Investigation: TMZ’s Tupac Resurrection Is Nothing But a Hoax

Gossip site TMZ recently showed some pictures of a man who appeared to be the late Tupac Shakur in a bar in New Orleans. This author will be the first to admit that the man in the image did bear more than a passing resemblance to the late great rapper, but was skeptical of the claims and as it turned out the skepticism was well founded as the whole thing is nothing but a hoax.

It’s all in the ears. If you look closely at the pictures of Tupac, his ears are small and distinctly square in shape. The man in the TMZ picture has small rounded ears that are a little pointy. Incidentally, ears are like fingerprints, no two pairs are exactly alike, even among twins. Ear shape can be altered with surgery, but the differences in the cartilage pattern seem a little too distinct for that to be a possibility.

This image shows the key differences in the real Tupac’s ears and the phony Tupac’s ears. There is a slight but not immediately noticeable difference in the shape of the ear, but a marked difference in the cartilage pattern in the center of the ear. Click the images for a closer look.

There are also some other differences that are harder to notice and more difficult to prove because of the quality of the TMZ images. The shape of phony Tupac’s head is slightly different, as too is the angle of his nose. Other than that, he would have made a good double.

TMZ has recently released pictures of another Tupac lookalike.

The pictures are rather grainy but if we once again look at the ears we can still clearly see that the proportions are all wrong. “New Guy’s” ears are much too large. While your humble author is no forensics expert, it appears that TMZ has been successfully busted. [Images: TMZ and various other sites]