A letter written by Tupac Shakur during his incarceration at New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility in 1995, was auctioned off for more than 172,725, reports Complex .
According to Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, the winning bidder is a well-known person who beat out a popular entertainer to take home a peace of hip-hop history.
The four-page letter titled “Is Thug Life Dead?” had a previous sales price of $225,000 and was penned to Death Row Records employee Nina Bhadreshwar, on May 6, 1995.
“Sorry it took so long, I did get your first letter and I enjoyed it,” Pac wrote to Bhadreshwar. “It helped my spirit rebuild.”
Of the letter he added, “Here is where my heart is at this time. It’s long but it’s true. Use it as u see fit.”
Pac was sentenced on charges of sexually abusing a fan, which he denied, three months before the letter was written.
In an April 1995 interview from Riker’s Island, the young rap star seemed optimistic while speaking to journalist Kevin Powell, and explained why he initially thought that being behind bars would break his spirit.
“That was the addict speaking,” he told Powell. “The addict knew that if I went to jail, the addict couldn’t live. And so the addict in Tupac is gone.
He continued, “The excuse-maker in Tupac is dead, the irresponsible person…the vengeful Tupac is dead. The Tupac that would stand by and let dishonorable things happen is dead. I got a job to do, I feel like God let me live to do something extremely extraordinary…even if they give me the full maximum time, that’s still my job. ”
More than a year after the interview, Pac was killed in Las Vegas at the age of 25.
Click here to read VIBE’s special digital cover, commemorating 20 years since his untimely death.