Did slain rapper Tupac Shakur foretell his own death in latest video?

Jet, Oct 7, 1996

Tupac Shakur often rapped about violence and death in his chart-topping tunes. The late rapper-actor, who died six days after being shot four times in the chest in Las Vegas (Jet, Sept.30) appears to have foretold his own violent death in his latest video, I Ain't Mad At Cha.

Written and conceived by Shakur and co-directed with J. Kevin Swain, the gangsta rap icon depicts himself being shot numerous times by an unidentified attacker as he strolls down the street with a close friend, portrayed by actor Bokeem Woodbine who co-starred in the movie Jason's Lyric. The friend, who is unharmed, watches in disbelief as his buddy is gunned down. Oddly enough, when Shakur recently was gunned down in real life, he too was with a close friend, chairman of Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, who managed to escape the drive-by shooting with a minor head injury. Knight now wears a tattoo bearing Tupac's name on his left shoulder in honor of his slain friend.

"It is ironic - definitely a case of life imitating art," said George Pryce, director of communications and media relations at Death Row Records. "It's almost as if Tupac had a sense of foreboding."

Dressed in all white and holding a cigarette, Shakur, who sported numerous tattoos, which included one on his left arm which read, "Only God Can Judge Me!!!," returns to earth, symbolic of an angel. In the video, Shakur balances his time between watching over his friend on earth and keeping company with late greats in heaven.

When Shakur enters the Pearly Gates, he is greeted by a man resembling the late comedian-actor Redd Foxx. They are joined by other deceased greats such as: Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn, Sammy Davis Jr., Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Dorothy Dandridge and Josephine Baker.

"It was his idea, top to bottom," Swain told the Los Angeles Times. "It was all out of his brain."

Swain also told the Los Angeles Times that the versatile Shakur carefully selected who would be in his video heaven. "We didn't want to be judgmental. He was real strong about Redd Foxx and Miles Davis being in heaven," revealed Swain.

The video, where a portion was filmed in downtown Los Angeles and another location in California over two nights, is dedicated to Shakur's stepfather, Mutula Shakur, and his godfather, famed former Black Panther Party member Geronimo Pratt.

I Ain't Mad At Cha is described as a tribute to all the "homeboys locked in jail, homeboys passed away and people who've lost loved ones," Shakur says in the video. It is also a tribute to everyone who's gone before and to the various struggles everyone faces in life.

According to an unnamed source in the New York Post, Tupac's mother, Afeni, who is also a former Black Panther, "described the new single to someone as Tupac's way of making peace with God."