All “eyez” are still on Tupac Shakur, both literally and figuratively. After last week’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and another trailer from his soon-to-be released biopic hit the web, the state of Georgia decided to one-up everyone in the Tupac fandom rankings by commissioning a 7-foot tall statue of Shakur to be made. The price tag? About $500,000 — or the equivalent of getting a dollar for rhyming “Hennessy” with “Enemies” for every single Pac song that ever existed.
According to TMZ, the inspiration for the new statue comes from a 13-inch clay rendering of Tupac from artist Nijel Binns. Binns’ previous sculptures include heads of Malcolm X, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Jean-Michel Basquiat, famed Star Wars composer John Williams & more.
Jim Burnett, who owns the venue formerly known as the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts — a performing arts center supported through the Shakur Family Foundation in Georgia — is behind the installation. The statue is intended to replace the old model which stood in front of the center until it was sold in 2015.
The statue is on course to be unveiled in September, commemorating the 21st anniversary of Shakur’s murder in 1996. A glimpse at the original statue had Tupac wearing a suit, similar to that of the “I Ain’t Mad At Cha” video with an inscription that read, “I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”
