Jada Pinkett Smith shares newly uncovered Tupac Shakur poem for his 50th birthday

Jada Pinkett Smith is celebrating the legacy of rap icon Tupac Shakur on what would have been his 50th birthday with one of his poems she says "you may have never heard before."

"Of course, I went down memory lane," the "Red Table Talk" host reflected in an Instagram video shared Tuesday ahead of his birthday Wednesday. She and Shakur were friends beginning in their teen years, both attending the Baltimore School for the Arts.

"Over the years, Pac wrote me many letters and many poems. I don't think this one has ever been published, honestly. I was like, 'I don't think he would have minded if I shared this with you guys.' "

Smith, 49, theorized the poem, titled "Lost Soulz," was the original concept for his song "Lost Souls," featured on the soundtrack for the 1997 crime thriller "Gang Related." She thought Shakur might have written the poem while imprisoned on Rikers Island in New York after he was charged in a sexual assault case in the '90s.

The artist, who Snoop Dogg once dubbed "revolutionary" and "the greatest rapper of all time," died at 25 in 1996 after a drive-by shooting.

"As we prepare to celebrate his legacy … let’s remember him for that which we loved most … his way with words," Smith wrote in the caption, the evening before his birthday. "Here are a few you may have never heard before✨ Happy 'you goin’n (sic) to be 50 at midnight' Birthday Pac! 😆 I got next😜"

Read the poem in full below.

Lost Soulz

By T. Shakur

Some say nothing gold can last forever

And 2 believe this (I) need no proof

I have witnessed all that was pure in me

Be changed by the evil men can do

The innocence possessed by children

Once lived inside my soul

But surviving years with criminal peers

has turned my warm heart to cold

I used 2 dream and fantasize

But now I'm scared 2 sleep

petrified, not to live or die

But to awaken and still be me

It is true that nothing gold can last

We will all one day see death

When the purest hearts are torn apart

Lost souls are all that's left

Down on my knees I beg of God

to save me from this fate

Let me live to see what was gold in me

Before it is all too late

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tupac Shakur birthday: Jada Pinkett Smith shares new poem for his 50th