During a personal interview with Brian Custer, actress and community activist Rosie Perez spoke about how she hooked up Madonna with Tupac Shakur.
The brief relationship between Tupac and Madonna is well documented, but what doesn’t seem to get spoken of is how the two really hooked up. According to Rosie Perez, it was Madonna who approached the up and coming actress for the hook up.
“I go to the bathroom, I bump into Madonna and she goes, “Girl hook me up!” I was like really? She goes yes, hook it up.. please!” The connection was made possible due to the fact that Rosie Perez’s date stood her up at the 1993 Soul Train Music Awards. When Tupac became aware by talking to Perez on the phone, Shakur immediately came to the rescue.
“I go back to my seat and I was like Pac, you won’t believe this but you know Madonna? He was like “Yeah.” I go she wants to hook up with you,” Perez tells host of ‘Last Stand Podcast‘ Brian Custer. Without hesitation Shakur accepted. “Before I could finish, he just got up out of his seat and was like where is she c’mon,” Perez said.
Tupac and Madonna quickly connected, says Perez. “The next week you saw her walking down the red carpet with a bandana on her head.” In 1995, the almost two year on-and-off relationship between Tupac and Madonna came to an end. The break up came via a letter written by Tupac to Madonna while Shakur was in prison. A letter which became public as it was auctioned off in 2019 by a former friend of the iconic singer.
“The effects of racism make it difficult for a young black male to properly show affection for an older white woman. Can you understand that? For you to be seen with a black man wouldn’t in any way jeopardize your career. If anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting. But for me at least in previous perception, I felt due to my “image” I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was. I never meant to hurt you,” Tupac wrote in the break up letter.
Earlier this year, Madonna took her daughter Mercy James for her 16th birthday to the Tupac “Wake Me When I’m Free” exhibit. “Introducing Tupac and his love for books and words and poetry to Mercy James on her birthday,” Madonna wrote on her IG Story Sunday night (January 23). Indeed they did. Madonna and Mercy posing in front of Tupac poems such as “In The Event Of My Demise” and Untitled.” View more on Madonna visiting the exhibit and her history with Tupac Shakur: Madonna Visits Tupac Exhibit With Daughter Mercy James On Her Birthday
Full Rosie interview on Last Stand podcast below. Starting at the 49:50 mark of the interview, watch as Rosie Perez shares some great Tupac stories.
