Rosie Perez Recalls Madonna Asking to 'Hook Her Up' With 2Pac

In an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Rosie Perez shared how she hooked Madonna up with 2Pac in 1993.

Perez recalled that she was stood up by her date just 30 minutes before she was set to leave for the 1993 Soul Train Music Awards, so 2Pac stepped in to join her as a last-minute replacement. "So I was going to the Soul Train Music Awards and my date calls me up a half an hour before I'm getting in the car," the Do the Right Thing actress, 60, told Barrymore, per Entertainment Weekly. " [He said], 'I can't go with you because my girlfriend will see me."

Moments after that call, her phone rang again and she answered thinking it was the date who stood her up. She quickly realized it was Pac on the other end of the line, so she opened up about what just happened. "He said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna go with you, we’re gonna walk up in there, we’re gonna act like we’re on a date, and he’s going to die,'" she shared.

When in attendance at the Soul Train Awards, she was approached by her friend Madonna, who was curious if she was dating Pac. "She came up to me and she was like, 'Yo, what's up? Y'all are together?'" she said. "I said, 'No,' she goes, 'Really?' I go, 'Yeah,' she goes, 'Hook me up.' I said, 'You got it.'"

While there was speculation Madonna was in a relationship with Pac in the '90s, she never publicly confirmed as such until she sat down for an interview with Howard Stern in 2015. The two dated for a year sometime between 1993 to 1994.

“One time I was mad at [David Letterman] when I said the f-word a lot, but the rest of the time was good,” Madonna told Stern. "I was in a weird mood that day. I was dating Tupac Shakur then, and he had got me all riled up about life in general. So, when I went to the show, I was feeling very gangsta."

In 2017, a letter written by 2Pac to Madonna while he was behind bars revealed that they were, in fact, in a relationship. In the letter, he apologized for breaking up with her and insinuated that the decision came down to the public perception of him dating a white woman.