Earliest known surviving recordings of 2Pac are up for auction

Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 3:40 PM

American rapper, songwriter, and actor (1971-1996) Tupac Shakur poses for a portrait during the 1994 Source Awards on April 25, 1994 at the Paramount Theatre in New York, New York. (Photo by Bob Berg/Getty Images)

Some of 2Pac's earliest known surviving recordings are set to go up for auction through Wax Poetics. The items come from the Ge-ology Collection, curated by Gerard "Ge-ology" Young, who had a working relationship with the late rapper, born Tupac Shakur.

Included in the collection is a cassette tape of 2Pac and his Born Busy members that was recorded in Geo-logy's parents' home in Baltimore in 1988, when 2Pac was just 16. The tape, which is considered one of 2Pac's earliest recordings, predates any of his commercial releases. It was created so Ge-ology aka DJ Plain Terror could learn the verses and build beats around his voice, as well as Tupac, Darrin K Bastfield aka Ace Rocker and Dana "Mouse" Smith aka Slick D's voices, who were rapping a cappella.

The auction marks the first time Ge-ology is sharing the full cassette, which has never been commercially released. Other items in the collection include Tupac's handwritten lyrics, a Baltimore School of the Arts graduation banner he signed, archive photographs and a birthday part invitation from Jada Pinkett Smith, whom Tupac met in Baltimore. The auction is now live and will remain open through Feb. 11.

“This wasn’t meant to be a performance or a release. We were recording [a capella] so I could learn the rhymes and build the beats around them," Ge-ology said in a statement. "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.”

He added that the collection is an act of preservation, intended to be told by those who were there and "safeguarded in contexts where they are respected, protected and historically understood," according to a press release.

Ge-ology also discusses his relationship with Tupac in a new interview with Wax Poetics.