Is R-Truth's Photo With Tupac Actually Real?

Every few years, a photo of WWE star R-Truth (AKA Ron Killings) posing alongside legendary rapper Tupac Shakur seems to circulate online. Both men are young in the picture, with Truth sporting a particularly eye-catching hairstyle and outfit. Some have questioned if the photo is real, but R-Truth has confirmed that it is genuine. The wrestler has gone on the record several times to tell the story behind the picture.

In a 2019 clip from WWE's "Ride Along," Truth explained to fellow wrestler Carmella that he met Tupac shortly after the rapper had filmed the movie "Juice," which was released in 1992. Though it was still early in Shakur's career, Truth recalled being inspired by his encounters with the rapper, who had already achieved a level of fame that Truth was after.

Killings wasn't yet a wrestler at the time he met Tupac — it remains to be seen if John Cena was R-Truth's childhood hero at the time — but was instead rapping. As explained during an interview with Chris Van Vliet, the future WWE star spent the early 1990s pursuing a music career while dealing drugs to support himself. Truth eventually gained enough status to become an opening act for various hip-hop artists in the southeast.

This opened enough doors for Truth to start attending so-called "Jack the Rapper conventions," which were gatherings of record executives and musical artists where the performers would audition for recording contracts. It was at these gatherings where Truth got to spend time with Tupac, leading to their picture together.

Killings declined to go as far as saying he was friends with Tupac, maintaining that he was just an acquaintance of the mega-star. Though they only crossed paths a few times, and they would go on to have extremely different journeys through fame, the existence of that picture ensures the two will always have a slight association with each other, at least among wrestling fans.

Throughout the first half of the 90s, Shakur ascended from obscurity to becoming hip-hop's biggest star, with a solid list of acting credits under his name as well as four studio albums and various radio hits.

In the midst of several public feuds, Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 13, 1996. For years, his death was among the most-discussed unsolved murder cases in American history. That may soon change, however. A suspect in Shakur's murder, Duane Davis, was arrested in September 2023, with his trial set to begin at some point in 2026.

Around the same time, Truth was dealing with troubles of his own, spending time in prison before being released into a halfway house. It was here that he had a chance meeting with a member of the Crockett family, and Killings started putting his efforts towards becoming a pro wrestler. Although his first WWE run didn't work out, Truth found success in TNA before returning to WWE in 2008, where he remains to this day as one of the more tenured active wrestlers.