\u201d inspired by an April 21, 1991, New York Daily News piece about a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl who was raped by a cousin, hid her pregnancy from family members, and threw the infant down a garbage chute.<\/p>\n Pearlman had always loved the song. He was the only white kid in his 1989 Mahopac High class that listened to hip-hop. By chance he ran across a YouTube video of actor Omar Epps discussing the article that moved Tupac to write the track. Pearlman called genealogist Michele Soulli to see if she could track down the baby for the book. She hit the jackpot. Not only was the grown adopted child, Davonn Hodge, alive and well in Las Vegas, he was unaware of his direct connection to the classic record.<\/p>\n \u201cMichele is amazing,\u201d says Pearlman. \u201cShe also found Davonn\u2019s mother, Janene, [who happened to be in town attending] a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. They met later in Las Vegas. Thinking about it gives me chills.\u201d<\/p>\n Central to the new book is Tupac Shakur\u2019s relationship with his mother, Afeni Shakur, shown in 2003.<\/p>\n (Associated Press)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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