2Pac and Jada Pinkett Smith‘s relationship is well documented, and now the pair have found themselves immortalized in meme culture amid the drama surrounding Will Smith‘s sex life.
On Wednesday (November 15), Jada Pinkett was interviewed by TMZ while leaving iHeartRadio offices in New York City about the allegations that her estranged husband once had gay sex with fellow actor Duane Martin.
Pinkett, who was on the phone at the time, briefly paused her conversation and told the outlet: “We suing!” before jumping into a car.
The actress’ body language and facial expression drew comparisons to the famous video of 2Pac spitting at news cameras while leaving a courthouse in the Big Apple in 1994 during his sexual assault case (which resulted in him serving nine months in prison).
“If you pause the screen when Jada says ‘We Suing’ it looks just like when Pac spits at the cameras. Who has the side by side?” Hot 97 and Apple Music’s Ebro Darden wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
From there, Photoshop savvy users began putting together side-by-comparisons of Jada and ‘Pac, with one viral post even superimposing the rapper’s Detroit Red Wings jersey and bandana onto Smith.
“The internet is undefeated,” Darden declared after seeing the latter, before jokingly calling her “Jada Tupac Amaru Smith.”
https://t.co/HWHf6GTEn6 pic.twitter.com/hF3ifefZvu
— Big Joe 🎱 (@Headgraphix) November 15, 2023
Jada Pinkett Smith’s close bond with 2Pac has been back in the headlines lately, thanks to comments made by the Menace II Society star while promoting her memoir Worthy.
During an appearance on former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All the Smoke podcast in October, she revealed that ‘Pac proposed to her during his incarceration — but she turned it down.
“That was probably one of the more painful parts [in writing my book],” she said. “Seeing him there, the condition that he was in and having to leave him there. He was in bad shape. And so, when he asked me to get married, he was at Rikers [Island].
“I knew at that time that he needed somebody to do time with him, which I was gonna do anyway. He didn’t have to marry me to do that. I’m here. He needed a rock. Because of our friendship and everything we had been through together, he just wanted to feel that solidified foundation.”
She continued: “I promise you, he would’ve married me and divorced me as soon as his ass got out [of prison]. He would’ve! […] I just think it was the mind state that he was in. He wrote me this long letter, and even before ‘Pac went to jail, he was starting to shift in a certain manner. Good, really good.
“And I think that for him, he just felt like, ‘Okay, if I can tether myself, it’ll keep me on a trajectory.’ But trust me, he would’ve divorced me as soon as he — one thing he wouldn’t want me as is a wife. I know that for a fact! But I think just being at Rikers, it just kinda shook him a little.”
As for the Will Smith-Duane Martin allegations, Smith’s former assistant, Brother Bilaal, made the explosive claims in an interview with Tasha K earlier this week.
“I’m running all over the studio [trying to find Will]. He’s not in his dressing room […] but I see his car there,” he said. “I’m holding Duane down too, so I had the keys to his dressing room.
“I opened the door to Duane’s dressing room and that’s when I see Duane having anal sex with Will. There was a couch and Will was bent over on the couch, and Duane was standing up killing him, murdering him. It was murder in there.”
Will Smith’s team have denied the allegations, calling them “unequivocally false,” while Jada Pinkett dismissed them as “nonsense” during an interview with The Breakfast Club on Wednesday.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “This is a person that tried a money shakedown that didn’t work. We’re going to take legal action, because it’s one thing to have your opinion about somebody versus just making up salacious, malicious stories.”