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While 2Pac is known as a West Coast rap legend, it’s often overlooked that he spent a portion of his formative teenage years in the ’80s living with his mother and sister in Baltimore.
And so, Pac will be turned into a bobblehead this upcoming MLB season, as the Baltimore Orioles announced on Monday (Jan. 12) that the franchise will honor the artist born Tupac Shakur on May 8 during the O’s game against the Athletics.
The first 15,000 fans into Camden Yards that day will get their hands on the exclusive collectible item. The figurine finds Pac holding a baseball bat while rocking a black Orioles jersey over a white long-sleeve shirt and a gold chain to go with his signature headband look.
Fans were excited at the unexpected collaboration, which has become an early frontrunner for the promotion giveaway of the year this baseball season. “This might be the hardest giveaway in MLB history,” one person replied on X.
Another chimed in: “Okay, so I need one of these. I will trade anything!”
2Pac moved from New York City with his sister and mother, Afeni, to North Baltimore’s Pen Lucy neighborhood in 1984.
He attended Dunbar High School and the Baltimore School for the Arts, where Jada Pinkett-Smith was also a student. Pac lived in B-More for about four years before heading to the West Coast, which catapulted his rapping and acting careers in the ’90s.
Following his 1996 death, the Pen Lucy street he grew up on was renamed to Tupac Shakur Way. Thirty years later, Pac’s Maryland roots will be honored by the hometown Os.
