‘Magazine Cover from Sister 2 Sister Magazine May 1997
Tupac on the marriage to Keisha Morris:
“I’m a romantic and I thought, at the time, I wanted to be married. I got married to someone who I cared about. It was a girlfriend. I never had a girlfriend, so it was my only real girlfriend. So we just got married and it didn’t work. Not because of her or me or jail. It wasn’t the right thing to do at the time. We rushed into it. When I married her, I married her for the wrong reasons. I cared about her, but I married her because I was in jail, I was alone. I didn’t want to be alone and I was like, “Well, she’s there. I care about her, she cares about me, let me show some commitment.” Watching Oprah, that’s what happened. Oprah and all these shows, all these women talking about commitment, and I was like, “Oh, okay, well, imagine if a guy’s in jail and proposes.”
The Interview by Jamie Foster Brown
Tupac’s only wife finally opens up to tell why they married, how long it lasted, why no conjugal visits, and why they parted. Boy, life is funny ain’t it? Who would have thought I, Jamie Foster Brown would suddenly get a phone call from Keisha Morris-Shakur late one Thursday night. “Hi, Jamie. This is Keisha, Tupac’s wife.” I was shocked. I hadn’t heard from her in almost two years – since I visited her and her husband Tupac Shakur in Dannemora where Tupac was imprisoned back in the summer of 1995.
After Tupac’s death, I had tried to reach her, but she wasn’t talking to anyone. She told me that after he was killed, everybody was looking for her. She said she would leave her apartment building and walk right by camera crews from Rolonda’s show, Geraldo’s, Hard Copy, etc. She laughed. The press would ask the guard who and where was Keisha Shakur and the guard would say, “Oh she just left.” She would walk right past them–they didn’t even know what she looked like and the guard had been told not to tell them.
But now she’s ready to talk and Sister 2 Sister is the golden child. She wants to deposit her treasured memories of Tupac with us. They’re fragile. And she has to make sure they’re in the right hands. This is part one of a two part series. The interview was so darnn interesting, it was hard cutting down. It’s almost like being “reading” Toms instead of peeping Toms. If you liked Tupac, or even if you didn’t, you can’t resist this story. I’ll tell you more next issue, but right now, grab a cup of coffee or beer if you’re an adult, or a soda if you’re not and get down with this interview. It is the joint.
Sister 2 Sister: Keisha, how do you spell your name?
Keisha Morris: Keisha Morris-Shakur.
So you still use Shakur?
It’s my option to have the hyphenated name.
Okay. Keisha how old are you?
Twenty Four
You’re a baby! Let’s start with how you first met him.
I first met him in June of 1994. We were both at a club (the old Chippendale’s club, now called the “Capitolin New York.”) It was a Father’s Day dance. A lot of people were there. I saw Wesley Snipes, Pac–it was a really nice vibe. I saw Tupac and when I saw him I was with my girlfriend, Jamie, and I told her, “Hold my bag. I’m going to dance with Tupac.”
How did you know you were going to dance with Tupac?
Because I knew. [Laughing] I went over. We were dancing off Wu-Tang’s song, “C.R.E.A.M.”
Wait a minute. How did you ask him to dance?
Oh I just grabbed him and said, “Come on let’s go!” [Laughing] We were dancing and he was singing the words to “C.R.E.A.M.” and I told him, “That’s not your song. Why are you singing that?” He was laughing and then another woman came over. She was trying to get his attention and everything, so I just walked away. I saw him after everyone was partying later on that night and I explained to him, “You have supporters out here, you know. I know you’re going through a difficult time and I wish everything well. I feel you were put in a bad situation.”
What was the difficult time?
He was going through the court. The New York trial was about to start. The accusation of the rape. [Tupac was jailed for touching a woman on her behind. He was later imprisoned until his 3 million dollar bail was raised.] He said, “Thank you, I appreciate it.” He looked like he wanted to talk, but I just walked away. I left. I went home. That was just that. I saw him a month later at the Tunnel nightclub and I saw that he was coming over towards me. I said, “I know he’s not coming over here.”
He remembered you?
He remembered who I was and he said, “Weren’t you the girl that had on the black dress and you spoke to me for like five minutes? I’ve been looking for you for a month.”
What did that dress look like?
It was black, kind of like that dress from [the movie] Indecent Proposal. He said, “I was like looking for you for over a month, I’ve been thinking about you every single day.” He remembered everything, the dress, what I said and everything. I couldn’t believe it.
