In 1992, during Mike Tyson’s three-year incarceration at an Indiana prison, Tupac Shakur came to visit the boxer and according to Mike the inmates went crazy!
“I get a call from somebody; it’s Tupac’s mother,” Tyson recalled on Drink Champs. “She explains how she knows me from her son, explains that I met him at a club one night and that he wants to come and visit me. I said great, OK.”
Tyson and Tupac would first meet six months earlier at an after-party at the Hollywood Palladium. This is where Tyson allowed Tupac and about 50 other individuals rolling with ‘Pac inside the club. In Tupac type fashion, Shakur grabbed the mic and hit the stage.
The reaction Tupac would receive as he visited Tyson in prison, surprised the boxer. “Once he came into the visiting room—and there was all these hillbilly hicks, mean motherf**kin’ aryan guys—as soon as he came up everybody started clapping. They respected him, soon as he came in the room, they started applauding.”
Tyson shared this particular story when he previously appeared on T.I.’s Expeditiously podcast. Speaking with T.I., Tyson says Tupac had the prison going crazy. Shakur would jump on a table as he amped up the inmates, making the prison guards uncomfortable.
“Cause like when he came, the inmates got rowdy and pumped up. That was like a safety situation there, so they really didn’t like him there. But he was like a bolt of energy. When he came in everybody knew him, he had mad respect. I guess that’s how he lived his life. He demanded respect.”
Mike Tyson also spoke about the time where Tupac shot at two off duty cops, another moment when Tupac had the prison in a frenzy. When word got out about the shooting incident, the prisoners went crazy. “He had just came to visit me. And, then he out to Atlanta and shot two off duty police officers. Everybody in the prison went crazy. Like a riot and everybody went crazy!”
