Jada Pinkett-Smith Posts Touching Tribute to Tupac on What Would Have Been His 49th Birthday

Jada Pinkett-Smith celebrated the birthday of her late friend, Tupac Shakur, with a touching social media post.

Tupac Shakur was a poet, activist, and rapper who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas when he was just 25 years old.

Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater on March 01, 1994 | Photo: Getty Images

While his legacy has continued to thrive through his art and music, every time June 16 rolls around, Jada Pinkett-Smith is thrown into a state of sadness as it is the day that her childhood friend would have celebrated his birthday.

Jada and Tupac's relationship began to experience changes following "California Love" rapper's 1995 stint in prison for rape charges.

Regardless of her sadness, Jada has made it a tradition to share touching social media posts, and this year was no different as she took to Instagram to post a lengthy message to mark what would have been his 49th birthday.

According to Hot New HipHop, the actress uploaded a vintage clip that saw Tupac addressing the issue of how specific individuals are more concerned with making money than they are with distributing wealth.

Through the caption, the "Red Table Talk" host stated that the late rapper's "words are still sooooo deeply relevant and inspiring" and that he would be "grateful for the courage and passion of the youth today."

Jada and Tupac formed a friendship when they met at The Baltimore School of Arts together during the '80s, and they have been the topic of several conversations and speculations since then.

Even when Jada and Will Smith met in 1994, one of the latter's challenges was having to deal with their platonic relationship.

Insider reported that Will admitted he had been jealous of Tupac's friendship with his wife as he "was deeply insecure" and wasn't "man enough" to deal with that type of relationship.

Jada and Tupac's relationship began to experience changes following the "California Love" rapper's 1995 stint in prison for rape charges - an allegation that he vehemently denied to those who cared to listen.

Cheat Sheet narrated that Jada gave him his space as she wasn't in agreement with the path that he was on, while the rapper assumed that she had "gone soft." Unfortunately, Tupac died before they could patch things up after their fight.

Since then, the "Girls Trip" star has continued to publicly address their relationship like she did in November 2019 when NME revealed that she told Robyn Crawford that her and Tupac's friendship was "complex" and sometimes confusing.

Back in 2017, after the release of the rapper's biopic, "All Eyez On Me," NME reported that Jada took to Twitter to call out its producers for the "deeply hurtful" interpretation of her friendship with Tupac.