2Pac's nephew is an actor, but says he has no desire to play his legendary uncle
2Pac‘s nephew, Malik Shakur, who is an actor, has revealed that he has no desire to ever play his legendary uncle on screen.
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Speaking in a new interview on the 25th anniversary of his uncle’s death (September 13), Malik, who is the son of 2Pac’s sister Sekyiwa Shakur, shared a few stories about the late rapper, who was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
Although he was just a baby when his uncle was murdered, Malik told HipHopDX there are a lot of reminders of him around his house.
“It’s funny because there’s two pictures on my mother’s fridge in her house and one of them is me in Atlanta at a protest to the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the other is ‘Pac, a little bit over 18,” Malik said. “In the photo I think he’s [2Pac] in Baltimore or something and he’s at a protest … yeah he’s protesting Apartheid I think, and we look just alike. We’re making the same fist … I guess he gave me that bone in my body.”
He added: “When I hear stories like that about him being a card-carrying member of the communist party or I hear about him fighting apartheid before any celebrity … that’s really relatable to me now. These stories tell me what he felt was important to him back then.”
Besides his activism work and making music, 2Pac starred in numerous movies, most notably 1992 hip-hop classic Juice; Poetic Justice, the 1993 film which co-starred Janet Jackson; and basketball film Above The Rim (1994).
Malik has starred in a couple of short films, including 2020 Sundance film Buck and this year’s Homegoing, however, he revealed he doesn’t want to use his acting talents to play his late uncle.
“I think there’s a lot of talented actors that could do that,” he said. “Well, at least a brother that looks a little bit more like him … but I would love to be a part of the process of writing that story. I think a huge thing me and my family talks about is being able to tell our own stories, especially when it comes to not only Pac but the Shakur family [as a whole].
“So yeah, I’d love to be a part of that process, I just don’t know if I’d be the actor though.”
Meanwhile, Jada Pinkett Smith has shared a never-before-seen poem written by 2Pac in celebration of the late rapper’s 50th birthday earlier this year.
2Pac would have turned 50 on June 16, and Smith chose to share the poem, titled ‘Lost Soulz’, that he wrote while he was incarcerated.