One thing is for sure, and two things are for certain, Tupac Shakur loved the ladies. Another thing that can be said was that the ladies loved Tupac Shakur. In his heyday, the west coast rapper was linked to quite a few women in the industry, from Jada Pinkett Smith to Janet Jackson. For a long time, actress Rosie Perez was speculated to be a love interest of 2Pac’s. But the famed choreographer of In Living Color’s “Fly Girl Troupe” is setting the record straight.
Rosie Perez was a highly sought-after woman in the early 90s. And while she was extremely close with the “Dear Mama” rapper, he was not one of those men that only viewed Perez as a piece of meat. As a matter of fact, the two developed an authentic and close friendship, which Perez has often spoken about.
The two met when Rosie Perez was a choreographer, and he was not as well known as a rapper. However, the Do The Right Thing actress recalled an instant connection with the rapper as he approached her with a “genuine smile” to XXL. “It was that easy with him in general. I had my guard up, but it came down in seconds,” she told the publication.
But of course, for some reason, it becomes unbelievable for two attractive people to remain as just friends. According to her account in The New York Times, the pair were so instantly close that they spent their first day together in Perez’s hotel room doing miscellaneous things such as “watching old movies” and lying in bed all day together without being intimate.
But a photo of Rosie Perez and 2Pac holding hands at an award show definitely intensified rumors of a relationship between the two. However, Perez clarified to XXL that there was no validity to any of the claims. “I’m grown now, and if it was true, I’d say, ‘yeah, we did it,'” the actress stated, adding, “Those are rumors, 100%.”
When it pertained to the infamous photo taken at the Soul Train Awards, Perez explained what happened. According to the actress, she was supposed to attend with another male singer whom she refused to mention publicly, but he did not show. “He stood me up fifteen minutes before we were supposed to leave,” said Perez on The Wendy Williams Show. Moments later, she received a phone call from 2Pac, and she emotionally told him what had happened.
“Yo, forget that [MF],” Perez said the rapper told her. “He said, ‘Let’s go up there. I’ll be your date.'” Tupac was incredibly on board with making the person in question jealous, but he had one request. “I want you to hook me up with Madonna,” he told her.
Perez, who also admitted to Wendy Williams that she and Tupac smoked together before attending the show, said she misinterpreted one moment with the rapper. While in the limousine with 2Pac and high, Perez claims that she looked at the rapper and asked if they were supposed to kiss. Instead of taking advantage of the moment, ‘Pac told her, “No. You’re the type of girl that someone marries.” The moment the infamous picture was taken was because Perez, still under the influence, was scared, to which Tupac held her hand and assured her that he “had her.”
Rosie Perez and 2Pac did not end the night together, as he left with Madonna. “When we got there and when we sat there, I didn’t realize that he was sleeping with half of the women in the industry,” said the actress.