Black Twitter Roasts Tupac Shakur Statue That Looks Nothing Like The Late Rap Icon
The business of celebrity iconography is one that fans don’t take lightly as evidenced by the internet’s strong reactions to Madame Tussauds' recent unveiling of their Nicki Minaj wax figure at their Berlin museum.
Widely known as one of the most popular wax museums of pop culture, it’s worth noting that it wouldn’t be the first time the institute has come under fire, either. Most notably, Tussauds rolled out various wax iterations of Beyoncé before finally nailing it with a version last year that received the BeyHive’s stamp of approval.
The internet found itself revisiting the topic of butchered celebrity replicas, however, after someone shared a photo of a bronze statue of Tupac on Twitter this Tuesday (Jan. 21), which was allegedly erected in Dallas.
“New Tupac [statue] in Dallas, what's your thoughts?” the user posed on the social platform.
Commentary quickly rolled in from across the internet as people weighed in with their thoughts on the viral photo. Many people couldn't help but notice that the portrayal bore no discernible resemblance to the late rap icon.The display portrayed Tupac dressed in a suit with a huge cross around his neck and what appears to be a Bible grasped in one hand. Twitter users were further confused as to why the statue was even built in the Texan metropolis in the first place considering that Tupac had no known ties to the city.
“Bruh. I didn't know y'all call the priest from The Walking Dead Tupac. Cause I know for a FACT this ain't thee Hit Em Up, Brenda Got A Baby Tupac. No gawd!” one person wrote.
Upon further digging, other users unearthed that the statue is not newly built nor is it actually located in Dallas as they were initially led to believe. The statue in the photo once stood in front of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It was later removed after Tupac’s mother, the late Afeni Shakur, sold the arts center to a businessman named Jim Burnett in 2015, according to Billboard. Two years later, Burnett reportedly commissioned $500,000 for a new statue to be built and appointed artist Nijel Binns to oversee the project in 2017.
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However, it doesn’t appear Binns’ version has yet to materialize. Now that we’ve seen the original statue, we can only hope it will be a vast improvement.
Nonetheless, the entire situation set off some memorable reactions from hip-hop fans.
Check out the internet’s hilarious reactions to the statue below:
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