According to Outlawz member, EDI Mean, a wall size photo of Tupac Shakur in a bathtub was purchased by Mariah Carey.
Tupac Shakur is forever immortalized through his music, interviews, movies, photos, and countless stories told by those who was fortunate to share a moment with him. For EDI Mean, member of the Outlawz, sharing stories about his friend Tupac Shakur never gets old.
Appearing in a rare interview with Comedy Hype, EDI revealed a story about Tupac that also includes another iconic artist, Mariah Carey. The 5x Grammy winner is no stranger to Shakur. In her 2020 autobiography, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the “Fantasy” singer recalled her mesmerizing interaction with the late rap icon.
“He was alone, leaning back in the driver’s seat, so that the arm that gripped the leather steering wheel was nearly straight. He propped his head back just enough that his luxurious eyelashes didn’t cast a shadow and obscure his alert and amazing dark eyes that looked into mine,” Mariah said in her autobiography. “‘Hey, Mariah,’ he said softly, my name pouring out of his lips like smoke. Then that spectacular smile burst through everything. In an instant, the window went back up, and Tupac rolled away. Had it not been for a production assistant or someone calling me back to the stage, back to earth, I may have stayed there stunned for hours. My heart fluttered nervously… I’d just had Tupac Shakur’s eyez all on me.”
It appears that years later even after Tupac’s demise, Mariah never forgot the impact left on her by Shakur. “I heard Mariah Carey bought one of those pictures. Famous photographer did that photoshoot. I think his name was David LaChapelle. He did that photoshoot. She bought like a big a** wall size picture. this was years after he had passed away,” said EDI during his Comedy Hype interview. “I heard it was up in her crib.”
Interesting enough, other artists inspired by Tupac’s bathtub photoshoot decided to recreate the iconic moment. Pharrell Williams and Jhené Aiko respectively had their own bathtub shoot. While many found inspiration, others decades later questioned Tupac’s decision of participating in such a shoot. But according to EDI, there was no questioning Tupac’s manhood. Tupac was all about art and taking chances.
“That day when he was doing the photoshoot we were all there. It was at a hotel,” recalled E.D.I. Mean on Comedy Hype. “We clowned! We had a ball. That’s how our relationship was, we clowned. Like, ‘What the hell is going on here right now.’ It was different photos. He also did another photoshoot where he drove way out to like a farm it was a reenactment of him as a slave with some small children. So it was a series of photoshoots. What it did was for us, it taught us you can’t be afraid to be daring and not box yourself into one lane. Because at that time, us being young kids from the block, we had no expose to what high fashion was and what an actual photoshoot was when you’re coming up with different scenarios.”
