Governor Andy Beshear has contacted a Kentucky resident, Tupac Malik Shakur, to apologize for delaying his unemployment cheque because he believed he was impersonating the deceased rapper of the same name.

On Monday, Beshear described problems he was having processing unemployment claims in Kentucky, where almost one in four residents has filed for unemployment, singling out Shakur, who he thought was acting maliciously.

In a televised briefing, Beshear said: “We had somebody apply for unemployment for Tupac Shakur here in Kentucky and that person probably thought they were being funny.” He continued to accuse the alleged bad apple for delaying payments to other people: “One person thinking they were funny using someone else’s identity is gonna make tens of thousands potentially of other people wait.”

His announcement probably gave some clarity to Shakur, a 46-year-old line cook from Lexington, who applied for unemployment after his restaurant closed down in March and was still waiting to receive his first check. “I’ve been struggling for like the last month trying to figure out how to pay the bills,” Shakur told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

According to local reports, Shakur legally changed his name because Shakur means “thankful to God” in Arabic

While his legal surname remains the same, Shakur now uses his middle name, Malik, because of the understandable confusion that arises from it. Following Beshear’s original announcement, Shakur said he was upset at being publicly labelled a prankster.

“I’m hurt, I’m really embarrassed and I’m shocked,” Shakur told the Herald-Leader.

The next day, Beshear publicly apologized for his statement, and accepted that he had made a mistake. He said: “Last night I spent a little bit of time talking about fraudulent claims holding us up … I didn’t know, and it’s my fault, that we have a Kentuckian who goes by Malik, whose name is Tupac Shakur.”

Beshear has now called Shakur to apologize personally, and there is no longer any bad blood between the two. Beshear commended Shakur’s gracious phone manner and said Shakur had even apologized to the governor for the embarrassment the mistake had brought him.

“I understand, he’s dealing with a lot,” Shakur later told the Lexington-Herald, adding: “Mistakes happen.”