Tupac Shakur signed his Death Row Records contract inside a New York jail and advised a corrections officer he didn’t care if the satan himself obtained him out.

That’s the declare made by Michael Christopher, a former corrections officer at Clinton Correctional Facility, who recounts his private interactions with Shakur in the course of the rapper’s 1995 incarceration in his memoir Tupac Behind Bars.

According to Christopher, Tupac Shakur was visibly excited the day he inked his take care of Suge Knight and lawyer David Kenner, who visited him on the jail to finalize the contract. The settlement secured his $1.4 million bail and introduced him into the Death Row fold.

“He came over to my desk, which he did quite often,” Christopher stated. “He showed me the contract because he was pretty proud of it. And he goes, ‘Do you know what this is?’ And I’m like, ‘No.’ And he’s like, ‘I just signed a contract with Death Row, and that’s Suge Knight, and blah, blah, blah. I’m going to get the money for my bail.’”

Christopher congratulated him, however added a warning: “Just be careful because you might have sold your soul to the devil.”

Shakur laughed and responded, “Oh, you mean like Robert Johnson, right? At the crossroads?”

Christopher confirmed the reference, telling him, “Just be careful because he might call in his chips.”

Shakur didn’t flinch. He replied, “I don’t care if I signed a soul with the devil. As long as the devil can get me out of here, I don’t care who I sign with.”

Christopher believes that second caught with Shakur, particularly since he later acquired a uncommon {photograph} from the rapper with the phrase “See you at the crossroads” written throughout the highest.

The phrase echoes the legendary story of blues musician Robert Johnson, who, in line with folklore, met the satan at a crossroads to commerce his soul for musical genius.

Christopher, who spoke with Tupac Shakur throughout visits and downtime, stated the rapper was nicely conscious of the Johnson legend.

“He was quite familiar with Robert Johnson already anyway,” Christopher stated. “So he was like, ‘Damn.’ He says, ‘Yeah.’ He says, ‘I guess maybe.’ But he said he wasn’t worried.”

Johnson’s story has lengthy been a part of American music mythology.

According to the legend, he left city as a mediocre guitarist and returned a 12 months later with unearthly abilities. The worth for that expertise, the story goes, was his soul—and Johnson died younger, at age 27.

Christopher stated he noticed a parallel in Shakur’s state of affairs.

“He left town for a while, and then I think it was like a year or so later, the devil cashed it in,” he stated, referring to Johnson. “And eventually he had died young. And I was just concerned with Tupac about the same kind of parallel.”

At the time of their dialog, Shakur was in the course of serving a sentence for sexual abuse. The monetary burden of incarceration had taken a toll on him, and he had shared his struggles with Christopher.

“I knew that being in prison had financially strained him somewhat,” Christopher stated. “He had told me he was going through a lot of money.”

That’s why, when Shakur returned to the visiting space after signing the contract, Christopher remarked, “Looks like you’re back in business.” He grinned and replied, “Yeah.”

Christopher’s e-book, Tupac Behind Bars, is billed as the one title targeted solely on the rapper’s time at Clinton Correctional Facility.

It gives a first-person view from a corrections officer who says he earned Shakur’s belief, delivering tales from contained in the jail partitions that discover how the Hip-Hop icon coped with fame, strain and confinement.

The memoir avoids a standard biography format and as a substitute presents a story account of every day life behind bars, together with Tupac’s interactions with employees and different inmates.

Christopher’s recollections add one other layer to the complicated story of Tupac Shakur’s time with Death Row, a label that may each elevate his profession and entangle him in deeper conflicts.

Shakur was killed in a drive-by capturing in Las Vegas in September 1996, lower than a 12 months after his launch.

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