Did you like him?
It was weird, you know. I was like, “Is he for real?” I knew he remembered. He caught my attention, and then he stayed with me the whole night. He talked with me. We danced, I was telling him he was too close to me–to move back. He was too close!
Was he dancing?
Yeah, we were dancing and I was like, “Move back. You’re too close to me.” And he was like, “I’ve never encountered a girl like you.” I was like, “No, you’re too close.”
Did you have a boyfriend?
No. I kept telling him to get away, to get off of me. He was touching me and I kept telling him to stop touching me, and he was laughing. You know, he kept telling me, “You’re full of shit.” I said, “Whatever.” He invited me to his hotel and I told him, “No. Are you crazy?! I trust you, but not like that!”
What happened next?
He gave me his home number and his pager number and he said, “I’m gonna stay a day later. I’m supposed to fly back to Atlanta tomorrow, but I’m going to stay a day later just to take you out.” And I was like, “Yeah right. You know, okay whatever.” I did not think anything of it. I said, “Okay.” We exchanged numbers and he was like, “You’re not coming to my hotel room?” I said, “I already told you no, so don’t ask me again.” At the time, I was a camp counselor, so I said, “I get off work at 5 p.m. I’ll be home by 6 p.m. He called at exactly six o’clock on the dot. And he was like, “Okay, I’m ready to take you out. Where do you want to go?” I said it doesn’t matter and he said, “I’m not coming to Harlem,” and I said, “I’m not coming to your hotel, so I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Where was he staying?
The Paramount Hotel. I said, “I’m not going down there.” We were on the phone for an hour debating. I said, “Okay, I’ll meet you in the lobby, but I’m not gonna go up to your room.” So he said, “No, you have to come up to my room.” I said, “Okay, fine.” So I put on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a baseball hat and I said I’m not going to wear anything sexy because I don’t want to give him that impression. We went and had dinner at this little Italian restaurant. Then we went to Chelsea Cinemas in Manhattan to see Forest Gump. He said, “It’s the number one movie in the nation,” and I told him I didn’t want to see it.
You thought it was corny?
Yes, it was corny. So he said, “You’re a weirdo.” He kept saying, “You’re a weirdo.” So we saw the movie. He was explaining to me that he was supposed to read for one of the parts in there. So it was really nice. In the movie theater, the people in front of us had small children and I think the child was agitated. They were there for a long time and this man just started yelling to the woman, “Why don’t you shut that kid up?! And Pac was like, “You know, that’s a child. The baby can’t help it.” And I thought he spoke very calmly. I was so surprised because the bad person the media portrayed him to be–spitting at the camera, very arrogant–he was nothing like that. He was a total gentlemen–very respectful, opened the door, asked “What do you want? What would you like?” A total, total gentlemen.
So what did you do after the movie?
So, after the movie, he wanted me to go back to his hotel room and I told him, “Nope.” So we stood there for about twenty minutes and I said, “I’m going home. It’s been a nice night and now it’s time to end it.” He said, “No you’re coming back to the hotel with me.” So I said, “Okay, okay fine.”
You went?
So I went back to the hotel and we talked, we watched TV, and they actually showed a clip on “E” TV of him spitting at a camera or something like that. He was like, “Oooh, look!” [She laughs] I was reading a magazine and he told me, “You didn’t come here to read a magazine.” And I said, “Yes I did.” We had small talk, but he was kind of tired and I said, “Well, I’m going home.” He said, “No you’re not. No, you can’t go home.” I said, “Well there’s two beds in here. You sleep on that bed and I’ll sleep on this bed.” He said, “No, this is my room. I’m sleeping where you’re sleeping.” I said, “Okay, okay.”
Now are you normally like that with guys?
[Laughing] No, I’m really nasty, evil and everything. So then I think we both fell asleep. I had on all my clothes on and he said the least I could do is take off my shoes. I said, “Nope.” But I said, “Okay, okay, okay.” So I took off my shoes. He went right to sleep. He didn’t try anything, or nothing like that.
You just slept?
Keisha: I woke up early in the morning. I left him a note. Kissed him on the cheek and that was that. I did not call. He flew back to Atlanta and I went away. So when I came home that Friday, there were eight messages on my answering machine.
Read More: Keisha Morris: Sister 2 Sister Magazine 1997
SISTER 2 SISTER MAGAZINE