Behind his gangster exterior, ‘Thug Life’ rapper 2Pac is known to be a funny and sweet person and despite the prevalent narrative that he was just a hooligan, new stories about the emcee (real name Tupac Shakur) come to light all the time.
It is well known that, in 1993, 2Pac accompanied a terminally ill fan by the name of Joshua to a basketball game as he had received fan mail from this young boy, but one story that often doesn’t get as much attention is the time Shakur accompanied one of his fans to their high school prom.
While 2Pac was in jail, a young Californian girl named Tashaunna Howard wrote to 2Pac’s fan club, asking kindly if he would consider accompanying her to the John Muir High School Prom in Pasadena. At the time, Tashaunna Howard did not expect much. However, she was in for a surprise as Shakur did read it and took it upon himself to be her date on that night in 1996.
In a 1996 interview with MTV, Howard explained, “I had written a letter saying how much I loved his music to his fan club, and at the end, I made a joke saying that if he ever read this letter to please take me to my prom since my boyfriend had just broken up with me.”
She continued, [Then] There was a knock at my door, and it was him! He was by himself. No reporters, no homies, just Tupac Shakur at my doorstep!” According to Howard, the ‘California Love’ emcee even gave her $1500 to buy a gown and escorted her to the prom.
Describing the experience, Howard told MTV, “Prom day came, and he called and said to be ready. A limo showed up with 2Pac in it and went straight to my prom. Everyone was going crazy taking pictures, but we hung out there for about thirty minutes. We danced to about five songs, then he said he had business to take care of, kissed me on the cheek, and left.”
2Pac did a lot of charitable things in his day, including the donation of huge sums of money to the Make-A-Wish foundation. You can see Tashaunna Howard’s interview about Shakur’s prom appearance in the video below.
