But it’s an old statue! And it’s not in Dallas!
By Noah C., Hot New Hip Hop
People’s thoughts were not good. The statue was unrecognizable. For some reason, Tupac was depicted in a suit, wearing a huge cross around his neck and holding what appears to be a Bible. The late rapper was rarely seen with this sort of getup, which makes sense because he wasn’t a missionary. Twitter wondered why he would be immortalized in this manner… and in this location, since he didn’t have any strong ties to Dallas.
New Tupac statute in Dallas, what's your thoughts🤔 pic.twitter.com/l9gHIEoiAB
— lajoy🧚🏽♀️ (@lajoy1x) January 19, 2020
However, some users in the replies did a bit of Googling and discovered that this statue is not new, nor is it in Detroit. As mentioned above, it used to be in Georgia, but was removed when Tupac’s mother, Assata Shakur, sold the arts center in 2015. The center’s new owner, Jim Burnett, wishes to keep Tupac’s spirit tied to the space by erecting a new statue of him there. In 2017, it was reported that a $500,000 bronze statue was commissioned for artist Nijel Binns to complete. The final product has yet to be revealed, but with that kind of budget and this much time to work on it, hopefully it will bear a stronger resemblance to the hip hop legend.
Read the disapproving reactions to the old Tupac statue below.
Looks like this was the template photo but they failed terribly ….Whom ever did the statue……we need a refund. pic.twitter.com/V0COmInZqL
— G. Kamau (@Stegasteel) January 20, 2020
This article originally appeared in Hot New Hip Hop.