We’ve seen many Tupac Shakur relics auctioned off to the highest bidder, but his friend Cheryl “Salt” James is holding a 25-year-old poem close to her heart. The Salt-n-Pepa rapper was once close friends with Tupac, and she’s shared stories of her time with the late rapper with Rock The Bells. Salt revealed that while Tupac was incarcerated, she corresponded with him regularly. One of Pac’s letters was a poem titled “4 What It’z Worth” and shows a despondent, yet hopeful young man.

“He felt like the whole world was turning against him and he was unjustly in prison,” Salt said. She remained one of the few people who Tupac trusted and communicated with while behind bars. Salt added that she made it her mission to help him. “I told him that he could turn away from negativity and turn away from sin. He could have this new relationship directly with God.” Tupac was only 25-yers-old when he was shot and killed in Las Vegas one year after he penned this poem.

“[Eye] am not much 4 pretty wordz and such
Cuz these days my pain is deep
But there is alwayz pleasure 2 be found
In timez of struggle and grief
If a tree can grow through New York concrete
The a thugg can change his heart
If I can survive 5 deadly shotz
We can discover light within the dark
I’m sure u have has timez of misery
All of us experience hurt
But only the strong in spirit survive this wicked world
4 all it’z worth

The rapper ended his poem with a complimentary close that reads, “Until the End of Time, One Love.”

[via]