Queen Latifah recalls taking 2Pac to a gay club: ‘They wanted to tear him out of his clothes’

Side by side images of Queen Latifah wearing a floral print zip-up top and 2Pac wearing a camouflage top

Queen Latifah has revealed that she once took rap icon 2Pac to a “cool gay club” in San Francisco where they both apparently had a fun time. 

The rapper and actor shared some memories of her time with Tupac Shakur, known professionally as 2Pac, during an appearance on the YouTube channel Hot Ones.

Queen Latifah fondly recalled how they were “label mates” when she was signed to Tommy Boy during the same period when Digital Underground, the group that launched 2Pac’s career, was with the label.

She said that she took Treach, a rapper who had a close friendship with 2Pac, on the “road as my roadie” and that “2Pac was pretty much a roadie with Digital”.

Eventually, she said, 2Pac became a “rapper in the group”.

“We toured together so we went all across the country,” she said. 

The Grammy-winning artist remembered one particular show in San Francisco, which was part of a New Year’s Eve celebration at a “cool gay club”.

Queen Latifah said she invited 2Pac to the show. “I was like, ‘Yo I’m here’, and he’s like ‘Yo I’mma hook up with you’,” she said. “So 2Pac came to the club with me. I was like, ‘Yo, 2Pac is in the building!’”

The Hairspray star described how the crowd “went crazy” for the rapper, and joked that they were going to “tear [him] out [his] clothes”. 

“He took his shirt off anywhere,” she added. “We had so much fun.”

Queen Latifah continued: “But that was like my brother, and he’s the type of person if he loved you, if he was cool with you, he’d lay his life down for you.

“I miss him, and I love him.”

She joked that they were “probably high” back when the photo of them was taken. 

2Pac died on 13 September, 1996, just days after he was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. The rapper was in the passenger side of a car stopped at a red light when he was shot by a gunman in a white Cadillac. 

His killer is still unknown.