…and that really pissed off Governor Andy Beshear.
At his daily news conference on Covid-19 and related matters*, Beshear noted that the state is busy processing 70,000 new unemployment claims and doesn’t need pranksters pretending to be dead rappers.
“A couple of bad apples can make this challenge that much more difficult,” the governor said. “For instance, we had somebody apply for unemployment for Tupac Shakur here in Kentucky, and that person probably thought they were being funny.”
Unfortunately for the governor, it turns out that there really is a Tupac Shakur who lives in Lexington, KY and needs his unemployment check.
Ooops.
"I’ve been struggling for like the last month trying to figure out how to pay the bills,” Shakur told the newspaper. The 46-year-old…goes by the name Malik. “I’m hurt, I’m really embarrassed and I’m shocked. (Beshear) needs to apologize. That’s just my name.”
Beshear did call Shakur to apologize. 
*why we need the governor to hold a daily press briefing even when there is nothing significant to report is a separate issue.
In other news, Elvis recently filed for PPP to support the upkeep of Graceland.
I’m surprised none of his staff caught that; my first guess would have been someone having changed their name to Tupac, rather than a prank.
I think it’s been a fantastic move on Beshear’s part. Knowing that we have a regular, reliable source of information coming at 5:00 every day is pretty great, even if there isn’t much to say some days. And Andy’s calm but certain demeanor and the personal touches he’s included have made it into a comforting ritual for a lot of people.
It’s worth noting that Beshear is a perfectly unremarkable Democrat who nobody was particularly excited to vote for in November so much as they were excited about voting against his odious opponent, Matt Bevin. And he’s put on a master class in leadership through the COVID-19 mess. A good lesson for those who aren’t excited about voting for Joe Biden this fall.
Politically astute, to be sure.
The Tupac debacle will probably follow him around for awhile though.
Isn’t he still puttin’ out records???