Wax Poetics is having another auction and it’s for an early recording of Tupac Shakur from the Ge-ology Collection. Ge-ology is a DJ and visual artist who met Tupac in the ’80s when they were high school students in Baltimore, Maryland. The tape was recorded in the basement of Ge-ology’s parental home so he could learn the verses and make beats around them in a reverse process similar to the way J. Dilla produced Slum Village. They were the Born Busy crew and Tupac called himself MC New York and he was joined by friends Darrin K Bastfield (aka Ace Rocker) and Dana ‘Mouse’ Smith (aka Slick D). The tape was recorded around 1988 and this is the first time Ge-ology has shared it publicly. He says,
“This wasn’t meant to be a performance or a release. We were recording acapellas so I could learn the rhymes and build the beats around them. That tape is one of the earliest moments of Tupac being documented, before the world knew who he was. I’ve protected it for decades, and now it feels right for it to be shared properly as history.”
The Ge-ology Collection is the producer/DJ/visual artist’s archive. In addition to the cassette tape, the auction has Tupac’s handwritten lyrics, photos, and a signed 1988 graduation banner. Jeff Pearlman’s book, Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur, previously referenced the recording. The auction begins January 15th at 3PM ET and finishes on February 11th. All of the items can be viewed on the Wax Poetics site. Ge-ology made a video describing how the tape came to be and his creative process.
