The Thousands

What this is, is a pack of ‘Pacs drawn by kids all over the world whose utter idolisation of Tupac trumps their ability to represent it. But the intention is not mockery. Mark Drew, whose artwork revolves heavily around music, and the conscious or subconscious impact it has on us, saw this Makaveli fan-art phenomenon as a way to highlight his cause. Tupac died before some of these kids were even born but still, 15 years on, they want to draw his face, tattoos and middle finger.

Beginning as a homemade zine, after its first issue in 2007 TUHG LIFE is now big enough to be a 48-page, bound, hand-numbered (1st edition of 100) book printed by Smalltime Books. The title of the book comes from one fan’s typo, which happened when he was penciling in Pac’s legendary stomach tat.

What’s great is that most of the images are inspired by the same press shot or album cover, so genius and flair are interestingly comparable. Some others are pure sci-fi fantasy. Like the one of ‘Pac with a samurai sword punching a robot, who’s wearing two hats, in the teeth – which could be a prediction for when Tupac finally comes out of hiding.