The late Tupac Shakur‘s last studio album “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and it’s being pushed into the digital world.
That means creating an NFT — non-fungible token — from the original artwork … a controversial piece depicting Pac as Jesus Christ wearing his crown of thorns while nailed to the cross. The parental advisory sticker infamously covered his pelvic area.
Released on November 5, 1996, nearly 2 months after his murder, Pac recorded the album under the alias Makaveli … unleashing some greatest hits material such as “Hail Mary” and “To Live In Die In L.A.” — and fueling rumors he was still alive in the process.
Riskie Forever designed and sold the painting Tupac handpicked to be the album cover back in 2015 … but crypto/NFT wallet manager Zelus helped him recover the art, and auction house Heritage Auctions will sell it to the highest bidder.
The auction goes down June 18 in NYC and fans will also have a chance to win up to $100,000 through sweepstakes on the MakaveliArt.com website starting June 5.
Mike Tyson will host the painting Tuesday on a special episode of his “Hotboxin” podcast, where he will also run through some of his cherished Tupac memories. They enjoyed a long-running friendship during the course of Pac’s life, whose last moments were spent attending the Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon fight on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas.
Iron Mike tells TMZ Hip Hop: “This episode was cool to shoot. Having the opportunity to honor Pac and have this painting here with us was awesome. It’s by far the most iconic hip hop album artwork of all time.”
Riskie, an iconic hip hop artist, was initially propositioned by then Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who later introduced him to 2Pac — and commissioned Riskie to create the album cover.
Snoop Dogg now owns the label, but most of the music remains off streaming … for the time being.