Rapper Tupac Shakur’s mother donates collection of writing to Atlanta university library

Tupac’s mother donates his writing for research

ATLANTA — Tupac Shakur’s mother has donated a collection of the rapper’s writing to the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Atlanta University Center.

Afeni Shakur has handed over more than 150 of her son’s items, ranging from rough drafts of lyrics and poems to a photocopy of his contract with Suge Knight and Death Row Records.

The rapper’s collection will be part of the archives at the library on the campus of the Atlanta University Center, which comprises the historically black universities of Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and the Morehouse School of Medicine.

The library also houses The Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. Shakur’s records are expected to be available for research in the fall of 2010.

“We need to read history from the source,” Afeni Shakur said. “It gives people the opportunity to judge him objectively. What we want to do is educate.”

Other items include the rapper’s handwritten playlists of “All Eyez on Me” and “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory”; letters he wrote to his family when he in prison in 1994; and some of his personal items returned to the family after his death.

Afeni Shakur says she has never read any of her son’s notes.

“I haven’t touched them one bit,” she said. “I have not been able to. But I think when the library makes them available, I think I can go with my family and might able to do it for the first time.”

Shakur was one of rap’s best-selling artists, becoming an even bigger star after his release from prison in 1995 with his multi-platinum selling album “All Eyez on Me.” He was shot to death while riding in a car with Knight in Las Vegas a year later.

“Tupac’s collection provides this generation to see primary documents,” said Loretta Parham, CEO and library director. “It’s the opportunity for them to relate something from the past to now.”

On the Net:

Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, www.tasf.org/

Robert W. Woodruff Library, www.auctr.edu