A Long Island man with a driving interest in celebrity-owned and historically significant cars recently gifted a rare Rolls-Royce Corniche to his father that, as it turns out, had previously been in the possession of famed later West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur.
Timothy Fabrizio said that the 1990s, black-on-tan Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible in question was his father’s dream car, and the model he found for him just so happened to be part of a series of the famed luxury brand gifted to members of the Death Row Records label years ago.
The rappers signed to the infamous gangsta rap label that received customized Rolls-Royces at the time included Tupac, along with Death Row co-founder and CEO Suge Knight, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row lawyer David Kenner, according to a post on Fabrizio’s Instagram page.
“Owning and researching @2pac’s Rolls Royce, I continue to find out some insane untold stories and amazing history with this car/Tupac in general. Today, through deep research and speaking with many of Tupac’s friends first-hand, I confirmed the validity of a pretty cool story,” the post reads. “All four Death Row convertibles were sourced and then delivered on the same day, atop a parking garage in LA. Suge, being a Blood, got the bright red Corniche, @snoopdogg got the white Bentley, Tupac of course got the now-famous Black on Tan Corniche, and David Kenner, Death Row’s lawyer, got a Black on Black Corniche.”
Tupac Shakur (left) and Snoop Dogg (right) in their Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles. Credit: Timothy Fabrizio/Instagram
“Immediately upon delivery, the Death Row entourage hopped in the 4 convertibles and convoyed straight to Las Vegas to watch the Tyson VS Bruno fight at the MGM Grand…Here are some lesser seen photos from that night,” the post continues. “This was before bluetooth of course, so they tuned to the same radio station in all 4 cars, and by the time they pulled out of the parking garage, every speaker in every car was blown (Can confirm, the speakers still suck in the car).”
“This is just one of the many lesser-heard firsthand stories from the fast paced life of one of the most legendary celebrities ever,” the post concludes. “I’ve been going extremely hard on researching and preserving all of this history.”
In searching for his father’s dream car, Fabrizio was aware that Tupac – who died in 1996 at the age of 25 in a tragic shooting – had owned a similar model, and since there were only 25 black Corniches with tan interiors made, he was aware that odds were good that the one he finally tracked down belonged to the famed rapper. After acquiring the vehicle, he discovered the paperwork that confirmed, indeed, that this was indeed Tupac’s at one point.
“I went down with my suspicions on the car, it wasn’t completely random that it happened to be Tupac’s. The Death Row cars I always kind of had in the back of my mind over the years, and figured that it was possibly the same car that my dad loved, which his friend drove regularly around the West Coast many years ago, as it matched what I remembered,” he said. “In my search, I found the Tupac registration, which along with the spec, details and finishes, confirmed everything, especially once I saw the car in person. After I bought it in 2024, it sparked my interest [in]hunting celebrity cars /historically significant cars.”
Alas, the Rolls-Royce was never officially owned by Tupac; instead, Death Row had leased the vehicles it offers to its label stars years ago, and afterwards it ended up at a used car dealership, where Fabrizio purchased it in 2018 in non-running condition.
He has since restored it to it’s original running state, and in doing so, not only presented his father with an incredibly unique gift, but also helped to restore and preserve a piece of rap history.
