‘Forever yours, Tupac’: Teenage love letters by Tupac Shakur to fetch at least $60,000 at auction

Letters detail late rapper’s adolescent romance with classmate Kathy Loy

Tupac Shakur’s teenage love letters to one of his classmates are to go up for auction.

The letters, which make reference to his childhood friend Jada Pinkett Smith, are included in a hip hop auction at Sotheby’s that also features a crown worn by The Notorious BIG in his final photoshoot before his death.

Shakur’s letters were written when he was 16-years-old, and include details of his relationship with a high school sweetheart named Kathy Loy.

The letters include Shakur declaring his love for Loy, and appearing to come to terms with her calling off their relationship.

“I don’t want anyone but you but that’s just me,” Shakur writes in one letter. “Your [sic] the first girl that’s done this to me!”

Shakur signs off many of the letters with heart illustrations and Cupid arrows.

One letter notes that Pinkett Smith, a classmate of Shakur’s at the Baltimore School of Arts and one of his closest friends at the time, recognised his love for Loy. “Jada told me she can see how much I love you,” Shakur writes.

The letters are estimated to be worth $60,000 to $80,000 (£45,000 to £60,100).

Tupac Shakur in 1997’s ‘Gridlock’d’, and a close-up of one of his teenage love letters (Gramercy Pictures/Reuters/Sotheby’s) (Gramercy Pictures/Reuters/Sotheby's)

A high school yearbook, featuring Shakur and Pinkett Smith, is also part of the auction (Reuters/Sotheby’s) (Reuters/Sotheby's)

The Notorious BIG’s crown, used in an iconic photograph of the late rapper, is expected to fetch between $200,000 to $300,000 (£150,500 to £225,900).

Some of the money raised by the auction, which includes 120 items from hip hop history, will go towards community projects in New York City. The auction, to be held at Sotheby’s in New York on 15 September, was put together by Monica Lynch, the former president of Tommy Boy Records.

Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in September 1996, aged just 25. The Notorious BIG, real name Christopher Wallace, was killed in another drive-by shooting just three months later at the age of 24.